The Village Church
Mutually Broken: Extending Love to your enemies - Audio
and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies. Pray for those who prosecute you, so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven. For he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good. He sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even attach 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. You, therefore, be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. Please pray with me. Father God, these words here are very, very convicting. And they seem to be very, very hard to put into practice. The Lord, that's why we have your spirit. He enables us to do what we can't do in our own strength. And so even now as we come to your truth, we need him to once again draw us closer to you, give us understanding. We can't understand anything about our faith apart from him. It's not because we're smarter, because we know the right things, but it's because the spirit's at work in our hearts. And so we call upon him to take your preach word, to move the preacher to the side, and let him do his thing. Bring glory to your name, Lord. Bring glory to you, that you will be lifted up in our hearts, that we'll leave here, we'll leave here empowered. We'll leave here knowing you more, loving you more. And so Spirit, we pray that you will come in working our hearts this morning and crashing my prayer. Amen. Matthew five verses 43 to 48. So just like the other passages in this section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is once again correcting the misunderstanding, the misinterpretation and misapplication of the Old Testament law by the religious leaders of his day. He wants to show us and then what a kingdom lifestyle truly looks like in this fallen world. At the same time, he wants to present us as broken people who are in great need of repentance and faith in him. Jesus has already done this when it comes to anger and lust, divorce, ultimate retaliation. And this morning, he's done the same thing when it comes to extending love. Verses four, verse 43, you have heard that it was said, you should love your neighbor and hate your enemy. This phrase here will not find this phrase in Old Testament. You were not, and this phrase simply represents the misunderstanding of the Old Testament when it comes to extending love to other people. It's a misunderstanding, it's a misinterpretation, it's a misapplication, it's not biblical. He says you have heard that it was said, the stand keeps falling down. Here we go, here we go. Unless I'm getting shorter. All right. Love your neighbor, hate your enemy. This is how love has been extended and withheld within the first century religious environment. They extended love for the neighbors withheld it from the enemies. I asked myself why? What brought them to this particular conclusion that it was okay to love those that I considered my neighbor and to hate those I considered my enemy. What could have brought them to that conclusion and thought God was okay with that? See, we read in Leviticus 19 that it says, you should not hate your brother in your heart. You should have reasoned frankly with your neighbor, at least you're incursing because of him. You should not take vengeance or a grudge against the sons of your own people. You should love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. So this law about love, love in your brother, not hating your brother, we see that it's in the Old Testament. And I believe that these people that were listening to Jesus thought their neighbor only referred to a fellow Jew. That's what it meant to love my neighbor. Someone who was Jewish. And if he was not a Jew, then you were not my neighbor. That's what they thought the law was referring to. This love of the Jews, those are your neighbors. Now, now, what does the Old Testament say about the treatment of enemies? Do you know? It talks about, it talks a lot about enemies. What does it say? First, it says enemies are to be treated with kindness. Proverbs 25, 21 says if your enemy isn't hungry, give him bread to you. If his thirsty, give him water to drink. Exodus 23 says if you meet your enemies and the odds of it are his donkey, go and see your enemies, odds are donkey, go and stray. You should bring it back to him. Bring it back to him, your enemy. If you see the donkey or the one who hates you, lying down under his burden, you should refrain from leaving him with it. You should rescue it with him. So we see that in the Old Testament, there was a way you treated those that you didn't get along with. You treated them with kindness. But there are other passages in the Old Testament as well. That seem to approve of us hating our enemy. Seems to approve that. Now, seem to approve it. Psalm 5.5 says, the boastful should not stand before your eyes. You Lord hate all evil dooms. Psalm 11.5, the Lord says to righteous, but his soul hates the wicked. The one who loves violence. Psalm 26. I do not sit with the men of falsehood, nor do I consult with hypocrites. I hate the assembly of evil doers. I will not sit with the wicked. Psalm 139, 1.39 says, do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord. So which is it? Do I treat my enemy with kindness? Or do I hate them? Am I to love my neighbor or hate my enemy? Which does the Old Testament promote? You see, even though these verses and these passages talk about judgment upon enemies, the Old Testament never commands us to hate our enemies. You can search the Old Testament verse by verse and you were not fine when it tells you hate your enemy. Now, we can see how these people could have arrived at this view of loving your neighbor and hate your enemy. I'm sure they knew these verses that I read, 'cause the Old Testament was completed by the end. They knew these verses. They read the Psalms that talk about cursing and judgment upon that your enemies. I'm sure they read about Israel's conquest of the land and all the enemies, they