How To Destroy Your Enemies
Matthew 5:43-48
OKAY – let’s do this…
NOW - I want to start off with a couple of passages of Scripture, as we begin our time in His Living and Active Word this morning.
The first passage is found in Luke 23 beginning at verse 27…
It’s approaching 9 am on a Friday morning…
Jesus was arrested the night before,
AND – He has spent the last 12+ hours
• Going through several mock trials
• Standing before the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate,
• Being: beaten, punched, beard ripped out, spit upon, insulted and having a Roman scourge tear across His back 39 times ripping His entire back wide open.
AND – now Jesus is forced to carry a heavy wooden, rugged cross on His back up to the hill, that we call Calvary.
HOWEVER – Jesus has lost so much blood, His beaten – bruised and bleeding body crumbles beneath its…
AS – the religious elite insult Him and the crowd lining the streets shout crucify Him.
AND – Luke records these words, beginning at 23:27…
As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him…
32Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.
Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. – Luke 23:27-28, 32-34
MGCC – Jesus (God the Son) with His hands and feet spiked to a Roman cross, looks down at His executioners who were casting lots for the clothes that had just stripped off His body… and He prays, “Father Forgive them…”
AND PAUL – writes the following in Romans 5:6-10…
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.
But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!
– Romans 5:6-8
GOD – demonstrated His own love for us how?
While we powerless and still sinners
WE – were reconciled to God through Jesus’ death when?
While we were God’s enemies
Prayer
MGCC…
• Welcome to week 23 in our verse by verse study of the Gospel of Matthew (The King and His Kingdom)
• Welcome to week 16 of our study of Jesus’… radical, upside down, counter-cultural manifesto… About what life in His Kingdom is all about (also known as ‘The Sermon On The Mount, and
• Welcome to Matthew 5:43-48 and to this morning conversation, ‘How To Destroy Your Enemies.’
UNDERSTAND B/S – the verses that we will unpack today August 14, 2022… represent the ‘high point’ of Jesus’ entire Kingdom Life Manifesto.’
AND LISTEN – not only are these verses the ‘high point,’
BUT – they are ‘perhaps’… the most difficult commands that Jesus has ever called us to obey.
I MEAN – if you thought that the conversation, we unpacked last week… ‘The Right To Be Wronged…’ was a difficult one to live out… YOU KNOW – the truth of Matthew 5:38-42, where Jesus is telling us that…
In a world full of people who constantly seek to get even and are always demanding their rights, Jesus says that those who live in His Kingdom have the right to be wronged.
AGAIN – if you thought that teaching and command of Jesus is a tough one to live out (and it is), but listen, what Jesus is going to command that we do next, takes Kingdom Living to a whole new level.
I MEAN LIKE – not retaliating when wronged is one thing…
BUT MGCC – what Jesus says next seems impossible to actually live out…
OKAY B/S – buckle up… here is our text for this morning.
You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who persecute you,
UNDERSTAND – the reason I have some of this in italics is because those words do not appear in the earliest manuscripts.
Which is why some translations move them to a footnote rather into their translation.
For example in KJV/NKJV these words are included in the translation… where the NIV/ESV place them in a footnote at the bottom of the page.
NOW – more than likely what happened is that some of the scribes who were copying the later Manuscripts, added those words to Matthew 5:43…
Probably because of what all of the earliest MSS had recorded in Luke 6:26,27.
UNDERSTAND – Luke chapter 6… is where Luke records many (not all, but many) of the teachings of Jesus we find in Matthew’s Sermon on The Mount.
But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. – Luke 6:26,27
NOW – this may have been more information than you wanted. BUT – if you are following along in your Bible today.
I did not want you to wondering, where some of those words came from.
BOTTOM LINE – I am good with those words because they are the teaching of Jesus.
But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. – Matthew 5:43-48
BUT – I tell you ‘Love Your Enemies…’
MGCC… QUESTION… Enemies… “Got Any?”
LIKE – there any people who…
Hate you? Have hurt you, abused you?
Dislike you? Despise you? Betrayed you?
Have disrespected you? Lied about you?
Have left no doubt whatsoever, that they have made it their goal in life… to damage you, discredit you, to ruin you
in any way that they possibly can?
