Loving Your Enemies

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Jr. day. Perhaps that day doesn’t mean much to those of us who were not inspired to fight for civil rights from the oppression we were under - but I think many of his messages, speeches, and sermons ought to be required reading for us today.

While I am too young to remember his life, I have had some access and exposure to his videos, writings, and recordings.

One of the greatest sermons I believe King ever preached - was preached about a decade before his assassination - at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

I am not going to preach his sermon - but I will intertwine some of what he said in appropriate places.

Matthew 5:43–45 KJV 1900

43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

The concept of love should be an identifying mark of those who claim to be Jesus followers.

Jesus tells us in one place that the greatest of all commandment is to Love God the second one is to love our neighbor as we love our selves.

G. K. Chesterton wrote perhaps tongue in cheek,

The Bible tells us to love our neighbours, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people!’

I. Introduction: The Seriousness and Necessity of Jesus’ Command

Jesus’ command to love enemies is:

Not exaggeration

Not impractical idealism

Not optional

Loving enemies is:

Central to Jesus’ moral philosophy

Essential for the survival of civilization

The church must ask:

What does it mean?

How do we live it?

Why must we live it?

II. HOW Do We Love Our Enemies? (The Practical Question)

A. Begin with Self-Examination

Some people dislike us for irrational or prejudicial reasons

Now, I’m aware of the fact that some people will not like you, not because of something you have done to them, but they just won’t like you. I’m quite aware of that. Some people aren’t going to like the way you walk; some people aren’t going to like the way you talk. Some people aren’t going to like you because you can do your job better than they can do theirs. Some people aren’t going to like you because other people like you, and because you’re popular, and because you’re well-liked, they aren’t going to like you. Some people aren’t going to like you because your hair is a little shorter than theirs or your hair is a little longer than theirs. Some people aren’t going to like you because your skin is a little brighter than theirs; and others aren’t going to like you because your skin is a little darker than theirs. So that some people aren’t going to like you. They’re going to dislike you, not because of something that you’ve done to them, but because of various jealous reactions and other reactions that are so prevalent in human nature. - Martin Luther King Jr.

But sometimes hostility is provoked by:

Our own past actions

Our own flaws or blind spots

Jesus’ teaching: Matthew 7:3 “3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”

Jesus illustrates it with a mote and a beam.

This would be like a piece of sawdust and a 2x4

I remember several years ago when Tim and Lisa my brother and his family were pastoring in Elsberry, MO and we were working on the parsonage. I was helping someone hold a piece of drywall up while someone else was attaching it. As I stood there some of the drywall fell right into my eye - it was almost impossible to see it became so irritated I had to take a short break from work. I couldn’t see to help finally I was able to get to a mirror and sink of water and wash it out.

In that day they didn’t have mirrors so if you got a speck in your eye you would have to ask your friend your helper to look at it and get the speck out of your eye.

Can you imagine them turning to help you only to knock you out with the 2x4 in their eye?

Remove the beam from your own eye first

Application:

Love begins with humility and self-critique

Applies personally and internationally (e.g., democracy vs. communism)

Refuse to Defeat the Individual

Love is tested when:

You have the power to retaliate

You have the chance to “get even”

True love means:

Helping when you could harm

Refusing to crush a person

Another way that you love your enemy is this: When the opportunity presents itself for you to defeat your enemy, that is the time which you must not do it. There will come a time, in many instances, when the person who hates you most, the person who has misused you most, the person who has gossiped about you most, the person who has spread false rumors about you most, there will come a time when you will have an opportunity to defeat that person. It might be in terms of a recommendation for a job; it might be in terms of helping that person to make some move in life. That’s the time you must do it. That is the meaning of love. In the final analysis, love is not this sentimental something that we talk about. It’s not merely an emotional something. Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men. It is the refusal to defeat any individual. When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system. MLK Jr.

Forgiveness:

All the Prayers of the Bible Forgiveness

Forgiveness

Our Lord was very emphatic about a personal heart-condition as necessary to acceptable communion with God. He warned against expecting forgiveness from God, if we harbored an unforgiving spirit toward others (

Think of the murder who’s father forgave him in court.

Distinction:

Hate evil systems

Love the people trapped in them

D. Understand Love Properly: Agape

Greek words for love:

Eros – romantic, aesthetic love

Philia – affectionate, reciprocal friendship

Agape – redemptive, unconditional goodwill

Agape:

Loves because God loves

Seeks nothing in return

Is not sentiment, but moral action

Jesus’ command:

Not “like” your enemies

The Greek language comes out with another word for love. It is the word agape, and agape is more than eros. Agape is more than philia. Agape is something of the understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill for all men. It is a love that seeks nothing in return. It is an overflowing love; it’s what theologians would call the love of God working in the lives of men. And when you rise to love on this level, you begin to love men, not because they are likeable, but because God loves them. You look at every man, and you love him because you know God loves him. And he might be the worst person you’ve ever seen. 7

And this is what Jesus means, I think, in this very passage when he says, “Love your enemy.” And it’s significant that he does not say, “Like your enemy.” Like is a sentimental something, an affectionate something. There are a lot of people that I find it difficult to like. I don’t like what they do to me. I don’t like what they say about me and other people. I don’t like their attitudes. I don’t like some of the things they’re doing. I don’t like them. But Jesus says love them. And love is greater than like. Love is understanding, redemptive goodwill for all men, so that you love everybody, because God loves them. You refuse to do anything that will defeat an individual, because you have agape in your soul. And here you come to the point that you love the individual who does the evil deed, while hating the deed that the person does. This is what Jesus means when he says, "Love your enemy." This is the way to do it. When the opportunity presents itself when you can defeat your enemy, you must not do it. MLK Jr.