defeated. To them, loving the Jewish brother and hating the enemies seemed to be the right approach, but it was not. There's a disconnect somewhere because they seem to have overlooked those passages that talked about showing kindness to your one's neighbor. A friend of mine posted a funny cartoon drawing on his Facebook page this weekend. And in this cartoon drawing, you have three churchgoers holding up hateful, hateful protesting signs. And on these signs, you'll read, "You're going to hell." One person in the cartoon had another sign that says, "Thank God for dead soldiers." And another person had a sign that said, "God hates homosexuals." These three churchgoers were holding up these signs while standing in hell, according to the cartoon. We confused looks on that faces. It was that what had happened, look, why am I here? And seeing these confused looks, the devil approached these three churchgoers and says, "As it turns out, God actually hates small-minded fanatics." (audience laughs) See, this cartoon illustrates for me on modern practice that even in our time, the church still loves their neighbor and hates their enemy. Some Christians today still live by this. Watch how some believers act when it gets closer to November. Watch. Watch how they act toward one another. You know what happens in November. Watch what happens. Love for those who have the same politics as me, but hate, demyify those that do not. Watch. How are you going to act? How are you going to, how am I going to act? I'm going to tell you, the gospel gets put on the shelf in November, and it's all about winning. Watch, and I'm talking to both sides here. I don't have a dog in that fight. The Lord has commissioned his church to do many things, but to be instruments of his judgment is not one of them. The Lord has commissioned the church for many things, but to be instruments of his judgment is not one of them. The parts of the Bible that talks about judgment upon enemies is directed to the Lord for he is the judge, not the church. We don't sit on the judgment seat. We don't. And if you have a hole in the signs that communicate hate, that's you being judged. That belongs to the Lord. He is the one who judges, not us. One pastor says, "Believers hate violence and wickedness, and some people give themselves over to such sin, and they are partly called as violent or wicked. The Bible never commands us to hate individual enemies. Now, there is a place for righteous wrath toward God's settled enemies, and on judgment day, his patients were in with them. However, in daily life, we have no right to adopt the eternal perspective. Why? We cannot classify people. A man standing before you may be wicked, but we do not know whether he will repent or not. Think about Paul. Was he in the middle of the church? Yes. He was, he was, he was, George, when Stephen was stoned to death. He found pleasure in that. He was an enemy who became an apostle, so you don't know. I don't know. So this phrase of love in your neighbor and hating your enemy is really a distortion of what it truly means to love other people. And Jesus corrects it in verse 44, but I say to you, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. With these strong words and commanding words, Jesus, he's brain to the surface, they're misunderstanding, and even ours. He turns their view upside down. Is he crunchy-driting the Old Testament? No. He's simply correcting the people's view of what it means to love another person. He's correcting the misunderstanding of who is truly your neighbor. He is correcting the misunderstanding of how you to treat one's enemy. Of all the things Jesus has said so far, this right here is the hardest to hear, to me. It's the most challenging and the most convicting. Because with these words, he's letting us know the person who is actually your enemy is actually your neighbor as well. That's your neighbor as well. And your two are still in love to that person. The neighbor who lets his dog poops in your yard and they don't clean up is your neighbor. And you are to love that person. Love him. Is it easy? No, 'cause you want to kick the dog. (audience laughs) I have a neighbor like that, so. (audience laughs) Love them to the point that you will pray for them if they persecute you and hate on you. I know what you're thinking. You say, "Alex, that sounds good in theory." Sounds good. But the thought of applying this in real life situations manages daunting. And many times we don't. Because our enemy, someone who truly doesn't like you, they don't accidentally cause you harm. They're intended to. Intended to hurt you. Intended to see ill upon you. Wish ill upon you. And maybe even rejoice is when it happens. And Jesus is commanding us to love that person and not in a superficial way either. When the Bible talks about love, it doesn't talk about it in a way that gives a lip service to it. Yeah, I love you, man. Yeah. It never talks about love superficially. It's loving someone from the heart and as well with your actions. It's extending a selfless love even toward your enemies who are also your neighbors. Remember what I said. Jesus wants us to extend love to our neighbors that is kind and patient. A love that is not envious or boastful. A love that is not arrogant or rude. A love that is not exist on its own. A love that is not iterable or resentful. A love that is not rejoices that wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. A love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. A love that never ends. Even when it's been applied to a person that is hurting you. On the commandments to love God and to love your neighbor depends all the law and purpose with that one command. Love God and love people which also includes your enemies. Hard to do. Think about Jesus's parable to get Samaritan. It's a picture of what it looks like to extend love to your enemy. The Samaritan and Jews didn't like each other. They didn't. And I'm putting it mildly that way. They didn't like