No Enemies

In November of 2016 I preached a sermon at West Metro called the Church as Prophetic Minority. If I could have known what the last 8 years would be like, I would have expanded on it and done an entire series.

Over the last few years I have revisited that sermon several times, mainly to check my own heart and spirit, because I need to hear those verses and that conviction again.

I will be honest with you and tell you I look out over the next few months and I am really not excited. We are entering into a very rough time as a nation as we hurtle towards November. And as the rhetoric picks up and the two factions that grip the extremes of our nation hurl invectives and half truths and violent words at one another, I cannot help but wonder where is the Church?

We are all going to have some choices to make in the next few months, and I am not referring to what you do in a voting booth. The choices we are going to have to make have more to do with how we will engage with others and how we will present ourselves to a world that is increasingly dark and deluded.

When we went through the Open Eyes and Fields series last year we talked a lot about the way so many people view the Christians in America. We have not acquitted ourselves very well in the past several decades. And as more and more of the hypocrisy is revealed and the false faces fall away, those of us who are left are increasingly under a microscope. And that is an uncomfortable place to live.

But if we know that is where we are, that does give us one advantage. We can prepare.

And so this morning, I want to take some time to prepare us for what is to come, in a world that is increasingly hostile to the Gospel and the people of Jesus. And I do not mean prepare you by predicting some rampant persecution or purging. I mean prepare us for how to react in a world where lots of people would call themselves our enemies. How do we represent Jesus in a post-Christian, hostile culture?

By refusing to be drawn into it.

Turn with me to Matthew 5:43-48.

In verse 43, Jesus summarizes the wisdom of the day. And it could be pulled from our own time. Things have not changed very much.

Matthew 2. Paradigmatic Preaching: The Sermon on the Mount (5:1–7:29)

This final antithesis is the first to begin with a quotation not entirely from Scripture. “Love your neighbor” comes from Lev 19:18, but “hate your enemy” appears nowhere in the Old Testament. Commentators debate whether or not this latter command is a legitimate inference from texts like Deut 23:3–6; 25:17–19; or Ps 139:21, but hatred of enemies was common enough in subsequent generations so as to fit under the category of something Jesus’ audience had “heard that it was said”

The mantra goes like this- if you are on my side then we are all good. But if you are with “those” people you should be destroyed.

We see this every day. People cheering for the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. People mocking the son of Tim Walz. The constant prejoratives lobbed at others- Demonrats, MAGAts, woke, enabler, on and on and on. The memeifcation of our culture where everything is a joke and mockery is the highest form of art.

Jesus says that is what we have heard.

But what does He say?

Well let’s just say, He is not in favor.

Matthew 2. Paradigmatic Preaching: The Sermon on the Mount (5:1–7:29)

Again Jesus opposes the traditional teaching and enunciates a more demanding ethic. Christians must love their enemies (v. 44). Otherwise they are no different than tax collectors and pagans, two groups classically despised by orthodox Jews—the first for working for Rome in collecting tribute from Israel and the second because of their false religion

Look at verses 44-45

Love you enemies- hard to do that if you are mocking them

Pray for those who persecute you- hard to pray for someone you hate

In doing these things we are reflecting our Father.

Do you ever wonder why God allows good things to happen to people who don’t deserve them? It is because He is intent for their good, not their harm. He wants them to come to salvation.

Even when they are His enemies.

Matthew 2. Paradigmatic Preaching: The Sermon on the Mount (5:1–7:29)

Almost all people look after their own. The true test of genuine Christianity is how believers treat those whom they are naturally inclined to hate or who mistreat or persecute them. Whatever emotions may be involved, “love” here refers to “generous, warm, costly self-sacrifice for another’s good.” “Greet” (v. 47) refers to more than a simple hello, namely, heartfelt “expressions of desire for the other person’s welfare.” People who so love and greet their enemies and pray for their persecutors thus prove themselves to be those, as in v. 9, who are growing in conformity to the likeness of their Heavenly Father

Church I have news for you- we were all once enemies of God. And He didn’t meme us. He didn’t denigrate us. He did not give up on us. He pursued us.

And in pursuing us, He showed us His love for us, by sending Jesus to die for us.

Who dies for an enemy? Jesus.

And we are sons and daughters of God, so we should be LIKE Him!! And do the same thing, but we CANNOT do that if we are reacting to our enemies like everyone else.

Look at verses 46-47.

Jesus literally says, if you only love the people like you, then you are on different from the world. And we are not reflecting our new identity in Jesus.

Matthew 2. Paradigmatic Preaching: The Sermon on the Mount (5:1–7:29)

Jesus’ followers must thus demonstrate a higher moral standard than the average unbeliever. A second rationale for loving one’s enemies is that God loves them too. Among other ways, he demonstrates that love through common grace for all humanity in his good provisions in nature (the sun shining and rain falling, v. 45). “What reward will you get?” (v. 46) parallels “What are you doing more than others?” (v. 47), suggesting not the idea of compensation for doing good but the recurrent theme of the believer’s distinctiveness.

What are the obstacles to breaking this pattern?

We must be discipled by the right things- we are all being discipled by something. Far too many of us are discipled by ideas and practices that are contrary to the Gospel.

We must meditate on the right truths- truth is not up for debate. Jesus defines truth. So how we relate to people is defined by Him. We do not have enemies. We have a mission field of people- some of whom are harder to love than others.

We must be yoked together with those who are living this way- we need to surround ourselves with people who are also living this way, so we are not tempted by what we are conditioned to be like. We have to have a place to retreat and be refreshed. Loving enemies gets tiring.

Verse 48, lays out the challenge. We need to be constantly being perfected by Jesus. Becoming more like Him. And in our day and time this area of life is one of the biggest challenges.

Matthew 2. Paradigmatic Preaching: The Sermon on the Mount (5:1–7:29)

Perfect” here is better translated as “mature, whole,” i.e., loving without limits (probably reflecting an underlying Aramaic tamim). Jesus is not frustrating his hearers with an unachievable ideal but challenging them to grow in obedience to God’s will—to become more like him

To that end, let me leave you with this as we close this morning. When you are tempted to lash out or denigrate or mock, stop for a moment and close your eyes and imagine Jesus hanging on the cross. Enduring all of that from those who had crucified Him.

What die He do? He asked God to forgive them. He loved them. He had come for them.

He is not asking us to do anything He has not already done. Let’s be different in the coming days.