Love Your Enemies Part 2
Notes
Transcript
A difficult command
A difficult command
Nobody will argue that this is a difficult command to obey. I think if we are honest it is very difficult to love someone that we consider to be our enemy. A person that stands against everything we believe to be true and right.
Like we said the last time we met, it is very important that we separate (as much as humanly possible) the sinner from the sin that they commit. When we see someone as our enemy because of something they have done or are doing to us, then we vilify them. We make them out to be our enemy, and we harbor bitterness and hatred against that person. When we do that, we make it very hard (if not impossible) to have a positive witness upon them for the Lord.
The important thing to remember here is that each person that we consider to be our enemy is twofold. 1. If this person is a believer, we better make it right quick because it’s a terrible witness for Christians to be fighting amongst themselves in front of a critical world. 2. If this person is an unbeliever, then this person is a soul to be reached. This person is one of the people that 2 Peter 3:9 includes. The Lord wishes that ALL would come to repentance. That means that person that you would consider your enemy too.
Remember where you came from
Remember where you came from
When we consider that we were all enemies of the cross at one point, it kind of levels the playing field doesn’t it? I mean, really - we were ALL sinners that needed to be rescued by grace. We were ALL that enemy to God and all that was holy. So before we go getting on our high horse, we had better stop and consider where we came from.
I think that is such an important perspective for us to remember if we are going to be effective at following this instruction from Jesus.
So many things are made easier when we are put in our correct place. I think about the Beatitudes and how we started this chapter. We started with the fact that we were all POOR in Spirit. We were all spiritually bankrupt and without hope of being reconciled to God.
BUT GOD… BUT GOD… God gave us something we don’t deserve. He gave us grace through Jesus. And it is with that mindset that we are to see the people around us. The unlovable. The mean people. The business partner that did you wrong. The ex-wife that tries to make your life miserable. The boss at work who refuses to let you listen to Christian music on your computer. The dirty politician who believes it is a mother’s right to kill the child inside her that has no choice. You get the idea…
This is something that we all have to deal with at some point in our lives, maybe multiple times.
So what do we do?
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
v.44) “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”
What do we do with this person who would be considered our enemy? We pray for them. Pray for them you say? How can I pray for this person who stands in total and direct opposition to everything that the Bible says is true? How can I pray for a person who hates God and stands against God’s people at every turn?
There are some of those people in the world today aren’t there?
When I look around at our culture today, it’s a wonder God hasn’t gotten totally fed up with us and wiped us out like Sodom and Gomorrah. I agree that America is a great place to be born in and to live in, but when you see the crime and the animosity and the absolute hatred of God’s moral law - it really makes you wonder how much more God can take.
What Love Is This?
By the way, the word love here that is used isn’t the familial love, or the brotherly love, and it’s obviously not the erotic love that the Bible talks about.
Which one does that leave? Anybody?
Agape love. What does Agape love mean?
It is a love that isn’t based on conditions. So much of what we call “love” today is based on conditions. It is an “I love you if…” Our love many times is based on conditions. We love hard if we are loved hard. We love others if they love us. We love with conditions. Our love is conditional based on the fact that someone is going to reciprocate that love. We love someone else because we expect them to love us back. But what if that person doesn’t love us back? Is our love strong enough to keep loving them?
Let’s think about a parent/child relationship. I think that is best served here. A parent should love their children with a love that doesn’t have conditions. That is agape love. A parent should love their children with a love that doesn’t matter how far off they stray - they still want them to come back.
That doesn’t mean that we have to accept the behavior of children that are disobedient. I think this is prevalent in adult children. Too many parents are “buddies” with their kids when they are growing up and then they don’t have a chance to hold them responsible for the mistakes that they make later on because they have been absent in the discipline column.
Think about the prodigal son. I’m sure the father in that story wasn’t approving of all of the ways that the son was being disobedient, the point is that the father was always willing and always looking for the son to come home. That is agape love. That is a love that doesn’t have conditions.
The father in that story could’ve very easily said “nope, you blew it! you squandered all of my money and now you come back and think that I will accept you right back like nothing happened? forget it!”
He doesn’t do that. He welcomes him back in with open arms. He’s just glad the son is back, no matter where he’s been.
45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Characteristics of the Father
Characteristics of the Father
My name is William Henry Clark III. The reason I have that name is that obviously my Dad is a Jr. and his Dad was a Sr. Why is that important? Well, it is apparent that I am his son. It is apparent that I am of the direct descendant of his because I carry his name. Even if my name wasn’t III, I would still obviously carry his name no matter if my name was Joe or Bob or whatever.
That’s not the only way that you can distinguish that I am my father’s son. I have his hair color. I have many of the same mannerisms and things that he does. My skin color is still a bit of a mystery to the family, but none-the-less I am my father’s son.
What does this verse here say? It says that if you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you - then you are showing evidence that God is your Father. You are giving proof that God is your Father when you love the unlovable, when you pray for the person who does you wrong, when you are gracious towards those who aren’t gracious toward you.
This is most definitely a God-like quality that we should imitate. The whole existence of our Christian life is that we would be more Christ-like on a daily basis. That we would constantly becoming conformed to HIS image. That when other people look at us - they see Jesus. Isn’t that the goal???
46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
These two verses will hit you between the eyes if you really let them sink in. These verses pose the question to you and to me - Are you really different than your charitable, well-meaning, law-abiding, pay their taxes on time neighbor?
Are you really different? If you love those who love you, and you do good to those who do good to you and that’s where you stop - then no, you aren’t different. You aren’t any different at all.
We’ve already covered this, but that’s what Jesus means when he started this sermon talking about the characteristics of a Christian in the Beatitudes. He says - this is what a Christian IS. A Christian IS poor in spirit, a Christian IS mournful over his sin, a Christian IS meek, a Christian IS hungry for the things of God, a Christian IS merciful, a Christian IS pure in heart, a Christian IS a peacemaker.
That’s what you ARE. You have been given those divine characteristics by imputation from the Holy Spirit that lives within you and that’s how you should live.
You are salt and light! You are supposed to make a difference. You are maybe the only Christian influence some people will ever see!
So - back to the question that these two verses pose… Are you different than your neighbor that lives a nice, peaceful, charitable life that doesn’t know God? Does your faith make a difference in the way you live day by day? Does it? You know sometimes I think we would best be helped if we had some people that would be honest with us about these things. If someone would be kind enough to tell us - Hey Will, look I see your life and the way you live and I’ve gotta tell you - you aren’t any different from your pagan co-workers. You say the same things, you hear the same jokes, you look, act, and talk like a pagan but you say you are a Christian. Why is that?
48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
The word perfect here is the greek word teleios. It means “complete, mature”. Again, this poses the question to us - “Are we being conformed into his likeness?” Romans 8:29 says that this is our purpose in life. “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son”
This maturity or completeness is a sign that you are totally sold out to God and to living for HIS Kingdom rather than your own. Your Christian maturity is largely dependent on how much of your life you turn over to Christ. Do we realize that? Do we realize that our maturity is dependent on how much of our life that we surrender to the Lordship of Jesus?
Your maturity in your Christian walk is dependent to how willing you are to be used for the Lord.
Are you willing to be used of the Lord in a mighty way? Are you willing to show that you are a son or a daughter of God by loving your enemies and praying for those who abuse you or persecute you? Are you willing to be made mature and complete? Or are you happy coasting along on your own righteousness and your own agenda?
Basically we could sum it up like this: Are you willing to follow God’s commands - even though they are difficult like this one, or are you happy to live up to your own standards?