Erwin Lutzer tells the story about a man and his wife who came to their pastor and told him, “We're going to get a divorce, but we want to come to make sure that you approve of it.” Like many people, they were not looking for advice. They just wanted their pastor to agree with what they had already decided to do.
Instead, the pastor says to the husband, “The Bible says you're to love your wife as Jesus Christ loved the church.”
The husband replies, “Oh, I can't do that.”
To which the pastor says, “If you can't begin at that level, then begin on a lower level. You're supposed to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Can you at least love her as you would love a neighbor?”
The husband says, “No. That's still too high a level.”
So the pastor says, “The Bible says, Love your enemies. Begin there.” (Erwin Lutzer, “Learning to Love,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 99; www.PreachingToday.com)
God doesn’t let us off the hook, does He? He commands us to love anyone He brings into our lives, no matter who it is – spouse, neighbor, or enemy.
But why? Why is it so important that we love even our enemies? What are the benefits of such unconditional love? What profit is there for you to do good to the one who hates you? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Matthew 5, Matthew 5, where Jesus lays out those benefits.
Matthew 5:43 You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ (ESV)
I.e., love the one who is close to you, and hate the one who opposes you. Now, the word for “neighbor” literally means “one who is near”; and depending on the context, it can refer to someone who is near in place (like your next-door neighbor) or near to your heart (as in a friend).
Well, the ancient scribes interpreted the Law to mean love those who are near to your heart; i.e., love your friends and hate your enemies. However, Jesus didn’t see it that way. He rightly interprets the Old Testament Law to mean love anyone who is near in place, even if it is your enemy.
It’s like G. K. Chesterton once said, “The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.” (G. K. Chesterton, Leadership, Vol. 9, no. 2; www.PreachingToday.com)
Look at what Jesus said.
Matthew 5:44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you... (ESV)
Jesus said...
LOVE YOUR ENEMIES.
Give good things to those who hate you. Do what benefits them.
Now, this kind of love is NOT a feeling. It’s agape love! It is an act of the will whereby you choose to do what’s good for someone, whether you feel like it or not, and whether or not they deserve it. That includes praying for them, because it’s hard to hate someone you’re asking God to bless.
Many people don’ know it, but the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Ruth Bader Binsburg were close friends. Even though they were polar opposites when it came to politics, he always gave her roses on her birthday and shared her reverence for the law. Someone once asked Scalia how they could be such dear friends with such different views. Justice Scalia answered, “I attack ideas. I don't attack people. Some very good people have some very bad ideas. If you can't separate the two, you'd better get another job.” (Roxanne Roberts, “When the Supremes socialize,” THE WEEK, April 9. 2016. p. 36; www. PreachingToday.com)
We need to learn to separate people from their ideas, especially in our current divisive political climate. Their ideas may be bad, but they are made in the image of God, and they are people for whom Christ died. So we must love them as God loves them, or as God loves us, unconditionally and without any bitterness, doing good even to our political enemies.
Daryl Davis, an African American, sets the example for all of us in his relationships with so-called “white supremacists.”
Less than two years ago (December 2017), Davis traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia, to meet with Billy Snuffer, an Imperial Wizard of the Rebel Brigade Knights, a sect of the Ku Klux Klan. Snuffer was there with other Klansmen to support an associate who was facing gun charges resulting from the infamous “Unite the Right” rally which took place in August of that year (2017). That was the rally where a woman was killed by a driver who rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters.
Davis wasn't exactly there to support Snuffer and his friends, but he did want to engage them in conversation in order to understand them.
As it turns out, Davis had been at it for a while in his travels across the country, as a blues, country and western musician. In 1983, he was playing at a bar, where a patron complimented Davis, comparing his playing to Jerry Lee Lewis. Davis explained that Lewis had learned his craft from black blues and boogie-woogie players. That intrigued the patron, and he and Davis eventually became friends – even though the patron was a member of the KKK.
Since then, Daryl Davis has been dubbed “the Klan Whisper” as he seeks to challenge the beliefs of Klansmen through friendship and conversation. His closet is a testament to his success, which features several Klan robes given by men who renounced their affiliation they befriended him. (Mallory Simon and Sara Sidner, “What happened when a Klansman met a black man in Charlottesville,” CNN, 12-16-17; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s what can happen when people learn to love their enemies, not hate them. The enemy becomes a friend!
That’s what God did for us! The Bible says, “While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son” (Romans 5:10). God loved His enemies from an old rugged cross! God loved you and me, who had sinned against Him, and He turned us into His friends when came to trust Him. So...
