Love Your Enemies Series

10. Romans 12:17-21. I love this passage. Echoing the teaching of Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount, Paul says, when somebody insults you, injures you, inconveniences you or hurts you, betrays you…whatever. In those situations, Let God do His job. His job is to judge, correct, control and give consequences…justice is His job. Let God do His job and you focus on doing your job, which is always to love people!

11. This teaching is almost impossible to live out, but really it comes down to this: How much do you trust God? The entire Sermon on the Mount pretty much has one theme – trust God w/ your life. And Jesus breaks it down into every aspect of life. Head issues, heart issues, speech issues, financial, relational, physical. In this passage Jesus says how much do you trust God for justice in your life?

12. And really His call gets a lot more radical as the passage unfolds. B/c Jesus isn’t JUST calling us to radical non-resistance and non-retaliation, but He’s calling us to proactively love our enemies. He calls us to be both passive and aggressive. To be passive in terms of retaliation. And to be aggressive in our love for everyone, even our enemies. “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” In the KJV, it says, 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:

13. Let’s think about enemies for a minute. It’s a strong word. And I think some of us may be tempted to think “well, I really don’t have enemies, per se.” Who are our enemies? (the Greek word here is ekh-thros, adversary, someone who is against you). Who is it that for whatever reason doesn’t like you? Who’s hurt you? betrayed you? insulted you? slandered you? Taken advantage of you?

14. Maybe a former business partner who stuck it to you. A GC took your money but didn’t build your house. A spouse left you. A parent abandoned you or abused you. An employer who fired you. Maybe another church member / Christian brother let you down. (As a Pastor, I’ve been hurt more by people in the church than from outside the church.)

15. We all have enemies. We all have people we don’t like or that don’t like us. But what do we do with them? Well, normally, it’s easy -we hate them. Just like Jesus says, you’ve heard it said, “hate your enemies”. That’s natural. We hate people who do us wrong. And according to our personality, that hate takes different forms…For some, we try to get them back. We find ways to exact revenge. But some of us just give them the silent treatment or shut them out. Hold a grudge. Avoid them. Jesus says, try loving them. Not just forgiving them or letting it go, but Jesus calls us to go beyond non-retaliation and he calls us to proactive love. Specifically, what does he tell us to do for our enemies? Pray for them.

16. Now how many of you in here have ever prayed for your enemies? I have – I’ve prayed for them to get what’s coming to them. For wild animals to eat them. All kinds of OT things to happen to them. But Jesus calls us to pray for their well-being. For their good. For God to work in their lives. To maybe change their heart. And you know what happens when you start praying for someone? If you’ve ever done it, you know.