How To Destroy Your Enemies

SO, HOW ARE WE TO REACT TO OUR ENEMIES?

The natural reaction of one who does not know Christ is to strike back and to seek the greatest retribution possible. BUT THIS IS NOT THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSE

Illus: D.L. MOODY, IN ONE OF HIS SERMONS, PORTRAYS THE LORD JESUS GIVING DIRECTION TO PETER AFTER HIS RESURRECTION ON THIS VERY CONCEPT.

• MOODY SAID, "GO, FIND THE MAN WHO THRUSTS HIS SPEAR INTO MY SIDE AND TELL HIM THERE IS A MUCH QUICKER WAY TO MY HEART”.

• FIND THE MAN WHO CROWNED ME WITH THORNS AND TELL HIM I SHOULD LIKE TO GIVE HIM A CROWN OF LIFE."

Every one has enemies, even Jesus who lived a perfect life, had enemies.

Illus: A preacher in his Sunday sermon used the title for his sermon "Forgive Your Enemies".

• After a long sermon, he asked how many were willing to forgive their enemies. About 50% held up their hands.

• After he preached for another twenty minutes and repeated his question. This time he received a response of about 80 percent.

• Still unsatisfied, he preached for another 15 minutes and repeated his question. With all thoughts now on Sunday dinner, all responded except one elderly lady in the rear.

• He said, "Mrs. Jones, are you not willing to forgive your enemies?

• "I don't have any."

• He said, "Mrs. Jones, that is very unusual. How old are you?"

• "Ninety nine."

• "Mrs. Jones, please come down in front and tell the congregation how a person can live to be ninety-nine, and not have an enemy in the world."

• The little sweetheart of a lady tottered down the aisle, very slowly turned around and said: "It's easy, I just outlived them!"

We all have enemies that would do to us as much harm as they could do to us…if they had the opportunity or they could do it and get away with it.

God’s Word recognizes this is a reality, but God’s Word approaches this subject - how to live with our enemies.

Look at Matthew 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; 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.”

Notice, these verses begin in Matthew 5:38-39, “You have heard that it was said (WHERE DID THEY HEAR THIS FROM?) ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you, don’t resist him who is evil; but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

Notice, again the Lord said, “You have heard that it was said. WHERE DID THEY HEAR THESE THINGS FROM?

These things they heard go back to the Code of Hammurabi, (hame-rabe) seventeen hundred years before Christ.

To understand the CODE OF HAMMURABI you need to understand they were governed by the laws of retaliation or the laws of retribution.

In ancient Israel, part of the law’s enforcement fell to the family of the murder victim.

There was no police force in ancient Israel, so kinship posies were called upon to enforce the law. It is important to keep in mind that this system of retaliation operated within the legal system as it existed.

• According to Numbers 35:16–21, in some cases the “avenger of blood” (normally a close family member of the deceased) would be charged with carrying out the death sentence, possibly even tracking down the murderer if the murderer had fled.

• The law of retribution was not a simple pretext for revenge, although it is easy to see how it could descend to that level. “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, and life for life” was the penal code and was never intended to justify a personal code of revenge or vigilantism.

In the New Testament, Christians in the Roman Empire lived under a different penal code.

For example in Romans 12:17–13:4, Paul warns believers that they must not take the law into their own hands, but he also maintains that the government has the right and responsibility to enforce penalties, including the death penalty, for criminal acts.

Moses gave Israel the Hamurabe Code, look at Leviticus 24:19–21 —"And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him; Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it: and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death.”