Peace With My Enemies Series

Peace with my enemies, Luke 6:27-36

Live @ Peace series

Eric A. Snyder, Minister, Farwell Church of Christ

April 21, 2002

A knight and his men return to their castle after a long

hard day of fighting.

"How are we faring?" asks the king.

"Sire," replies the knight, "I have been robbing and

pillaging on your behalf all day, burning the towns of your

enemies in the west."

"What?!" shrieks the king. "I don’t have any enemies to the

west!"

"Oh," says the knight. "Well, you do now."

In our lives we all make enemies. People will not like you because of who you are or what you stand for. Perhaps you have a history of being someone who has made enemies or perhaps you just have not worked hard at peace.

A new minister was talking to the oldest member of his congregation.

"I am 90 years old, sir, and I haven’t an enemy in the world,"

"That is a great," said the minister .

"Yes sir," "I’m thankful to say that I’ve outlived ’em all."

We’re in week 3 of a series called Live @ peace.

The Bible is clear that we are to do our best to live @ peace with everyone around us and it does not happen by just outliving our critics. Because when they die off another potential enemy will rice up in their place.

You have to know that whenever we catch “Bin Laden” the evil will be transferred into another herd of swine. There will always be someone who rises up against you and what you stand for.

But that does not change the command that as far as it depends on You Live At Peace.

"But peace does not rest in the charters and covenants alone. It lies in the hearts and minds of all people. So let us not rest all our hopes on parchment and on paper, let us strive to build peace, a desire for peace, a willingness to work for peace in the hearts and minds of all of our people. I believe that we can. I believe the problems of human destiny are not beyond the reach of human beings."

John F. Kennedy

Today we are in the Book of Luke Chapter 6

Jesus is offering a concept that is radical new and different. The statements here define how he lived out the rest of his life but they also determined how he wants his followers to live out their lives.

The words of Jesus are so dynamic that they were very different than the Jewish people of his day were used to. They were counter cultural. Even today these words are hard to handle and even more difficult to live by.

Luke 6:27-36 27 "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. 32 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ lend to ’sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Prayer

We live in a world where past history and prejudices creep into our relationships. We don’t have to look very hard to find family feuds that go back for generations.

A Chinese man and a Jewish man were eating lunch together. Suddenly, without warning the Jew gets up, walks over to the Chinese fellow and smashes him in the mouth, sending him sprawling. The Chinese man picks himself up, rubs his jaw and asks, "What in the world did you do that for?" And the answer comes back: "For Pearl Harbor!" His response is total astonishment: "Pearl Harbor? I didn’t have anything to with Pearl Harbor. It was the Japanese that bombed Pearl Harbor!" The Jew responds, "Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese--they’re all the same to me. With that they both sit down again, and before too long the Chinese man gets up, walks over to the Jew and sends him flying with a hard slap to the jaw. The Jew yells out, "What did you do that for?" And the answer comes back: "The Titanic." "The Titanic? Why, I didn’t have anything to do with the Titanic!" the Chinese man replies, "Goldberg, Feinberg, Iceberg -- they’re all the same to me!"