LOVE YOUR ENEMIES AND BE LIKE GOD!
Love your enemies and act like your Heavenly Father. Love your enemies and love like He does.
Jesus says, “Love your enemies...”
Matthew 5:45 ...so that you may be sons of your Father who is 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. (ESV)
God sends sunshine and rain on everyone, good or bad, righteous or unrighteous. He doesn’t discriminate; and when you act like Him, you are like a “chip off the old block; you are a son of your Heavenly Father.
Now, in Bible days, to be called a son of somebody (or something) implies that you are like that person or thing. In the book of Acts, they called Joseph “Barnabas,” which means Son of Encouragement, because He was the epitome of encouragement (Acts 4:36-37). In the same way, to be called the son of your Heavenly Father means that you are just like Him! So love your enemies and be like God!
A little more than ten years ago (2008), evangelical theologian Douglas Wilson and renowned atheist, the late Christopher Hitchens, co-wrote a book entitled Is Christianity Good for the World? In the book, they go back and forth, arguing their opposing points of view, but they not only did it in writing. They did it in person, hitting the road together that same year in a series of live debates in order to promote the book.
Wilson's son, Nate, went along for the ride and wrote about his experience for Christianity Today. Nate shared what struck him most about the first few stops in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. He wrote:
To be honest, the most interesting moments have all been outside the formal events—discussions over meals, in cabs and elevators. Both men share a love of poetry (over lunch, they gave an antiphonal recitation of "Jabberwocky"). [They share] a love of the English language, and the well-turned phrase, and have spent a good ten minutes spouting favorite lines from the British writer P. G. Wodehouse to mutual laughter. And both men have a respect for each other—though clearly not for their conflicting opinions of God and the nature of the world.
At the King's College debate, Hitchens professed disdain for the biblical admonition to ‘love your enemies,’ calling it total nonsense. And yet, as he appears in Christian forums, wrangling with a Christian man, that is exactly what he is experiencing firsthand. The exchanges are heated. No punches have been pulled, and no one is pretending like the gulf between atheism and Christianity is anything but dark and profound. Yet underlying it all, there is an affection shown to him that is just as profound.
Hitchens said he wanted all his enemies destroyed. Wilson countered with qualified agreement, saying that God destroys all his enemies, but doesn't only destroy them in the traditional way, as understood by man, but also destroys his enemies by making them friends (Nate Wilson, “On the Road with Atheism,” www.christianitytoday.com, 10-29-08; www.PreachingToday.com)
Wilson, like God, destroyed his enemy by making him a friend. Go and do thou likewise! Love your enemies and be like God. More than that...
LOVE YOUR ENEMIES AND BE EXCEPTIONAL.
Love your enemies and be uniquely remarkable. Love your enemies and be considered truly outstanding. Jesus said...
Matthew 5:46-47 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? (ESV)
In Jesus’ day, Jewish people hated a tax gatherer even more than people hate an IRS agent today. That’s because tax gatherers were Jews who worked for the occupying force, collecting taxes for Rome. The Jewish people saw them as traitors! The Jewish people also saw tax gatherers as liars and cheats. That’s because tax gatherers collected more than what Rome required, so they could pocket the difference. They became rich at their kinsmen’s expense.
Tax gatherers were scoundrels, and Gentiles were no better. Jewish people in Jesus’ day considered Gentiles to be uncouth, heathen, no better than a wild, disgusting dog.
Yet, Jesus says they love their friends and greet their brothers, and you’re no better than the people you despise if you do the same. No! If you want to be better than that, you have to go beyond what they do. Love your enemies and be truly exceptional!
Hassan John is a Christian pastor in Jos, Nigeria. Boko Haram insurgents regard him as an “infidel,” and they have a price on his head of 150,000 Naira (about 800 American dollars). So Hassan goes to his church every day not knowing whether someone will murder him in order to claim the reward.
The 52-year-old pastor lost his two young sisters, saw blood and dead bodies, witnessed friends shot dead or injured in front of his eyes and narrowly escaped death himself. Hassan said, “You see it again and again and again. You get to places where a bomb [planted by Muslim extremists] has just exploded. There are bodies all over the place. You visit people in the hospital. You go back and meet families, you cry with them, you console them, you do the best you can with them all the time.”
Even so, the violence and hatred has not stopped Hassan from reaching out to his Muslim neighbors who need Christ. After he helped a small Muslim girl, who could not go to school after her father had been killed in the violence, he started to reach out to other orphan children. Soon he was helping their mothers, starting with 12 Muslim women, then 120. Young Muslim men in the area are starting to ask if they can find help as well.
