The War

Worship call 0716

Wednesday August 23, 2022

Loving and praying for your enemy

Bible Project the gospel of the Kingdom

why is there so much Hate in the world?

Love has to have an object. So does hate have to have an object.

Genesis 1:1–2 (NASB95) — 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

For however long darkness had reign upon this earth. That is from the angelic fall and Judgment fell upon the earth as a result.

Genesis 1:3 (NASB95) — 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

It was light that interrupted the darkness. It was light that dissipated the darkness. Where there is light there is no darkness.

The question is why is there so much hatred in the world?

Not because the failure of God or his inability to do anything about it. It is because there is rebellion against the Sovereign and righteous authority over the creation.

The Judgement that we spoke of began in eternity past when the highest ranking angel known at the morning star thought that he could be like God.

Isaiah 14:12–15 (NASB95) — 12 “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! 13 “But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. 14 ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ 15 “Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, To the recesses of the pit.

As long as light is in the world there will be that which opposes the ambition of Satan.

When Adam took of the tree and the regime of Satan moved forward to be the absolute ruler over the earth it was our Lord who informs him

Genesis 3:15 (NASB95) — 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

The Lord is taking that which Satan has and reversing the curse and he is using the one whom he had created lower than the angels as the very instrument to do it.

Starting with the Jew. From the time of Babel the world and every nation was tainted with sin. God calls our a new race of man called the Jews. these would be a people who would be the light of the world for a time.

Matthew 5:43 (NASB95) — 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

Leviticus 19:18 (NASB95) — 18 ‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.

Hate your enemy is not found in the Old Testament teaching but may be alluded

Deuteronomy 23:3–6 (NASB95) — 3 “No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the Lord, 4 because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. 5 “Nevertheless, the Lord your God was not willing to listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God loves you. 6 “You shall never seek their peace or their prosperity all your days.

Psalm 139:21–22 (NASB95) — 21 Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? 22 I hate them with the utmost hatred; They have become my enemies.

Israel never have had any shortage of enemy all doing the bidding of Satan.

Ephesians 6:12 (NASB95) — 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

From the time that God called out the people and established with them His covenant and became their God and they His people set apart from the world and promised that one day they would be a kingdom of priest and that the rest of the world would pay homage to them. Israel had been a target. Satan demands 100 percent loyalty to Him, and as long as one Jew is left alive that will not happen.

Same with the Christian. It is the Christian. The Royal family of God. Where there is a conversion and one becomes a Christian, Satan loses that much more of his hold on the world and his ambition to be the supreme and only dictator god. With every step that a believer takes to maturity Satan loses more of a grip.

The Lord is taking back the world the Jews in the time of Israel and the Church in the Church age are the instruments by which God is using to take back this world.

Satan will not sit idly when there is one glimmer of light left on planet earth so there will be an all out effort to

And yet The Lord says

Love your enemies

Matthew 5:44–45 (NASB95) — 44 “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

25.43 ἀγαπάωa; ἀγάπηa, ης f: to have love for someone or something, based on sincere appreciation and high regard—‘to love, to regard with affection, loving concern, love.[1]

There a several words that are translated Love in the Greek Language.

There is Philo which is affectionate Love for a friend.

There is Eros which is passionate love

And there is Agape which holds the highest of all virtues. It is based upon one who and what God is and personal love for God reflected in integrity love for all many kind. This is the Love that is reflected in 1 Corinthians 13

1 Corinthians 13:4–8 (NASB95) — 4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.

1 Corinthians 13:13 (NASB95) — 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

It will drive someone in a guilt complex focusing on the vilest individual trying to love that one in regard to any attraction. There are those in our government and in the world right now that it would drive me crazy to find something about them that I find that I could love them with some type of friendly love.

No. the Love here is Love for God to the degree that is reflected in obedience for him in regard to having integrity love for all mankind.

This will be one of the biggest of Christian Virtues that will connect the lost world back to the greatest demonstration of Love when one who knew no sin became sin for us becoming our substitute that we might by believing become the righteousness in Him.

How did his close disciples who spent three years with Jesus, who fled when Jesus was arrested tried and crucified, turn around and turned the world upside down with the gospel message. They even gave their lives for the gospel.

Why?

They saw the resurrected Christ.

It is hatred within the heart for our enemy that nulls out witness for Christ and dampers the show of God’s love for the world through the lifesaving Gospel.

There is the core to their hatred and that is The Spiritual forces

Ephesians 6:12 (NASB95) — 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Matthew 5:44 (NASB95) — 44 “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Revelation 2:8–11 (NASB95) — 8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says this: 9 ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 ‘Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.’

The Son is one who reflects the Character of the Father.

IN John 8:44 Jesus says to the Pharisees

John 8:44 (NASB95) — 44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Those not of the family of God are the Sons of Disobedience (Ephesians 2:2) and they are the seed of the Serpent (Genesis 3:15)

The Kingdom is on the horizon and so is new things that have come. At the time of writing these Jewish people were knowing what oppression and persecution was. Wait until they begin to say blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord during the time of the Anti-Christ when nothing they had experienced prior even in the days of Hitler as the in Satan’s desperation seek to once and for all exterminate the Jews. the propaganda will be so great that an enemy of a Jew will be found around every corner.

At least during the regime of the third Rieke when under Hitler the Jews were being exterminated, there were the Christians even in the land, such as the Ten Boom’s who gave their lives to hide those who were hunted down.

And those Christians else where in the world who made known what was going on. But during the tribulation, the Church won’t even be around having been removed leaving no allies at all.

In that time the Jews will have the Law written on their hearts. They will be the expositors of God’s word. They will be the light in this dark world. The Church having been removed and taken to heaven.

[1]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 292). United Bible Societies.