Love your Enemies

Because of Jesus  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  35:46
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Good morning, Gateway Chapel!
Scripture
Prayer
Our text this morning in Romans 12:14-21.
As Tab read, there are amazing verses in this text which call us to such a high standard of living as Christians: Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them. Repay no one evil for evil.
Has anyone seen this flag?
For those who can’t quite read it or for our massive listening audience, up on the screen we have a blag flag that reads, “American Christian: Don’t Tread on Me.” And there are two automatic rifles, two guns, situated above a little cross.
What feelings are arising in you right now? Maybe you agree with the premise of this flag, maybe you find yourself like me having some different feelings when you see this flag.
If you don’t mind, to illustrate the difficulty of Romans 12:14-21, I’d like to just be honest about my own internal dialogue as I look at this flag.
Two thoughts as I look at this flag.
One, is this flag goes completely against what our text will talk about today. The shear size of the guns in proportion to the tiny cross is a really telling ratio. When I look at this flag, I think about how alien Romans 12:14-21 is because in our day and age, flags like this exist and show the vitriol that is present not only in our society, but inside people who would call themselves Christians.
Okay, second thought. While I disagree entirely with this flag, in my heart, I am waging war, lobbing grenades, and firing my verbal guns at the creator and waver of this flag. The first time I saw this flag, I found my blood pressure rising. The negative thoughts I had in my head about someone who would wave this flag in their yard.
In that moment, is Chris Lumsden much different than those who wave this flag?
My beloved Gateway Chapel, we have arrived at the highest calling of being a Christian: loving your enemies. Blessing your enemies. Never repaying evil for evil, but rather serving those who hate you. Not overcoming evil with evil, but overcoming evil with good.
Is there anything more Christlike than the willingness to lay down your life for your enemy, and is there anything more difficult? And is there anything that we as Christians have failed more at, and as we are hours away from an election, is there anything more spot on to talk about than loving our enemies?
Pray
We ready? Alright.
If you’re wondering if I lined this up on purpose to preach this text days before an election, I’m actually not that smart. I wish I was. It just worked out this way. If you’ve been here on Sundays the last four weeks we’re in a sermon series called, “Because of Jesus.” Dave Waller did a great job starting out the series talking about Because of Jesus…be filled with the Spirit, and from there we jumped into Romans chapter 12.
Why are are in Romans 12? Romans 12 in some ways typifies the entire New Testament. Well, we are near the end of 2022 (which is crazy), we skipped fall and we’re right into winter, and 2022 has been our Year of Biblical Exploration, where we’ve explored the story of the Bible seeing it as a unified story that points to Jesus. And as we close the year we’re talking about the New Testament, and you could summarize the New Testament with the phrase, “Because of Jesus.”
Here’s an oversimplification of the story of the Bible. The Old Testament points forward to Jesus, giving us glimpses of him and showing our need for a Savior. The New Testament tells the story of Jesus fulfilling those promises for a Savior, culminating in the cross and Jesus’ resurrection. Then we read letters like Romans that tell us, “Because of Jesus…here’s what God has done. And here’s now how we live.”
Romans 12 is a famous “Because of Jesus” passage. For 11 chapters, the apostle Paul has been writing to the Roman church about the amazing acts of grace that God worked to save us from sin through Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and sending of the Holy Spirit. Many of you have bits of Romans memorized, famous passages like Romans 3, 5, and 8. And Paul comes to this amazing climax in Romans 11 where he sings this doxology:
Romans 11:33–36 ESV
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
And this rolls right into Romans 12:1...
Romans 12:1 ESV
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Therefore…Because of Jesus…here now is the moral vision for followers of Jesus. Be like Jesus. Serve like Jesus. Love like Jesus…and this morning…love your enemies.
Three points this morning. The first:

Because of Jesus…hateful speech is never justified.

