LOVING YOUR ENEMIES

You Have Heard

Leviticus 19:18 “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”

Deuteronomy 12:32 ““Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.”

Who is My Neighbor?

Neighbor includes foreigners

Exodus 12:49 “There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.””

Leviticus 19:9-10 commanded the people of Israel to not reap your fields to the edge or to strip their vineyards bare, but to leave it for the poor and the sojourner.

Leviticus 19:34 “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”

Neighbor includes enemies

See Deuteronomy 22:1-4...

Exodus 23:4–5 ““If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him.”

Proverbs 25:21–22 “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.”

Proverbs 24:17 “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles,”

Proverbs 24:29 “Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will pay the man back for what he has done.””

Proverbs 17:5 “Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker; he who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished.”

Examples

Job 31:29–32 ““If I have rejoiced at the ruin of him who hated me, or exulted when evil overtook him (I have not let my mouth sin by asking for his life with a curse), if the men of my tent have not said, ‘Who is there that has not been filled with his meat?’ (the sojourner has not lodged in the street; I have opened my doors to the traveler),”

See Psalm 35:12–15...

Acts 7:60 “And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”

But I Say to You

Love and pray for your enemies.

Luke 6:27–28 ““But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”

So you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

Psalm 145:9 “The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.”

James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

Ephesians 5:1 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.”

What more are you doing than others?

See Luke 6:31-36...

You must be perfect.

Leviticus 19:2 ““Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”

See Romans 5:6-11...

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

John 13:34–35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””