Love Your Enemies

Opening

Today we will be talking about loving our enemies.

Do you have any enemies?

Are you someone else’s enemy?

If you have enemies, or if you are someone’s enemy, we are going to learn what Jesus says about this.

Lesson

Matthew 5:43–48 (CSB)

43 “You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven...

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People knew the command to love their neighbor, but some people misinterpreted this command by assuming that they should also hate their enemies.

Just like we saw last week, Jesus told the people: “You have heard that it was said” but then follows up by saying, “but I say to you”.

Jesus tells them: love your enemies. Not only that, but pray for the people who persecute/mistreat you! (persecute meaning mistreat)

Could you imagine what their faces’ must have looked like when they heard this command?

“Jesus, we are supposed to love and pray for those who do wrong things to us? How does that make any sense?!”

I mean think about it: someone mistreats you. What is the first thing you typically want to do? Mistreat them back, right?! You want to get revenge!

It’s wrong to be mistreated, so we think that instead of just letting it slip past us, we should do something about it and take matters into our own hands.

But Jesus tells us otherwise. He tells us that we are to love not just our neighbors, but our enemies, and to pray for them as well.

Now, why does Jesus tell us to do this? Why are we supposed to love our enemies and pray for them?

Verse 45 tells us: “so that you may be children of your Father in heaven”. In other words: true children of God do this. True children of God act in this way.

And this is because God is kind to those who hate and despise Him. Listen to what Jesus says next:

Matthew 5:45 (CSB)

45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

God is good to both the good and the evil. In his kindness, he sends rain on those who are righteous, and even those who are unrighteous.

This is God’s common grace that He shows to all people.

But what about loving those who love us back? Doesn’t it make sense that we would only love those who are loving toward us?

Jesus tells us this:

Matthew 5:46–48 (CSB)

46 For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?

47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same?

48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus was trying to point out that even the tax collectors, those that people did not like, and the Gentiles, those who at the time were not considered part of God’s people, they even loved those who loved them back.

What Jesus was trying to do was point them to a higher standard. To go above and beyond something that the tax collectors and Gentiles do.

To love your enemies and to pray for them.

Jesus finishes by saying “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Main Point

God calls us to love and pray for our enemies.

Gospel

But, again, why would God call us to love and pray for our enemies?

Well, just like He tells us to love our enemies, did you know that when we were enemies of God, He loved us?

That’s right. Even when we were God’s enemy, against Him, sinning and living the way we wanted, He did something miraculous for us.

Romans 5:8 (CSB)

8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Even when we were still sinners, Jesus died for us! How amazing is that?

When we didn’t care anything about God, He still died for us. That is true love. God proves His love for us by this.

Recap

So, in recap:

God calls us to love and pray for our enemies. We are to love those who are our enemies and pray for them when they mistreat us. Why? Because that is what our God does and has done. He loves those even when they were enemies of Him. When they chose to sin against Him, He loved them. We are to be like God our Father.