each other. And in this parable you see a Samaritan coming to the aid of a Jewish man who was beat up and left for dead. He did he walk by? No, he didn't walk by. He aided him, he nursed him and made sure he was taken care of. That's what it means to love someone who you consider an enemy. If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat. If his thirsty, give him food to drink and water to drink. I know there's a challenging words, man, convicting words. And in those moments, a big thought, I know we said, "Why should we love this way?" Why? Why should we extend love to our enemies? To the person who just betrayed me, to the person who just stabbed me in the back? Why should I go back and love that person? Should I just write him off? He tells us in verses 45 to 47, why we should love this way? So that you made me sons of your father who is in heaven. For he makes his son rise from the evil and on the good. He sends his reign on the just and on the unjust. For if he loved those who love you, what with what 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. You therefore be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. The reason we love our enemies is because there will be a reflection of your father who is in heaven. That's why. He perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. What does that mean? Is Jesus now saying we got a labor hard to be perfect in his life? No. You have to see these words here as both a command and a promise. He's saying you shall be perfect, which forces us to also see that this is also talking about something that's in the future as well. As a command, we strive and should desire to be like our father, to love like our father, like father, like son, a daughter, right? But as a promise, we take these words to mean that we shall be and are being transformed more and more into the image of our father by the power of the Spirit, who in return empowers us to love our enemies. There's things going on here. The Spirit is always behind the scenes. You gotta know that. There's something empowering you to do what you can't do in your own strength. And that's the Holy Spirit, people. That's the Holy Spirit. So you can, you don't need to leave it here today, Sam. Well, I'm gonna love my coworker tomorrow. Yes, I'm a lover. I know your prayers, Lord, are a pant for not loving her. Give me the power to instan love. Give me the power to instan love. And you know what that means? When you don't love the person, if the Spirit isn't working your life, you should be willing to go and ask forgiveness to that person whenever you sin against Him. That's showing love as well. That's the standing love as well. You see, for God Himself demonstrates love to His enemies. His son rises on the, even and on the good. His reign, He sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Think about this. There's a common grace that God extends to every person. Every person. Why do you think non-Christians gonna have good marriages? Why? Because they still create an image of God, they are. Even though they don't know Him, they still will benefit in the over there. They benefit of His goodness. And so, those individuals, the people that we think are enemies, those who are non-Christians, the people that we hate on, are still creating God's image. It's broken, yes, but it's still His creation. And Jesus is calling us to extend love to those folks, because of that. Don't love like the world loves. Attached, collected, a lot like Gentiles. See the image of God in your enemy. He or she is still God's creation. We are not to love like the world. We are to love like our father loves. We are not to treat our enemies with contempt, but we treat them with sincere love and both word and deed. And this is not love without discipline. This is not love without justice. This is not love without holding people accountable. See love includes all those things. But at the same time, it includes you seeing your enemy through the lenses of the gospel, not through lenses of the world. And if you see your enemy through the lenses of the gospel, you see them as redeemable enemies, because that's what you were before you became a believer. A redeemable enemy. That's who all of us were before we became a believer. Romans 5, 8, God demonstrated His own love for us. And while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. You were who you hate in the other person, before Jesus redeemed you. The problem is we forget that. While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Think about that. Let those words grab hold of your heart, because as you embrace that love He has for you, then you will extend it to other people, including your enemies. As Warren Christian said, God knew how to hate what we had done, our sin, and to love what He had done in creating us. God knew how to hate what we had done, that's our sin, and to love what He had done in creating us. Therefore, to love our enemies is to live like a child of God. That's a fruit of grace in your life. You will love like your father loves, let us pray. Father God, we can't leave here with a to-do list of how we're going to do these things. We simply Lord, if we're convicted, repent, and ask your spirit to help us to love those individuals in our life that are hard to love, not because we're trying to earn righteens, but because of who we already are in Christ, that we are different. We don't love superficially. The Lord, your spirit, and empower us with a biblical view of love. To extend that love to the neighbor that is hard to love, the co-worker that is hard to love, the church member that is hard to love, or whoever in our lives that we consider to be our enemy, help us to see that person through the lens of the gospel, that that person is still redeemable, and that person is what we used to be. And so Lord, because of who we already are and you empower us to live for you as well, I pray for this in Christ's name, amen. We please stand as we close our service.