Pulling Against God Part 4
Scripture: Matthew 5:43-48; Matthew 7:12; James 4:3; 17
Introduction
This will be the final segment of this series on our pulling against God. To date we have discussed the fact that we do tend to pull against God in our efforts to go our own way, or any way that is not where God wants us to go. I’ve shared with you that to start the process of not resisting God we must learn to walk by faith and not by sight. When we walk by sight we tend to trust what we see more than what we cannot see. If we cannot “see” what God is doing then our default response is to believe that He is not doing anything and we must do something on our own. To further demonstrate examples of things we do that pull against God, I took you to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount where He discussed several areas the people of His times needed to rethink their teachings and beliefs on that also apply to us today. From His sermon we have talked about anger, adultery, divorce, swearing/giving an oath and long-suffering. Today I will conclude this series by focusing on love.
I know that most of you sitting in this room have heard many sermons on the topic of love. You have heard me preach on it and you’ve probably many others preach on it. It is no secret that out Christian’s lives are defined not only by the love which resides within us but the expression of that love to others. When we choose to express God’s love that dwells within us, we have options as to when, how and to whom that love is expressed. The options that we choose will often define the depth of our relationship with Christ. This is true of every Christian, but especially for those who stand in the pulpit. Having said that, please turn with me to Matthew 5:43-48.
I. Love Your Enemies
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:43-48
Many of you heard the sermon I preach on love several weeks ago, but this morning I want to take a different approach. In this passage of Scripture, Jesus talks about loving our enemies – those who do not have your good at heart. The definition of enemy includes words like “hate, one who wishes to injure another.” An enemy is not someone that we often times think about doing anything for. Someone can love you today and be your enemy next week. I know it does not seem possible, but it happens all the times. Think about it, how many of you had a dear friend who is now your enemy? I have been there, and am still there. Someone who was as close to me as family had a family member die in a tragic accident. When I reached out to the family, my calls were not returned. I have become in their mind, their enemy. Being an enemy is an interesting thing. Let me share with you how I have seen the enemy relationship develop. There are two types of development as it pertains to an enemy. First there is the enemy who never liked us (and we never liked them) although we may or may not have ever really known why. Then there is the enemy that is borne out of a relationship that has gone bad. Let’s examine these two.
Enemy #1: The first enemy is one that we may not have ever had a relationship with and do not know personally. We “feel” that this person does not like us and therefore we base our “feelings” of dislike for them on our feeling that they dislike us. Can you see this developing? Imagine how this works. Neither I not my enemy know one another, but for some strange reason there is this dislike between us. Neither of us knows how or why we became enemies, but we know that we are. Each of us acts and treats the other as if we were enemies so even the most harmless of actions are interpreted as being hostile. If you have someone of this nature in your life, try doing an experiment. Try smiling and speaking to them whenever possible instead of frowning and see what happens. See how long it takes for them to start smiling back and being less hostile to you. Yesterday Willis, Stacey and I visited some people who were in the hospital. One of the individuals we prayed for was someone Willis knew from a previous job. Willis told us the story of how this lady was constantly coming against him. Well, one day she was in the hospital and Willis went by to visit and pray with her. She was surprised that one he actually visited her and two that he cared enough to pray for her. Based on Willis’ actions, her heart changed toward him and her face lit up yesterday when we walked into her hospital room.
I believe that in these types of “enemy” relationships our perceived enemy is no enemy at all. That individual, as well as us, are responding to perceptions and misinterpretations of what the other person is doing. This is what Jesus was addressing when He gave the example in verse 44 when He said “bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you….” Jesus was asking us to control our responses, regardless of the other person’s response. If our responses are correct, more often than not, our “perceived” enemy will turn out not to be an enemy at all. This may take some time to develop, but it will happen if that person truly does not have grounds for not liking you.
Enemy #2: This is a situation where our enemy is really our enemy. This enemy is borne out of some type of relationship. It does not have to be a love relationship; it could be any type of relationship. Jesus was really talking about these enemies because our natural response to these individuals (and theirs to us) is hostile. What is so dangerous about these enemies? They know us, sometimes very intimately and the closer they are to us before they became our enemy the more they know about us and what it takes to hurt and/or irritate us. So my question is this, what did you do to gain an enemy? Let me let that sink in for a minute. Think about one of your enemies. It could be someone from school, work, family, or a broken friendship. As you think about one of your enemies ask yourself this question, “What did I do?” It is extremely easy to identify an enemy and place most if not all the blame on them. It is easy to default to the rationale that “I am the victim and am only responding to what they did or continue to do to me.” It is easy to feel justified when we treat someone as they treat us. Jesus said “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matthew 7:12) and many of us take this the wrong way. When someone does something to us, based on this Scripture they must want us to do the same back to them and we let them have it with both barrels. In the verses that we read, Jesus was talking to us, the believers, those who can make the right choices. As we think about our enemy and what we did to create this enemy, I want to ask you this question. “What are you doing to keep your enemy?” This gets to the heart of what Jesus was talking about. We all have enemies, but the real questions are what did we do to make the enemy and what are we doing to keep them an enemy? What are our responses when we interact with those we know are our enemies?