With Hassan leading the way, Muslims and Christians are cooking and eating together. He says, “Now in Nigeria that is a big thing. You don't eat with your enemy because you are afraid that you will be poisoned. Now they interact, it is just so marvelous.” (Sarah Adoyo "Boko Haram Placed a Bounty on Christian Pastor from Jos," Naij.com, 12-3-15; www.PreachingToday.com)
If you only eat with your friends, that’s no big deal. But if you eat with your enemies, people find that remarkable! It’s an outstanding testimony of God’s grace at work in your life. People will sit up and take notice, and you will have a platform from which to proclaim the Good News of God’s love for a world that has turned their back on Him.
So love your enemies and be like God; love your enemies and be exceptional; and finally...
LOVE YOUR ENEMIES AND BE COMPLETE.
Love your enemies and fulfill your destiny. Love your enemies and be all that God has called you to be. Love your enemies and perfect your calling in life. Jesus says...
Matthew 5:48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (ESV)
Better: “You... WILL be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect. In the original Greek, it is a statement of fact (future indicative), more than it is a command. It is Jesus’ promise to you as you depend on Him.
You see, Jesus describes what God’s Law really means in this chapter; and with each example, we realize that we fall very short of God’s standard. After all, Jesus told us that God’s Law means don’t be angry (vs.21-26), don’t lust (vs.27-32), don’t swear at all (vs.33-37), and don’t retaliate (vs.38-42), but rather love your enemies (vs.43-47). It’s more than we can handle! It’s way beyond what we can do! But that only drives us back to Jesus’ first words in this Sermon on the mount. Look at them again in Matthew 5:3
Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (ESV)
When you come to the realization that you are “poor in spirit,” that you cannot ever be worthy of God’s Kingdom, then and only then do you receive that Kingdom as you throw yourself on God’s mercy and grace.
Oh, dear friends, don’t pretend that you are good. Instead, realize your poverty of spirit and depend on Christ to make you worthy of God’s Kingdom; rely on Jesus to make you fit for heaven.
For if you do that, you WILL be perfect someday. Literally, you WILL be complete. Philippians 1:6 says, “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” God will complete (or finish) the work He started in you when you first began to depend on Christ.
Don’t give up! Keep on trusting Christ with your life, and He will help you love your enemies as God does. He will make you like God Himself.
So, in dependence upon Christ, love your enemies and be like God; love your enemies and be exceptional; love your enemies and be complete!
Six years ago, a front-page article in the San Francisco Chronicle (September 9, 2013) featured Linda Wilson-Allen, an exceptional bus driver, who loves the people who ride her bus. She learns their names and waits for them if they're late. One time, a woman in her eighties, named Ivy, had some heavy grocery bags and was struggling with them. So Linda got out of her seat to carry Ivy's grocery bags onto the bus. Now Ivy lets other buses pass her stop so she can ride on Linda's bus.
Another time, Linda saw a woman named Tanya in a bus shelter. She could tell Tanya was new to the area and she was lost. It was almost Thanksgiving, so Linda said to Tanya, “You're out here all by yourself. You don't know anybody. Come on over for Thanksgiving and kick it with me and the kids.” Now they're friends.
Linda’s love has created a little community on her bus. Now, passengers offer Linda the use of their vacation homes. They bring her potted plants and floral bouquets. And when her passengers discovered she likes to wear scarves to accessorize her uniforms, they started giving them as presents to Linda.
Think about what a thankless task driving a bus can look like in our world: cranky passengers, engine breakdowns, traffic jams, gum on the seats. So how does Linda do it? Well, “Her mood is set at 2:30 A.M. when she gets down on her knees to pray for 30 minutes,” the Chronicle states. Linda, who is a member of the Glad Tidings Church in Hayward, says, “There is a lot to talk about with the Lord” before she starts her bus route. Then when she gets to the end of the line, she always tells her passengers, “That's all. I love you. Take care.” (John Ortberg, All the Places to Go, Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2015, pp. 70-72; Sam Whiting, “Veteran Muni Operator is Driven to Go Out of Her Way to Help Others,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 9, 2013; www.Preaching Today.com)
Where is the Kingdom of Heaven? Right now, it’s on the #45 bus riding through San Francisco. How about in the place where you work? How about in the place where you live? Dear friends, trust Christ with your life and let Him create that atmosphere of love around you.