AGAIN – enemies… got any?
YOU KNOW – people who not only hate you, but who you (even though you know it is not very Jesus-like)
Pretty much hate them right back.
Come on… don’t leave me alone out here…
UNDERSTAND B/S – if anyone at all comes to your mind (eve a little bit) when you think of an enemy…
I think Jesus would like for you to think about them during our conversation this morning.
NOW – as we unpack this uncomfortable conversation this morning, one thing I want to be do is share a few quotes from a guy, who in my opinion not only lived out this command to ‘love our enemies’ but passionately called others to do the same, more than anyone else in our recent history.
On 17 November 1957, Martin Luther King Jr preached a sermon in Montgomery, Alabama, on Loving Our Enemies.
Here is what he said after reading our (Mt. 5:43-48)
Certainly these are great words, words lifted to cosmic proportions. And over the centuries, many persons have argued that this is an extremely difficult command.
Many would go so far as to say that it just isn’t possible to move out into the actual practice of this glorious command. They would go on to say that this is just additional proof that Jesus was an impractical idealist who never quite came down to earth. So the arguments abound.
But far from being an impractical idealist, Jesus has become the practical realist. The words of this text glitter in our eyes with a new urgency.
Far from being the pious injunction of a utopian dreamer, this command is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. Yes, it is love that will save our world and our civilization, love even for enemies.
Now let me hasten to say that Jesus was very serious when he gave this command; he wasn’t playing. He realized that it’s hard to love your enemies. He realized that it’s difficult to love those persons who seek to defeat you, those persons who say evil things about you.
He realized that it was painfully hard, pressingly hard. But he wasn’t playing. And we cannot dismiss this passage as just another example of Oriental hyperbole, just a sort of exaggeration to get over the point.
This is a basic philosophy of all that we hear coming from the lips of our Master. Because Jesus wasn’t playing; because he was serious. We have the Christian and moral responsibility to seek to discover the meaning of these words, and to discover how we can live out this command, and why we should live by this command. - MLK
AND B/S – that is exactly what we are going to do this morning… SEEK – to understand, and
DETERMINE - what means for us to live out this command… so that we can destroy our enemies.
AND MGCC – here is how I want to attack this conversation.
BY – unpacking two statements.
Statement #1…
You Have Heard It Said…”
Where we will discuss how the Pharisees and Teachers of the law… had twisted, distorted and misapplied the Word of God, just as they had done in regards to: murder, adultery, divorce, taking oaths and getting.
Statement #2…
“But I Tell You…”
AND HERE - we will look at the ‘what’ - ‘who’ – ‘how’ – and ‘why’ of Jesus’ command to love our enemies.
I. “You Have Heard It Said…”
You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ – Matthew 5:43
Love who? your neighbors.
And how are we to respond to our enemies? With hatred.
AND UNDERSTAND MGCC – that is exactly what the ‘Religious Elite’ in Jesus day were teaching the people.
AND NOTICE – that what they were saying was ½ true.
Which is the preferred method of all false teachers.
Sprinkle in just enough truth to fool and deceive people.
(satan, garden)
AND LISTEN – I am sure the teaching of (love your neighbor and hate your enemy) was an easy one for most people to embrace.
I MEAN – it is what most of us would like to believe is true…
• Love your neighbor… hate you enemy
• Love people who are like you… hate those who are not
• Love people who are from your tribe… hate all who belong to other tribes
• Love those who agree with you… hate those who disagree
• Love those who are on your team, hate those who are on the other team
• Love people who like you and are kind to you… hate those who dislike and hurt you
• Love your own people… hate those who are oppressing you (like the Roman occupiers)
AGAIN – a very easy teaching for people to accept.
AND AGAIN – many of the Jewish people in Jesus’ day did embrace it…
IN FACT – the tendency of most ancient Jews to love only Jews was noticed by the first century Roman Historian Tacitus (who inferred from the behavior of the Jews that he had observed) that the hatred of non-Jews, was an essential part of the Jewish religion.
QUESTION… So did the OT Law tells us to ‘love our neighbors and to hate our enemies?”
NO – it actually said…
Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. – Leviticus 19:18
AND HEY – did you notice the two words that the Religious Teachers in Jesus day left off of command in in that verse? ‘as yourself’
One of the guys I read this week wrote the following in his commentary on the SM.
