REVIEW
FLIP CHART: SOM’S KEY VERSE, GOAL, MOTTO
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” (Mt. 6:33a).
The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification.
FLIP CHART: Show new “Perfect Righteousness” chart explaining steps to coming to Christ (As a worm, mourning, meek, spiritual hunger/thirst with the result of legal righteousness). Explain moral righteousness, immediate moral change at conversion, gradual change through life’s challenges and speeding up moral change via CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection and Confession/Thanksgiving). Repeat the verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Heb. 10:14)
FLIP CHART: John Stott’s outline of SOM.
TABLE ACTIVITY: In caring for myself what should be my three greatest concerns in order of priority?
List the concerns on the Flip Chart. Then have the table discuss them again. Give each table three votes as to the three most important, the most important being given a 3, the second most important a 2 and the least important a 1. Record the scores and choose what should be the most important concerns of an individual.
INTRODUCTION
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons 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 brothers, 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).
OUTLINE FOR THIS SECTION:
1. Cleaning up the Second Commandment
2. Loving Our Enemies
a. Loving Our Enemies is a Command
b. Praying for Our Enemies
c. Greeting Our Enemies
d. Doing good to our Enemies
3. Moving Towards Perfection in Relationships
CLEANING UP THE SECOND COMMANDMENT
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
The command is to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The teachers of the law added “hate your enemy” which is not in the OT and failed to add “as yourself” which is in the OT.
Jesus’ goal in these final verses of chapter 5 is to purge the Second Commandment from all corrupt interpretations and restore it to its proper meaning.
The Pharisees taught that hating one’s enemies was a religious duty of a devout Jew. The Jews became the true “hatriots” of the ancient world.
TABLE ACTIVITY / FLIP CHART: Excluding spiritual well-being which is #1, determine the next three most important concerns a person must focus on if they are to take care of themselves.
LOVING YOUR ENEMIES
“To return evil for good is devilish; to return good for good is human; to return good for evil is divine.” (Alfred Plummer in Stott, 122)
I. LOVING ENEMIES IS A COMMAND
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
Note that “love your enemies” is not an option but a command.
In 5:38-42 we are told how to treat an evil person. In 5:43-48 we are taught how to treat an enemy.
“The word ‘enemy’ means an unfriendly opponent. An enemy can be somebody who hates us and seeks to harm us or cause us trouble. An enemy can be someone who has wronged us. Or an enemy can just be somebody on the opposing side, an “unfriendly” in the sense that they are hostile to the values or beliefs that are important to us.” (Web, Mt. 5:43-48, Pg. 63).
In a wider sense the principles in these verses apply to anyone who doesn’t like us or whom we do not like, i.e. individuals we avoid or who avoid us.
ACTIVITY: Each person make a stick drawing of a man or woman who either doesn’t like you or who you don’t like. They could be an out-and-out enemy or just an “unfriendly.” You can put the name under the drawing in your mind.
Nietzsche (German Philosopher, 1844-1900) who writings were the underpinning for Nazism) rejected the command to love your enemy. He argued that love of one’s enemies is weakness and dishonesty.
The Law taught the need to love the alien, those whom the Pharisees treated as enemies: The alien living with you must be treated as your native-born. Love him as yourself …” (Lev. 19:34).
If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it” (Ex. 23:4-5).
The idea of loving enemies is also found in Stoicism, Buddhism and Taoism.
“In this section we see that righteousness, God’s righteousness, involves a freedom to love and serve others, that is in no way bound by the other’s character, motives or relations with the one who is loving. It is a righteousness rooted in overflowing grace and love.” (WNotes, 5:38-42, 17).
Jesus is not asking us to do something He did not do. He suffered for sinners and loved the unlikable, the unfriendly, the enemy, people naturally repugnant to him.
When we talk about “loving” our enemies, it is not like “falling in love.” “In the case of loving our enemies love is not only something of the heart; it is also something of the will. It is not something which we cannot help; it is something which we have to will ourselves into doing.” (Barclay, 174).
God’s standard s are different from human standards. Instead of asking, “Who is not worthy of your love?” God asks, “Who do you love who’s not worthy?” An enemy does not deserve your love, but God says to love him anyway. It’s a love FOR hate relationship. (WNotes, Mt. 5:43-48, 65).
