Preacher: Jeremy Herbert
Theme: Love Your Enemies
Thesis: By actively loving our enemies we display God’s redemptive love.
Texts:
- Matthew 5:43-48
- Leviticus 19:18
- Proverbs 25:21-22
- Colossians 1
- Romans 5
- Leviticus 11
- 1 Peter 1:13-16
- Romans 12
- 1 Peter 3
Notes:
Christ, like the OT prophets, confronts Israel’s tendency to try to keep the externals of the Law, without loving God from the heart, and without keeping the true spirit of the Law.
He wasn’t adding anything new to the Law–He was explaining the true spirit of the Law.
‘An eye for an eye’ wasn’t meant to enable tit-for-tat, it was meant to place limits on reparations in civil disputes so that the punishment fit the crime.
No-one can keep the standard gives in the Sermon on the Mount–only Christ was able to keep it perfectly.
But the fact that we cannot keep it perfectly should not license us not to strive toward keeping it.
- Loving your enemy is difficult
- It is our tendency as sinners to attempt to explain away the hard things of the Bible
- “Christ did it in my place” — doesn’t let you off the hook
- “Nobody’s perfect” — doesn’t let you off the hook
- Loving your enemy means doing active good
- Not just not returning evil for evil
- Love means doing, not just feeling
- Bless
- Pray
- “Turn the other cheek,” aka, turn away from wrath
- Note that this is talking about interpersonal / civil conflicts, not actual criminal matters
- “Bless,” to speak well of
- We do not have to speak well of wicked behavior; we speak well of them as an image-bearer of God
- Practical suggestions:
- Examine Yourself: have I provoked this animosity?
- Look for Positive Traits That Are Praiseworthy
- Be Thankful
- Show Appreciation for Them to Others
- Do Good to Them:
- Forgive,
- Note: Forgiveness does not obviate punishment of crimes committed
- Ask for forgiveness,
- Try to reconcile,
- God is a reconciling God
- Look for opportunities to show small acts of kindness,
- Treat them as friends,
- What would I do for a friend in this situation?
- Don’t rejoice when they enter trials
- Forgive,
- Loving Your Enemies Demonstrates God’s Love
- “Perfect” = “complete”
- Common grace = God is good to all whether they love Him or not, e.g., “the rain falls on the just and the unjust”
- Romans 2, “the goodness of God leads us to repentance.”
- Loving our enemies displays a picture of God’s uncommon redemptive grace
- Christ, “Father, forgive them, for the know not what they do.”
- Stephen, “Father, forgive them.”
Live It Out
- Ask the Holy Spirit to change your heart toward your enemies
- Study the Gospel
- Meditate on the mercy and goodness God displays to rebels
- Overcome evil with good
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