Bless Your Enemies

Bless Your Enemies

The message was given on Wed., Sept. 22, 2004

(I owe most of this message to Pastor Bill Ligon who has authored several books on Blessings and how to impart them.)

I. Matt. 5:43-45, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour. and hate thine enemy. 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; 15 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."

A. The Jewish Rabbis used to teach that, if you are to love thy neighbor as the scripture says, then you should hate your enemies. But that was their idea and not taught in scripture.

B. The first part of Verse 44 is probably one of the hardest verses of scripture to live up to. It says: "But I say unto you, Love your enemies".

1. It's hard enough to love ALL people, let alone an enemy. But Jesus commands that we love ALL people including our enemies.

a. To love someone who has done or said something that hurt us goes against human nature.

b. Galatians 2:20 says, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live. What that means is our human nature, or old sin nature, has died but we are living and growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.”

c. As we grow in Jesus we learn that He not only forgave His enemies but He prayed for them as He was dying on the Cross.

d. He set an example for us to follow.

e. Stephen learned this. He was the first martyr who died for his faith in Jesus. As he was being stoned he prayed for his persecutors. The Bible says he prayed out loud, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge."

C. When Jesus said "But I say unto you, Love your enemies" He was saying it out of experience

as a Man Who had suffered at the hands of people who He loved and forgave.

a. After seeing the Passion of the Christ, can you imagine going through the whipping as Jesus did and not feeling a little hostility towards the man with the whip?

E. THERE ARE SEVERAL KINDS OF LOVE IN THE GREEK LANGUAGE.

1. Eros, the kind that arises from passion and is what the world understands best.

2. Storge love, this is the kind of natural affection between parents and their children.

3. Phileo, is brotherly love. The kind of love that is a deep affection between two people.

4. Then there is Agape love. This is the kind of love that was demonstrated by our Lord when He went to the Cross. It's the God kind of love.

e. When Jesus said Love your enemies" the word used is "agape".

f. Agape love deliberately chooses to love someone regardless of their shortcomings, sins, or offenses.

1. It chooses to love even if the only thing received in turn is hate.

g. Agape love doesn't mean the approval or condoning of the sin, or in the case of someone who has offended us, it doesn't mean that we approve their offense.

h. Agape love separates the sinner from the sin and sees them made in the image of God.

E. FORGIVENESS: So if we should love our enemies, it also follows to reason we forgive them for the offense they have done to hurt us.

1. That's easier said than done. It's very easy to say, "Okay, I forgive you" and walk away.

2. Have you ever forgiven someone but down deep in your heart the hurt was still there?

3. You have forgiven and maybe for a time it's forgotten but you see that person, you hear from them again or just the mention of their name, and the old hurt comes back.

4. You may say, "But I prayed for them, I told them all was forgiven and forgotten. They were convinced but why does it still haunt me? 10 years have gone by and it still comes back to me."

a. The reason it keeps coming back is that we haven't allowed ourselves to release it.

b. To release it we have to give it over to the Lord.

c. The problem is, our spirit man is willing to release it but our soul, our mind, the part that keeps count of all the hurts, hasn't let go of it.

d. It's the "selfish" part of us that is still hanging on.

F. HOW DO YOU RELEASE IT TO THE LORD AND CONVINCE YOUR "SELF"?