The Hate U Give
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Pastor Orr, Sunday School team , Men’s Month
Prayers for those battling Covid-19. . if you don’t realize it . . this is real! We just had a close friend lose a brother to COVID.
Also, we are praying for God to protect His people as the storms are coming through the Gulf.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 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. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
The sermon on the mount calls us to a different way of living, Love is essential for Kingdom Living!
The Message of the Sermon on the Mount 2. Active Love (43–48)
To return evil for good is devilish; to return good for good is human; to return good for evil is divine
Matthew 2. Paradigmatic Preaching: The Sermon on the Mount (5:1–7:29)
The true test of genuine Christianity is how believers treat those whom they are naturally inclined to hate or who mistreat or persecute them.
who is the neighbor? Define who our neighbor is :
The phrase, “and hate your enemy” is not found in the Old Testament. It was added.
The Israelites were convinced that the context of Leviticus 19:18 confines the definition of neighbor to a fellow Israelite, and thus they would not tolerate any extension of the term to anyone else.
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.
For our neighbour, as he later illustrated so plainly in the parable of the good Samaritan, is not necessarily a member of our own race, rank or religion. He may not even have any connection with us. He may be our enemy, who is after us with a knife or a gun. Our ‘neighbour’ in the vocabulary of God includes our enemy. What constitutes him our neighbour is simply that he is a fellow human being in need, whose need we know and are in a position in some measure to relieve.
How did they get to this point to feel as if they had the rights to Hate their Neighbor?
they felt that God’s direction of their historic relations with other peoples, such as his command to exterminate the Canaanites and the imprecatory Psalms, supported (even called for!) this hatred of others. What they failed to take into account was the fact that those and similar commands, including the imprecatory Psalms, were judicial—never individual. It was God’s Holy justice against evil and against those who hated His people. . . not my individual interests.
Also, we can’t rule out the reality that we are sinful. . . our natural desires are evil. Living a life of Holiness is unnatural. . the Bible says in epheshians 2:4 “ by nature we are children of wrath.”
To live a life of holiness, we God to guide our footsteps everyday. . We need God to lead us and guide us along the way.. Lord if you lead, we can not stray.
Likewise loving our enemy is a work of the spirit.
V. 43-44: The Principle of Love
V. 43-44: The Principle of Love
We see the principle of love in exodus:
“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.
and in proverbs
If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat,
and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink,
Paul uses this and adds some extra in romans
To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
In Jesus’ time, many thought hating foreigners was the thing to do. . it was a way of honoring God. Despising people who don’t look like you. . . my my: if we had time we could address how this still happens in our world today from people who are supposedly Christians who abhor others who look differently.
Kent Hughes says this:
Sermon on the Mount—The Message of the Kingdom The Lord’s New Teaching About Love: Unlimited Love (vv. 44–47)
“But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (v. 44). This is supremely radical! “To return evil for good is devilish; to return good for good is human; to return good for evil is divine.” That is true! To love an enemy is divine, and to pray for an enemy—a persecutor—is supremely divine! The fact that the text mentions “enemies” (plural) suggests that Jesus means personal enemies who are presently doing us harm. This is amazing teaching. To the man on the street, the mere idea of loving his enemies is absurd and offensive and beyond his capability. It offends his natural sense of right and wrong. To those under the Old Testament Law, the idea of loving one’s enemies was completely contrary to their perception of God’s Law, which they thought required rejection and hatred of enemies—a limited love
The Gospel of Jesus Christ calls us to love without limits, that love is one that embraces everyone regardless of what they say or do to us.
V.45-47: The Prize of Love
V.45-47: The Prize of Love
common grace of God. . not saving grace but common grace.
Common Grace should cause individuals to understand the reality of the goodness of God; sadly it doesn’t. Paul talks about this in Romans 1. He says the existence of God can plainly be seen in nature. A person can look at nature and realize that God exist.
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
This elevates the power of God’s Love. . . He takes cares of those who are against Him. He provides for those who despise Him. Not forcing them to repent but allowing opportunities and space and time to do so.
Divine love is indiscriminate love, shown equally to good men and bad. The theologians (following Calvin) call this God’s ‘common grace’. It is not ‘saving grace’, enabling sinners to repent, believe and be saved; but grace shown to all mankind, the penitent and the impenitent, believers and unbelievers alike.
The Message of the Sermon on the Mount 2. Active Love (43–48)
This common grace of God is expressed, then, not in the gift of salvation but in the gifts of creation, and not least in the blessings of rain and sunshine, without which we could not eat and life on the planet could not continue. This, then, is to be the standard of Christian love. We are to love like God, not men.
when we love like this we see that we are Sons of your father in heaven. verse 45
Common Love is what all people are capable of… unless your are Heartless; everyone displays a common love. All people love something: Dog, Coffee, grass, house, car. . . you love your job, some love the 15th and the 30th. . others every other friday.
we love something. . especially when we are able to get something in return.
The Lord says. . I’m calling you to be uncommon. . I need you to be distinct from the world. You are in the world but not of the world; so the way you love must LOOK different.
Jesus is not telling us to do something he did not do. He is not like many leaders we see who call their people to a level of service they are not willing to commit to.
Jesus came into this world doing good, healing the sick, raising the dead, giving sight to the blind… he left heaven to put on flesh. . he was persecuted for doing Good. So much so that one friday on an old rugged cross He died. . as he was dying he never said anything harsh against his accusers. . He said father forgive them they don’t know what they are doing.
He loved with a love that embraced people who were is enemies.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
How are you loving your enemies? Who are those folks are constantly after you; how can you pray for them?
Haters are the primary people we should pray for. . Its the easiest way to handle adversity is to love. I have many people who don’t like me, you have those who don’t like you as well for whatever reason. Family, friends
we don’t have time to go back back and forth with haters. . that would be so unproductive. The way you fight it with love. . let God handle those who do you wrong
V. 48: The Perfection in Love
V. 48: The Perfection in Love
A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew Matthew 5:48
In the statement You … must be perfect, the pronoun You is strongly emphasized.
Perfect in the Greek has the meaning of having come to completion or wholeness; it can refer to maturity or to moral and ethical integrity, that is, to being flawless. Perfect is the rendering of most translations. But NEB attempts a dynamic rendering: “There must be no limit to your goodness, as your heavenly Father’s goodness knows no bounds.”
Not sinless perfection but Maturity.
When you can’t love your enemies; it shows a lack of spiritual maturity.
we don’t allow people to run us over, Matthew 18 lets us know that we confront those who commit sin against us. . .
but we do it in Love.