Living in the Kingdom 12
Scripture: Matthew 5:43-48; 7:12; Leviticus 19:18; James 4:17
In my message last week I shared with you what Jesus said about turning the other cheek and going the extra mile without being asked. Jesus said that we are to have a disposition that chooses to not seek revenge or return the evil that we sometimes receive. He expressly said that while they had been taught “an eye for an eye”, that was not how He wanted us to walk. His desire is that we are always ready to show love and goodness despite what people might be doing to us – even our enemies. What Jesus said last week about turning the other cheek and going the extra mile is a lead in to what He had to say about how we should treat our enemies. This morning we will complete the fifth chapter of Matthew with the words Jesus spoke about how we should treat our enemies. This is part twelve of my series “Living in the Kingdom.”
Please turn to Matthew 5:43-48. In these verses Jesus once again makes the statement “You have heard that it has been said…” which tells us immediately that once again He will be contrasting what they had learned and taught from the law with “laws of the kingdom of heaven.” Let’s begin reading at verse forty-three. “You have heard that it has been said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’ 44But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you, and persecute you. 45That you may be the children of your Father Who is in heaven: for He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46For if you love them who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors the same? 47And if you greet your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the tax collectors so? 48Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father Who is in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48)
Leviticus 19:18 says, “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.” The command to love their neighbor was a law of God. Now, because they were commanded to love their neighbor and not their enemies, the Jews extrapolated that it was okay (or commanded) that they hate their enemy. They supposed that if they loved the one, they must, of course, hate the other. They were total strangers to the thought that they were required to love both. In this verse from Leviticus, a neighbor was literally someone that lived near them; one that was near to them by acts of kindness and friendship. When Jesus spoke however, He totally changed how they were thinking about whom they were to love.
Jesus says we are to love our enemies. One definition of enemy applicable for this message today is “somebody who hates or seeks to harm somebody or something.” Per the definition, an enemy is not someone that we choose to think about doing anything for. As a matter of fact, if we think about them at all it is not with a thought of helping them as Paul said in Romans chapter twelve which we read last week. As it relates to enemies, someone can love you today and be your enemy next week. Think about it, how many of you had a dear friend who is now your enemy? I have been there, more times than I care to remember and it hurts when your friend that you counted amongst your family becomes an enemy. Being an enemy is an interesting thing. Let me share with you the two most prevalent types of enemies. First there is the enemy who never liked us (and we never liked them in return) although we may or may not have ever really known why. Next there is the enemy that is borne out of a relationship that has gone bad. Let’s examine these two in more detail.
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 dislike them in return. They could be friends with our other enemies and therefore have chosen not to be friends of ours. In this situation, neither I, nor my enemy, know one another in great detail, 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. I remember several years ago when Willis, Stacey and I visited some people who were in the hospital. One of the individuals we visited was someone Willis knew from a previous job - someone who did not necessarily like him. This woman’s heart changed towards Willis after he had previously visited her in the hospital and prayed for her. She had been surprised that he had actually visited her and that he cared enough to pray for her. Based on Willis’ actions, her heart changed toward him and the next time we visited her face lit up when we walked into her hospital room to pray for her. She was no longer an enemy of Willis.
I believe that in these types of “enemy” relationships our perceived enemy is possibly no enemy at all. That individual, just as are we, 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 them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you, and persecute you.….” Jesus was commanding us to control our responses, regardless of the actions of the other person. 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.
Now the second type of enemy is different. This is a situation where our enemy is truly our enemy because this enemy is borne out of some type of relationship – good or bad. 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 were 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 make that enemy? 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, especially when we misinterpret what Jesus said when He said “Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 7:12) Now based on what Jesus said, when someone does something to us they must want us to do the same back to them so we let them have it with everything we got! However, 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 more closely what 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, our response should be to do good to them. When they are spiteful and persecuting us, that is when we should pray. When we do this we are the sons and daughters of God! 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 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 responses 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 says “You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss….” (James 4:3) 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 verses 46 and 47, “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors the same? 47And if you greet your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the tax collectors so?” The reward comes as we love those who will not love us back. When we can truly bless someone who hates us, therein is the reward that Jesus spoke about. He said that even the hated tax collectors whom everyone despised loved those that loved them back and greeted their brethren so that wasn’t hard to do at all. No, what Jesus was requiring was something more, something that those of the world would not be able to understand or do. He required that we love those who hated us – something that we believe within us we are incapable of doing. When we believe that we cannot do this, we 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 is asking that we change our responses to our enemies so that we can be free of the weight and receive our rewards. Learning to love those who hate us is the only way we can freely walk in the love of Christ! I want to share a story with you that I read several years ago. As I read this story I want you to imagine yourself sitting at this table surrounded by your enemies. They are your enemy as well as enemies to all the others sitting around the table.
“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.’ Then 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 are enemies. 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 feed you. The only way your enemies could eat would be to have someone else, including 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 you may be saying you’d feed your enemy and would receive food from them, this is not what we are doing in practice because we still hate! 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 stood out as the one person who had 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.
Finally Jesus says, “Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father Who is in heaven is perfect.” Do you believe that you can be perfect in Christ? Do you believe you can turn your backs on the things of this world and how this world has taught us to live? Do you believe you can forgive your enemy and love them – even if they never change towards you? If you do not believe that you can be perfect then you do not believe what Jesus said you can be. The world says we should not be able to love, but the way God made us in Christ, we can!
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. Remember, Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35) And, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15) Are you Christ’s disciple? Then “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…” May God forever bless and keep you.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
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