This subtle revision transformed a command about how God’s people are to love into a command focusing on who they are to love… Evidently some of Jesus’ contemporaries argued that the command to focus one’s love specifically on his neighbor also implied the inverse, that is, one was to hate all who were not his neighbor. – Charles Quarles
QUESTION – but does God’s Word support that mindset and teaching? No it does not.
Here are a few examples that clearly teach that hating their enemies and those who were Jews was not the life that God called His people to.
IN FACT – in that very same chapter that the Religious Elite in Jesus’ day distorted we read the following.
When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God. – Leviticus 19:33-34
If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to return it. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help them with it. – Exodus 23:4-5
If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. – Proverbs 25:21
AND – in Job chapter 31…
Job makes the following statements as part of his defense that he is innocent… and that it was not sin that brought trouble to his life.
Have I ever rejoiced when disaster struck my enemies, or become excited when harm came their way? No, I have never sinned by cursing anyone or by asking for revenge. - Job 31:29-30
UNDERSTAND MGCC - even though there were places where God commanded otherwise, the teachers of the law chose to distort and twist the scriptures and teach what they wanted. THUS - the understood rule of the day was, 'love your friend; hate your enemy'.
AND LISTEN - to be declared an enemy, a person didn't need to have done anything against you, but just the fact that they were a foreigner was enough to be considered an enemy.
AND – tragically B/S… times haven't changed much.
THERE ARE - still plenty people today who dislike someone because of their color, race, culture or belief.
LIKE - they hate anyone who's different than them.
AND THERE ARE – still those in power (in media, in politics, in religious circles) whose power and position depends
on getting people to hate each other and to see each other as enemies.
“I truly believe in my heart that most white people and Black people are awesome people. But we're so stupid following our politicians, whether they are Republicans or Democrats," he continued. "And their only job is, 'Hey, let's make these people not like each other. We don't live in their neighborhoods. We all got money. Let's make the whites and Blacks not like each other. Let's make rich people and poor people not like each other. Let's scramble the middle class.' I truly believe that in my heart." – Charles Barkley
You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who persecute you…” – Matthew 5:43,44
II. “But I Tell You…”
A) What does Jesus tell us to do?
To ‘Love’ (to love our enemies).
NOW – where hear those words and we think…
• Jesus are you serious?
• Jesus you are asking us to do the impossible.
And Jesus responds…
• Yes, I am serious, and
• No, it is not impossible, because I am only commanding you to do… what you can do.
UNDERSTAND B/S…
Jesus did not tell us to ‘like’ our enemies
Jesus did not tell us to feel good feeling towards those who abuse us.
He doesn’t say fall in love with people who hurt you.
AND LISTEN – what helps us better understand this command is when consider the actual word that Jesus uses for ‘love’ when He says to love our enemies.
AS – you probably are aware the Greeks had at least 4 different words for our one word love.
Storge – refers to family love. This is a love that a parent has for their children and children have for their parents.
Eros – refers to sexual love and desire for another person
Philia – mutual respect, brotherly love, the deep friendship that developed between brothers in arms who had fought side by side on the battlefield.
Agape – is a love that is born of a decision. Agape is not ignited by the loveliness of the object but by a decision of the will. It’s a sacrificial love that seeks nothing in return.
AND B/S – here’s the point…
• You can’t command ‘storge love’… either someone is a member of the family or they are not
• You can’t command ‘eros love’… either you have good vibes or attraction or you don’t.
• You can’t command ‘philia love’… either you have mutual respect and brotherly affection or you don’t
• BUT – you can’t command ‘agape love’ and that is what Jesus does.
MLK JR
It’s significant that he does not say, “Like your enemy.” Like is a sentimental something, an affectionate something. There are a lot of people that I find it difficult to like. I don’t like what they do to me. I don’t like what they say about me and other people. I don’t like their attitudes. I don’t like some of the things they’re doing. I don’t like them. But Jesus says love them. And love is greater than like. Love is understanding, redemptive goodwill for all men, so that you love everybody… And here you come to the point that you love the individual who does the evil deed, while hating the deed that the person does. This is what Jesus means when he says, "Love your enemy."
