Loving Our Enemies
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
Today we are going to talk about loving our enemies.
Our example is Jonah.
He gets a bad rap. The reason he looks foolish to us is because we have distorted Jesus’ command to love our enemies into something easier: we’ve made it a strategy.
We love our enemies because the think it will make them not our enemies.
We give ourselves permission to stop loving if they obstruct the strategy.
If you love your enemy as a strategy to make them not your enemy, then you aren’t loving your enemies. You’re loving your future friends.
This is what Jonah understood that we don’t: God loves his enemies, even when they are his enemies, even if they stay his enemies—and he loves your enemies the same way.
The Ninevites didn’t convert, and their change didn’t last. All they did was cry, and God relented—and let them continue doing evil.
Why should we love our enemies, even while they oppose us?
Why should we love our enemies?
Why should we love our enemies?
Jonah 4
Jonah 4
What’s with the plant?
It begins with our understanding of the world.
We see the world like a machine—it has parts that can be removed, replaced, reorganized, etc.
We see human society the same way—we can move things around to make things better.
Ever since we started thinking of the world that way, we became obsessed with fixing it. But that’s not how God sees it.
The world is not a MACHINE to be FIXED—it is a TAPESTRY God has WOVEN together.
By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations,
by understanding he set the heavens in place;
by his knowledge the watery depths were divided,
and the clouds let drop the dew.
This is how God gets Job out of his mindset: a tour of creation—
Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
and a path for the thunderstorm,
to water a land where no one lives,
an uninhabited desert,
to satisfy a desolate wasteland
and make it sprout with grass?
She lays her eggs on the ground
and lets them warm in the sand,
unmindful that a foot may crush them,
that some wild animal may trample them.
She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers;
she cares not that her labor was in vain,
for God did not endow her with wisdom
or give her a share of good sense.
Yet when she spreads her feathers to run,
she laughs at horse and rider.
This is what God is doing with Jonah, too.
Jonah’s is overjoyed at the plant. That’s all it takes.
He doesn’t even realize how much he loves the plant until it’s gone.
The goal here is to reach Jonah’s heart, not his head—where he can appreciate the beauty of the pattern.
Enemies are not parts to be REPLACED—they are THREADS in God’s pattern.
And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
Jonah has been looking at those people only based on whether they are useful or not to his plans or desires. He has been analyzing them like parts on a car.
But that’s not how you look at artwork, especially not your own masterpiece.
Those people and animals are precious threads, interwoven with everything else.
God made them and placed them with the same care.
But they’re doing evil! Don’t we need to protect God’s artwork?
Pulling threads doesn’t FIX the TAPESTRY—it DISTORTS the pattern. (Romans 12:14-21)
Art isn’t something you can fix, and it’s certainly not something you can fix on the ground.
We are threads, not the weaver. We can’t see the pattern, and we can’t actually fix it.
Our attempts to fix the tapestry can be incredibly destructive.
25 million vs. 260 million
We can’t predict or control the consequences.
French Revolution
Russian Revolution
American Revolution
Trying to fix the pattern pulls us off of our mission.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
But if fixing isn’t our mission, then what is?
Our job is to BE the TAPESTRY, not to FIX it. (Matthew 5:43-48)
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Telos refers to the purpose of the thing, the function that makes it beautiful.
But what is the purpose, the end goal of the tapestry?
Glorifying God is the natural reaction to appreciating God’s love.
The beauty of the TAPESTRY is LOVE.
We do not love our enemies because it will fix, change, or accomplish anything.
We love our enemies because love is beautiful. It is what God made the world for.
Paper Notes
Paper Notes
The world is not a MACHINE to be FIXED—it is a TAPESTRY God has WOVEN together. (Jonah 4:5-9)
Enemies are not parts to be REPLACED—they are THREADS in God’s pattern. (Jonah 4:10-11)
Pulling threads doesn’t FIX the TAPESTRY—it DISTORTS the image. (Romans 12:14-21)
Our job is to BE the TAPESTRY, not to FIX it. (Matthew 5:43-48)
The beauty of the TAPESTRY is LOVE.