Love them with agape

Core definition:

Love the sinner

Hate the sin

WHY Should We Love Our Enemies? (The Theoretical Question)

A. Hate Multiplies Hate

Hate creates an endless chain reaction

Violence begets violence

Someone must:

“Dim the lights” What I mean by that is seen in a story that King shared in his sermon....

I think I mentioned before that sometime ago my brother and I were driving one evening to Chattanooga, Tennessee, from Atlanta. He was driving the car. And for some reason the drivers were very discourteous that night. They didn’t dim their lights; hardly any driver that passed by dimmed his lights. And I remember very vividly, my brother A. D. looked over and in a tone of anger said: “I know what I’m going to do. The next car that comes along here and refuses to dim the lights, I’m going to fail to dim mine and pour them on in all of their power.” And I looked at him right quick and said: “Oh no, don’t do that. There’d be too much light on this highway, and it will end up in mutual destruction for all. Somebody got to have some sense on this highway.”

Somebody must have sense enough to dim the lights, and that is the trouble, isn’t it? That as all of the civilizations of the world move up the highway of history, so many civilizations, having looked at other civilizations that refused to dim the lights, and they decided to refuse to dim theirs. And Toynbee tells that out of the twenty-two civilizations that have risen up, all but about seven have found themselves in the junkheap of destruction. It is because civilizations fail to have sense enough to dim the lights.8 And if somebody doesn’t have sense enough to turn on the dim and beautiful and powerful lights of love in this world, the whole of our civilization will be plunged into the abyss of destruction. And we will all end up destroyed because nobody had any sense on the highway of history. Somewhere somebody must have some sense. Men must see that force begets force, hate begets hate, toughness begets toughness. And it is all a descending spiral, ultimately ending in destruction for all and everybody. Somebody must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and the chain of evil in the universe. And you do that by love.

Break the cycle

Love:

Interrupts the spiral

Preserves civilization

Without love:

Societies destroy themselves

B. Hate Destroys the Hater

Hate distorts perception:

Good appears evil

Truth appears false

Hate damages personality:

Produces neurosis

Fractures inner integrity

Psychological insight:

Repressed hate leads to emotional pathology

Jesus’ wisdom:

Love is the path to inner wholeness

Hate corrodes the soul

C. Love Has Redemptive Power

 there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power.

That’s why Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” Because if you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption.

You just keep loving people and keep loving them, even though they’re mistreating you. Here’s the person who is a neighbor, and this person is doing something wrong to you and all of that. Just keep being friendly to that person. Keep loving them. Don’t do anything to embarrass them. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with bitterness because they’re mad because you love them like that. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. “love your enemies.”

Hate cannot transform an enemy

Love can:

Awaken conscience

Produce guilt that leads to change

Break resistance over time

Example: Abraham Lincoln and Edwin Stanton

I think of one of the best examples of this. We all remember the great president of this United States, Abraham Lincoln—these United States rather. You remember when Abraham Lincoln was running for president of the United States, there was a man who ran all around the country talking about Lincoln. He said a lot of bad things about Lincoln, a lot of unkind things. And sometimes he would get to the point that he would even talk about his looks, saying, “You don’t want a tall, lanky, ignorant man like this as the president of the United States.” He went on and on and on and went around with that type of attitude and wrote about it. Finally, one day Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. And if you read the great biography of Lincoln, if you read the great works about him, you will discover that as every president comes to the point, he came to the point of having to choose a Cabinet.10 And then came the time for him to choose a Secretary of War. He looked across the nation, and decided to choose a man by the name of Mr. Stanton. And when Abraham Lincoln stood around his advisors and mentioned this fact, they said to him: “Mr. Lincoln, are you a fool? Do you know what Mr. [Edwin M.] Stanton has been saying about you? Do you know what he has done, tried to do to you? Do you know that he has tried to defeat you on every hand? Do you know that, Mr. Lincoln? Did you read all of those derogatory statements that he made about you?” Abraham Lincoln stood before the advisors around him and said: “Oh yes, I know about it. I read about it. I’ve heard him myself. But after looking over the country, I find that he is the best man for the job.”

Mr. Stanton did become Secretary of War, and a few months later, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. And if you go to Washington, you will discover that one of the greatest words or statements ever made by, about Abraham Lincoln was made about this man Stanton. And as Abraham Lincoln came to the end of his life, Stanton stood up and said: “Now he belongs to the ages.” And he made a beautiful statement concerning the character and the stature of this man. If Abraham Lincoln had hated Stanton, if Abraham Lincoln had answered everything Stanton said, Abraham Lincoln would have not transformed and redeemed Stanton. Stanton would have gone to his grave hating Lincoln, and Lincoln would have gone to his grave hating Stanton. But through the power of love Abraham Lincoln was able to redeem Stanton. MLK Jr.

Love redeemed a bitter enemy

Central claim:

Love builds

Hate destroys

Maybe you don’t feel as though you have any enemies - maybe you have a whole bunch of them

Where ever you are in that spectrum - take the love route

Love not hate

just as Jesus said:

Matthew 5:43–45 KJV 1900

43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.