Let’s examine something that Jesus said in the verses we read. He begins by reminding them that it had been traditionally taught that it was okay to love your neighbor and hate your enemies. After making this statement, He told them “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you that you may be sons of your Father in heaven…” Each one of these is a response that we should have. When we know our enemies, our response to them is to love them. When they curse us, our response should be to bless them. When they hate us, we our response should be to do good to them. When they are spiteful and persecuting us, that is when we should pray. When we look at this from a big picture viewpoint, it could be said that our initial response to our enemies is not to pray for them but to respond to them with love, blessings and goodness. Then if they continue on with their hostility towards us, then we should pray. Now if you read it this way, then you see that our first response is not to write them off through prayer. (You all know how we do sometimes; we begin to pray that God will deal with our enemies hoping that something bad would happen to them. No matter what they do, all we do is pray and never change our response to them.) But if we take the approach that there are things we should do before we pray or as we are praying, then we will recognize the importance of our acting according to God’s will. Remember James said “Therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” James 4:17
Imagine yourself praying for someone that you hate and you are not doing anything to make the relationship better. Why should God work on this person who may or may not belong to Him when He can’t get us to act right? That is like the prayer that James talks about in James 4:3 which say “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures…” James was talking about prayers that are not answered because one they are selfish in nature and two they are not within the will of God. When we pray for our enemies without doing what we need to do, those prayers become selfish in nature. We are asking God to change someone else because we do not want to be changed. Now imagine that you have done your part, responding in love, with blessings and goodness, and you have proven your desire to follow God’s way as you go down on your knees in prayer. Can’t you see God reaching out to you? Here is His child, calling on His name after doing all they could do according to His will. Can’t you see God going into action on your behalf? This is not to say that the person will change what they are doing, but it does speak to God knowing that our hearts are aligned with Him and He is able to protect us from more harm.
This call to action on our part is what brings our reward. Jesus said in verse 46 that “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?” The reward comes as we begin to reach out to those who will not give back to us the love that we are giving them. When we can truly bless someone who hates us, therein is the reward that Jesus spoke about. Consider this: a bumblebee aerodynamically should not be able to fly for its body mass far outweighs what its wings should be able to support. The bumblebee of course does not realize it is not supposed to be able to fly so it flies. The same applies to us but in a different way. We refuse to fly, refuse to walk in freedom because no one told us that although our hatred may be justified; to carry it costs us the freedom we gain in Christ. All of that hatred, bitterness and anger that we have towards our enemies are like weights that are loaded upon our shoulders that we must carry through this life. Jesus was asking that we change our response to our enemies so that we can be free of the weights and receive our rewards. I want to share a story with you that I received in an email. Some of you may have received this same email but I think it is appropriate for what I am trying to relate to you. The story goes like this:
“A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said, Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like." The Lord led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew which smelled delicious and made the holy man’s mouth water. The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful, but because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths. The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. The Lord said, "You have seen Hell."
They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man’s mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking. The holy man said, "I don’t understand." It is simple" said the Lord, "it requires but one skill. You see, they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves."
In this story we find the key to what Christ was talking about. Imagine being very hungry and you sit down at a table to eat with a very long spoon strapped to your arm. When you look around the table, everyone sitting at the table is an enemy of you and an enemy of each other. There is no way you can feed yourself with the spoons as they are too long to reach your mouths. (Just in case you did not get it, the spoons were strapped to your arm and you could not adjust your reach.) The only way you would be able to eat would be to have your enemy serve you. The only way your enemies could eat would be to have you serve them. So as you sit there with your enemies, would you serve them food so that you yourself would be able to eat or would you starve out of your hatred of your enemy? Would you choose to starve versus receiving food from the hand of your enemy? Although in your chair you may be saying you’d feed your enemy and would receive food from them, this is not what we are doing! What we consistently do is allow Satan to keep hatred in our hearts for our fellow man. Satan understands well that when we start acting towards our fellow man as Christ directed, blessings and rewards follow. Those blessings and rewards will come spiritually, emotionally and even financially. Can you see yourself being promoted on your job because you stand out as the one person who has everyone’s good at heart? Can you see someone who is out for themselves being demoted because they only care for themselves? Satan is robbing us of our rewards and blessings because we are walking around with our justified hatred of our enemies. The bumblebee flies because it does not know that it should not be able to. We are being robbed because we do not understand what belongs to us. We do not have to carry the weight of hate.
So I ask you, what are you doing? This is not about how your enemy is treating you; it is about how you are treating them. When we pull against God in this area of love we exhibit character traits unlike His. We want to love those who love us because it is safe and easy. However, that type of love does not bring the rewards we are seeking because it is so easy. If you are praying for a blessing, try this. Stop praying for that blessing and find one of your enemies and start being a blessing to them. Just keep doing it and see if you will not receive your reward based on your faithfulness towards God. Stop pulling against God for one month; it will change your life. May God forever bless and keep you.