B) Who does Jesus tell us to love?
He tells us to love our enemies.
UNDERSTAND B/S - Jesus does not ask to call them by some other name, so that we will feel better about them.
Jesus says to love those people who are you enemies…
Love those who: hate you, dislike you, oppose you, lie about you, abuse you, use you,
OKAY…
The What – love (agape love)
The Who – our enemies (again got any?)
C) How Are We To Love Our Enemies?
do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who persecute you…
1) Do Good To Them
Jesus instructs us to respond to our enemies with practical assistance.
During the American Revolution there was a pastor named Peter Miller, who lived in Pennsylvania and was friends with George Washington. And Miller had a bitter enemy named Michael Whitman, who did all that he could to frustrate and humiliate the pastor. One day Mr. Whitman was arrested for treason and sentenced to die Peter Miller walked seventy miles from Philadelphia to plead for the life of the traitor.
General Washington said to Miller, that he was sorry but their friendship was not enough to pardon the life of his friend Michael Whitman. “My friend!” the old preacher said, “He is the bitterest enemy that I have.” And when Washington realized that Miller had walked 70 miles to offer practical assistance to an enemy, he granted the pardon. And Miller and Whitman walked back home together and were no longer enemies.
UNDERSTAND - you don’t have to feel good about someone to do good for them.
But doing good has a strange effect on how you feel.
About them. And about yourself.
If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. – Proverbs 25:21
Offer practical assistance to your enemy .
3) Bless Them
Second, Jesus insists on verbal affirmation. “Bless those who curse you.”
Let’s be honest. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good insult.
John Jacob Astor’s wife once said to Winston Churchill, "Winston, if you were my husband I should flavor your coffee with poison."
Churchill replied, "Madam, if I were your husband, I should drink it."
Congressman John Randolph and Henry Clay met on a sidewalk in Washington. Clay said, "I, sir, do not step aside for a scoundrel." To which Randolph replied, "On the other hand, I always do." And stepped aside.
An envious actress congratulated another actress on a book she had recently written. "I enjoyed it," she said, "who wrote it for you?" The author answered, "Well, I did and I’m so glad you liked it. Who read it to you?"
YES - that’s the kind of response we usually love to give when someone insults us, but Jesus commands us to ‘bless those who curse us.’
In their book, The Blessing, Gary Smalley and John Trent define a blessing as “a spoken message of high value, a message that pictures a special future, and an active commitment to see the blessing come to pass.”
When you bless someone you communicate to them that you recognize their value as a human made in the image of God. You not only wish for them a positive future, but you actually picture it. And in doing so, you affirm that you will do all in your power to see that special future come true for them.
It’s tough to respond to an enemy with verbal affirmation. It requires me to do the hard work of looking for something good in a person I’ve determined to be the very incarnation of evil. But there is enormous power and dignity in replying to an insult with a blessing.
“A second thing that an individual must do in seeking to love his enemy is to discover the element of good in his enemy, and every time you begin to hate that person and think of hating that person, realize that there is some good there and look at those good points which will over-balance the bad points.
The person who hates you most has some good in him; even the nation that hates you most has some good in it; even the race that hates you most has some good in it. And when you come to the point that you look in the face of every man and see deep down within him what religion calls "the image of God," you begin to love him in spite of. No matter what he does, you see God’s image there. There is an element of goodness that he can never sluff off. Discover the element of good in your enemy. And as you seek to hate him, find the center of goodness and place your attention there and you will take a new attitude.” - MLK
4) Pray For Them
NOW – one of the guys I listened to this week, pointed out that if we are not someone who often prays for people that we actually love and like… then we probably find it even harder to pray for our enemies.
BUT LISTEN – praying for our enemies is powerful.
How do I know… because ‘in my flesh’ I fight so hard against praying for my enemies.
LIKE – I do not want to do it.
YEAH – sometimes I think I am afraid to do it.
QUESTION…
Will praying for your enemies change them?
YEAH – it really could.
Will praying for your enemies change you?
Absolutely, 100% guarantee
MGCC – enemies got any?
IF SO – will you take the 21 day prayer challenge?
And pray for your enemies for 3 weeks.
