There’s usually more happening in the Bible than we realize. Here’s an example.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus famously said: “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” (Matthew 5:44). 

That’s huge. The love that Jesus taught and exemplified changed (and changes) the world.

But let’s also take note of something that happens in the previous verse in the lead up to that famous statement: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”

Scholar John Wenham points out that Jesus doesn’t say ‘The Lords spoke to…’ or ‘Thus says the Lord’; “he simply says, ‘I say to you.’ To a Jewish audience, the implication was clear: he was either speaking as God or he was blaspheming.”

Wenham continues: “His statements are never tentative; his predictions are made with unqualified confidence; there is no sign of the slightest confession of error in anything he taught. Without qualification his teaching is the teaching of God.”*

So, what does all this mean?

Not only did Jesus teach us about loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us, but he did so with the authority of God himself. He is not appealing to a higher power because he himself is that higher power!

Who is your highest authority? Is it your feelings? Is it popular opinion? Is it a friend or special someone? 

Let’s look to the Lord Jesus Christ as our highest authority. When it comes to your life, your decisions, and your priorities, his wisdom, love and power are unequalled. Centre your life on the only One who is perfect goodness.

“His statements are never tentative; his predictions are made with unqualified confidence; there is no sign of the slightest confession of error in anything he taught. Without qualification his teaching is the teaching of God.”

Notes:

-*John Wenham, Christ and the Bible, 3rd ed. (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 1994), 55, 58.

-Bible quotes are from the NIV.