Loving the Lord, Part 1 (Loving your Enemies)
Matthew 5:43-48
Introduction
For some of us, the title of this message could be “Mission Impossible”.
Ask yourself tonight -- How can we love our enemies? How can we look at people who have done us wrong and honestly look at them with a heart of love?
It is not easy to love and to overlook sin, but Jesus does this daily for us.
Therefore, let’s examine tonight the beginning of 4 or 5 messages (which will include Sunday mornings) on the principle of love – and perhaps gain a better understanding of why this principle is so important to the believer.
Read Matthew 5:43-48
In this paragraph we have read, Jesus tells us exactly how. Tonight, let’s start with these few sentences and really take a look at how this love is important.
As we study tonight, I want to challenge you to go beneath the surface. Look beyond the head knowledge you may have and let’s get into our hearts – I ask you tonight, “What is your heart’s condition?”
Look deeper into your own life and ask yourself one question:
“Could I really learn to love my enemies?”
Pray
Point 1 – The Reminder (v43)
Jesus began by referring His listeners back to the Old Testament law and to what the rabbis taught.
He was speaking to a crowd of people (including His disciples), and saying to them very specifically that they have heard – which means they are familiar with the saying.
Even today, from pulpits all over America we hear the same teaching – the same reminder to love one anther, but I challenge you with this:
Do we really recognize the importance of loving one another?
Think to yourself of someone who just aggravates you to no end – do you love them?
If they were on fire in front of you, would you put them out? How about if it came to saving them from the fires of eternal damnation – would you tell them how they could be saved?
This is the love Jesus is exemplifying here – and he is reminding us to love one another, so that our love for them MIGHT make them into sons of the same God we worship.
If this is not an exemplified teaching of love, I have no idea what is.
Point 2 – The Requirement (v44a)
“But I say to you, love your enemies ...”
This is another one of those very hard practices, but we see this practiced in the lives of several very important members of the New Testament.
Go to Acts 7
Stephen was a godly man, a man full of the Spirit and willing to testify to the ends of the Earth about the love of God.
In his testifying, He was caught, arrested, and tried before the Sanhedrin in what many would call a show trial.
Let’s look at how he handled his own execution.
Read Acts 7:51-59
We are required to love, no matter the status or situation.
Point 3 – The Responsibility (v44b)
We have a responsibility as believers to love – regardless of the circumstances.
We are called, discipled, and delivered to do three things as believers:
1. Bless those who curse you
When someone comes upon you to curse you, pour a blessing on them!
Proverbs 15:1 “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” (Expound)
2. Do well to those who hate you
Be a blessing in someone’s life, be an encouragement no matter how someone else might feel about you.
It has been said that if you love, you might change someone’s heart. Now, if your life exemplified love – couldn’t you change someone else’s life?
3. Pray for those who spitefully use you
Quoted from a ministry site: “These words are difficult for us to comprehend, because such a situation - to love one’s enemies - seems unnatural to us. But it (means to be) precisely in love (with) one’s enemies, in the payment of good in return for malice - that we discover in ourselves the true image of God.” - John Mark Ministries
Point 4 – The Example (v46)
Look at the example in Verse 46 – if you read it too fast you might just miss it.
The tax collectors do not love, and look at what they receive.
The pagans only relate to one another, and look what they have.
Do we wish to be like them, or to live like Christ?
We are called to be more than that. To reach out past what we know and past what we think is “our kind”. As I read this I hear the Spirit saying that “we do not have a kind” ... “we simply belong to God’s kind”.
Therefore, we are to greet everyone with love – regardless of any differences that may be between us. I assure you, there will be no separation in Heaven ... so the example here is to love all.
Point 5 – The Reason (v45)
That you might be like your Father in Heaven!
Our love for someone else makes us like our Father who loves us. When we fail to love, we are not showing other people the Father that we claim to worship; that we claim to love.
Our love ought to be evident in everything we do – regardless of the excuse of the flesh or the unwillingness of the Spirit. If God has love for us (which he does), we need to have love for others.
This is the basic principle of the believer – and without love we are without a reason to exist.
Conclusion
The Holy Spirit can empower us to live this truth.
It’s not natural life -- it’s a supernatural life.
It’s the life Christ has put in front of us.
Through His strength and by His Grace we can learn to obey.
Challenge yourself – are you willing to learn something new today?
Pray
Message inspired from a sermon by Dr. David Jeremiah