OKAY HERE… are a few suggestions of what to pray for your enemies…
Pray…
• For them to know and experience God’s love more fully.
• For God make His presence known to them.
• That they will become the person God desires them to be.
• That they will experience the joy and peace that only come from surrendering their lives to Christ.
• That God will fill their lives with good things and good people.
• That God will bless their: family, relationships, finances, career, physical and emotional health…etc
• That God will give them the strength to face whatever challenges are ahead of them.
• That both you and them will come to no longer see each other as enemies.
Just a few suggestions.
Feel free to add some of your own prayers to this list
Through the medium of prayer we go to our enemy, stand by his side, and plead him to God.
– Bonhoeffer (Cost of Discipleship)
OKAY…
The What – love (agape love)
The Who – our enemies (again got any?)
The How – do good to them, bless them and pray for them
D) Why Should We Love Our Enemies?
1) Because hate for hate only creates more hate
MLK Jr
If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back… It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that’s the strong person. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil. And that is the tragedy of hate, that it doesn’t cut it off. It only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe…
Men must see that force begets force, hate begets hate, toughness begets toughness. And it is all a descending spiral, ultimately ending in destruction for all and everybody. Somebody must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and the chain of evil in the universe. And you do that by love.
Because of what hating our enemies does to us
Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. – Hebrews 12:15
“You just begin hating somebody, and you will begin to do irrational things. You can’t see straight when you hate. You can’t walk straight when you hate. You can’t stand upright. Your vision is distorted.
There is nothing more tragic than to see an individual whose heart is filled with hate. He comes to the point that he becomes a pathological case. For the person who hates, you can stand up and see a person and that person can be beautiful, and you will call them ugly.
For the person who hates, the beautiful becomes ugly and the ugly becomes beautiful. For the person who hates, the good becomes bad and the bad becomes good. For the person who hates, the true becomes false and the false becomes true. That’s what hate does. You can’t see right. The symbol of objectivity is lost. Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater.”
Hate at any point is a cancer that gnaws away at the very vital center of your life and your existence. It is like eroding acid that eats away the best and the objective center of your life. So Jesus says love, because hate destroys the hater as well as the hated
Because as a child of God we are called to be like God
that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. – Matthew 5:45
God sends rain and sun on the evil and the good
I mean think about it… evil people, God’s enemies still get to enjoy and benefit from the wonder, beauty and bounty of His creation.
And remember B/S – how God demonstrated His own love for us.
2) Because we are called to be more and to be whole
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. – Matthew 5:46-48
IF YOU…
What are you doing more
Perfect does not mean without flaw.
Rather it means ‘mature, whole, complete.’
Jesus is not calling us to be morally flawless as God, but He is calling us to love as completely and maturely as God loves.
This mean we are to love both our friends and our enemies.
3) Because of the redemptive power of love
Love can change and redeem people.
Question – did God’s love for you as an enemy change you?
Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. That’s why Jesus says, "Love your enemies."
Because if you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption.
You just keep loving people and keep loving them, even though they’re mistreating you. Here’s the person who is a neighbor, and this person is doing something wrong to you and all of that. Just keep being friendly to that person. Keep loving them. Don’t do anything to embarrass them. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long.
Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with bitterness because they’re mad because you love them like that. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them.
And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.
An Armenian nurse had been held captive along with her brother by the Turks. Her brother was slain by a Turkish soldier before her eyes.
Somehow she escaped and later became a nurse in a military hospital.
One day she was stunned to find that the same man who had killed her brother had been captured and brought wounded to the hospital where she worked.
Something within her cried out "Vengeance."
But a stronger voice called for her to love. She nursed the man back to health. Finally, the recuperating soldier asked her, "Why didn’t you let me die?" Her answer was, "I am a follower of Him who said, ’Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you’". Impressed with her answer, the young soldier replied, "I never heard such words before. Tell me more. I want this kind of religion."
While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul approved of their killing him.
– Acts 7:59-8:1
The What – love (agape love)
The Who – our enemies (again got any?)
The How – do good to them, bless them and pray for them
The Why…
Because hate for hate only creates more hate
Because of what hating our enemies does to us
Because as a child of God we are called to be like God
Because we are called to be more and to be whole
Because of the redemptive power of love