Romans 12:14–16 ESV
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.
Can we stop and recognize how alien these verses sound to our cultural moment? Bless those who persecute you.
Some of us have kids in the public school system who have Ukrainian classmates. They should bless Putin?
Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep.
Can you imagine a Democrat being happy for a Republican who won an election?
Live in harmony with one another.
Saying that in Washington DC is like telling my dog Norman to stop licking himself. It’s just never going to happen.
Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.
It’s not that I’m wise in my own eyes, it’s just that I know I’m right!
I had breakfast the other morning at Dixies, and I was trying to be a good listener with my friend, but over his shoulder I kept seeing campaign ad after campaign ad from both parties, making their opponent look like the spawn of Satan.
When we curse, and mock, and belittle, and gossip about, and slander those with whom we disagree, we need to do a heart check and ask which side we are really on.
I think we need to be careful that just because someone claims they are a Christian, if they speak curses against others, that’s not from Jesus.
James says as much...
James 3:7–10 ESV
7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
Jesus said the same thing...
Matthew 5:43–45 ESV
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Luke 6:27 ESV
27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
Tiffany Smiley and Patty Murray are made in the image of God. We are called not to curse them, but to bless them and pray for them.
Maybe you’re thinking...”Chris, I hear you. At the same time, you don’t know what evil this person has done. You don’t know how wrong they are. I am clearly in the right.”
This is kind of what was going through my mind as I looked at the flag at the beginning.
And I want to acknowledge that politics aside, some of us have been seriously hurt by others. In ways that won’t be fully healed in this life. People do horrible things. People say horrible things.
And even so, being in the right and being the one hurt still does not justify hateful speech against those who are in the wrong. Paul is talking to a Roman church being persecuted for simply being Christian. Christians are being murdered. And he says, bless the Romans. Not only that, submit to the government. Pay taxes to this government.
And if that’s not enough, is there any worse crime than murdering the son of God? Paul, a former Pharisee, a committed Jew, knows his own brothers and sisters willingly chose to murder Jesus, and yet this is how he speaks of them in Romans 9.
Romans 9:1–3 ESV
1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
Paul would literally be tossed into hell so that those who not only murdered Jesus, but have been trying to kill him, could experience the love of God.
But Chris, what about prayers like Psalm 137.
Psalm 137:8–9 ESV
8 O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us! 9 Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!
That’s in the Bible!
Or
Psalm 139:21–22 ESV
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? 22 I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.
Two thoughts on these verses:
1, there is real evil in this world that God hates. And in the end, God will have vengeance, as our text says. And as Christians we are to abhor evil, as we read earlier in Romans 12, but as we know from the Biblical story, as humans we have a really hard time deciding on what is evil and what is good. The Bible is very clear that the good guys aren’t always good guys, and the bad guys are not always bad guys. So before we say, “God is on my side!” and wield him like a weapon, we need to be careful.
2, these texts are prayers. It is one thing to pray to God for vengeance, then it is to post about them on social media. Then it is to gossip about an annoying coworker. It’s different to pray for the person who waved this American Christian flag, then it is for me to feel the things I’ve felt. These are prayers, not bumper stickers, campaign ads, or yard signs.
Second point...

Because of Jesus…let God do the fighting.

Romans 12:17–19 ESV
17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Repay NO ONE evil for evil. No one?
Never avenge yourselves. Never?
Tell that to the Ukrainian student who’s dad is still back at home and maybe has died in combat. Repay no one?
Think of Paul’s audience...
He’s talking to Christians who may know family members who’ve been killed because they said Jesus is Lord and not Caesar is Lord.
Think of how Jesus warned his Jewish contemporaries not to engage in warfare with the Romans. They wanted him to be the King and fight and win against the evil empire of Rome. But Jesus knew that only 40 years later, the entire city, the temple itself would be destroyed because of the Jews insistence on duking it out.
Luke 19:41–44 ESV
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Jesus is saying, I know the evil that has been done to you, and they’re going to do worse to me. Don’t repay evil for evil! It’s going to kill you! And in 70 AD it did in more gruesome ways than we can imagine.
Most of us cannot relate to living in an ancient near east society full of warfare and conquest.
Some of you were drafted, some of you served in our military. I’m a part of a generation that may never be drafted. They will send a robot before me, I have terrible aim. I did laser tag a lot as a kid and I always lost.
Maybe you don’t even care about politics and I’ve lost you so far in this sermon. But we can all agree that this world is broken, and sometimes people do such terrible things to each other. How do we respond to evil?
Well known pastor Craig Groeschel talks about his struggle with bitterness when he found out his sister was sexually abused by someone in power in their community.
“I remember trying to absorb the painful truth. How should I respond? Should we track him down? Have him arrested? Beat the life out of him? Make no mistake; I was furious the moment that I heard about his abuse. But the more I thought about it, my anger blossomed into rage. The seeds of bitterness planted in my heart grew to a full-blown briar patch of revenge. I prayed that Max would suffer eternally in hell, and I vowed to make him suffer on earth before facing God's judgment.
My plan for revenge wasn't necessary. To my bittersweet delight, we found that Max was suffering in a hospital, fighting for his life against a crippling disease, muscular dystrophy. I remember thanking God for his justice in giving Max what he deserved.
Most would agree that my bitterness toward Max was justifiable …. [But] no matter how justifiable my feelings were, in God's eyes my self-righteous hatred was just as sinful as Max's crime. Even writing that statement all these years later remains difficult—how could my desire for justice be considered as sinful as this monster's lustful actions? The vast majority of people would agree that my hate and judgmental rage were more than justified.
In the course of time, however, I learned that bitterness never draws us closer to God. Bitterness is a nonproductive, toxic emotion, usually resulting from resentment over unmet needs …. I wanted [Max] to suffer …. [but] I was punishing no one but myself and those around me who experienced the scalding spillovers of the acid churning inside me.”
Paul commands us, as beloved children of God, to leave it to the wrath of God. We are not where the buck stops. Does this mean we never call the cops, of course not. Does this mean we invite a home invader in for coffee, no it says, “As far as it depends on you...” live peacably with all.
Paul quotes Deuteronomy that vengeance lies with God.
So again, even if you are in the right, even you have been clearly wronged, even if you are positive that the Bible supports your position and those on the other side are in the wrong…the fight is almost always not ours to wage.
Now, is there a place for social justice? Confronting evil? Of course. The Bible says there is a time for peace and a time for war. And can we also recognize that our fights are most often fruitless.
God took the fight to the real enemy as Jesus went to the cross. Paul says in Col 2...
Colossians 2:15 ESV
15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
God saw the real enemy, Satan and his minions, drew all their fire, exhausted their power and defeated them on the cross, and proving his power by raising Jesus from the dead, giving his Holy Spirit to all who believe. God has won the war.
Finally,

Because of Jesus…treat your enemies like God treated you.

Romans 12:20–21 ESV
20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Paul is urging his audience to not use the tactics of evil to destroy evil. Don’t resort to gossip, slander, violence, revenge, to defeat even the most malicious forms of evil. Rather, treat your enemies the way God treats his enemies. He serves them and overcomes them with good.
If you are a Christian, how did God treat you before you knew him? Did he save you by bludgeoning you by force? Win you over with a crushing argument? Convince you with a bumper sticker? Win over your heart against Satan by a 51% to 49% narrow margin, nearly needing a recount?
He loved you. He cared for you. He served you.
Romans 5:6–8 ESV
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
John 3:16 ESV
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
The world - good guys or bad guys? Pro life?
We serve a kind of God who wants to abundantly bless his enemies.
You could summarize the entire Bible this way.
Genesis 12:1–3 ESV
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
All the families of the earth - good guys or bad guys? Bad guys! God wants to bless his enemies.
God is not like the leaders of our world.
We see that in Jesus. Jesus lived out Paul’s command in verse 20. We read in John 13 that Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. Sometimes I forget that Judas was still there in the room. Jesus washed Judas Iscariot’s feet moments before he betrayed him. Think of what Jesus could have done to Judas in that moment, yet he chose to serve him.
Think about Jesus and Pilate in John 18.
John 18:33–36 ESV
33 So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
We must see ourselves as citizens of heaven before citizens of America in order to live out Romans 12.
I realize I am so affected by things like the American Christian flag. If issues arise in Balise, I’m not very affected by that emotionally. Why? I’m not a citizen of that country. As Christians, our primary citizenship is in the kingdom of heaven. Why get engrossed in things of this world?
Jesus knew that in order to love his enemies, he had to defeat the true enemy on the cross. And as Jesus confronted true evil on the cross, he cried out on behalf of those who unbeknownst to them, were murdering the bread of life.
Luke 23:34 ESV
34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.
Beloved, marvel at the love of God this morning. Lay down your weapons. Be won over by the love of Jesus today.
I need to repent. Many of us need to repent.
And the good news is, Jesus has paid for our hatred on the cross. And as we take Communion, we praise our merciful God for canceling the record of debt that stood against us, nailed it to the cross, crushed his own body and bled his own blood even though we deserved it, all so that he could take those who were his enemies and make them his friends.
Benediction
Romans 16:20 ESV
20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
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