“But all human love, even the highest, the noblest and the best, is contaminated to some degree by the impurities of self-interest. We Christians are specifically called to love our enemies (in which love there is no self-interest), and this is impossible without the supernatural grace of God” (Stott, 120).
We claim that we love the sinner but hate the sin … but there is a thin line that is so easy to step over. Would the sinner perceive us as loving him? The theory is easy, the practice is hard.
ILL: Just after completing the series on “Turn the other cheek, give away your cloak, go the second mile, give to the one who asks,” I went with the team to Indonesia. We couldn’t get a hotel at the airport so I found a taxi and all of us got in. The guy who arranged things doubled the price once we were on our way. I became furious with him and only after I told him to let us out did he change his tune. Why was I so angry? Why couldn’t I have dealt with this in an easy, peaceful way? And why was I so upset that someone would take advantage of me?
II. PRAYING FOR OUR ENEMIES
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
Praying for enemies did not characterize the most pious of the OT.
Prayer is the opposite of confrontation – Instead of holding our head up and letting our chin jut out, we are to bow our head. Instead of doubling up our fist towards our enemy we are to fold them in prayer. Instead of standing up straight for our rights we are to get down on our knees. Instead of thinking of our self-interest we are to put forth our enemies’ self-interest.
Chrysostom (John Chrysostom ( 349 – 407,was the archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for eloquence in preaching and public speaking and also for his denunciation of the abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and political leaders. After his death he was given the Greek surname chrysostomos, “golden mouthed”, rendered in English as Chrysostom.) He said that prayer is the very highest summit of self-control and that we have most brought our lives into conformity to God’s standards when we can pray for our persecutors” (MacArthur, 347)
ILL: Jesus seems to have prayed for his tormentors actually while the iron spikes were being driven through his hands and feet; indeed the imperfect tense suggest that he kept praying; kept repeating his entreaty ‘Father, forgive them; for the know not what they do’.” (Stott, 119)
QUESTION: Why is praying for our enemy so important? What happens in our heart when we pray for our enemy?
Prayer for our enemies or “unfriendlies” causes our heart to change towards them and helps us to reach out in compassion towards them. If you desire an attitude change, start praying sincerely for your enemy or the “unfriendly” that you are having a heart/mind problem with.
READING: Tuck is one of my best friends, but for a while I wanted to kill him. He did not understand that life was a movie about me. Nobody ever told him. He would knock on my door while I was reading, come in and sit down in a chair opposite me, and then he would want to talk. He would want to hear about my day. I couldn’t the audacity of him to come into my room, my soundstage, and interrupt the obvious flow of the story with questions about how I am….Living in community made me realize one of my faults: I was addicted to myself. All I thought about was myself. I had very little concept of love, altruism, or sacrifice. I discovered that my mind is like a radio that picks up only one station, the one that plays me: K-DON, all Don, all the time. (K-JEFF, all Jeff, all the time.). (Blue Like Jazz, 180-181)
ACTIVITY: Think of the stick figure you drew a few minutes ago. You have name attached to that person. Let’s each of us close our eyes and pray God’s blessing and wisdom on that person today.
III. GREETING YOUR ENEMY
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 brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?
These two verses are used as an illustration by Jesus but they also include a principle, and that is that we need to be cordial too, to greet our enemies, the “unfriendly.”
The Pharisees must have been enraged to be compared with the tax-collectors and the pagans.
“Tax-gatherers (Publicans) were traitorous extortioners, and almost by definition were dishonest, heartless and irreligious. In the eyes of most Jews, Gentiles (pagans) they were outside the pale of God’s concern and mercy, fit only for destruction as his enemies and the enemies of those who thought they were His people” (MacArthur, 349)
Tax gatherers were Jews hired by the Romans to collect taxes. They could gather what they liked as long as they gave the Romans the taxes requested. They were somewhat like unscrupulous bill collectors.
Since the tax-collectors spent time with the Romans, this made them unclean to fellow Jews.
Tax collectors were rich crooks and loathed by everyone; but most of all by the religious Jews.
To be compared with tax-collectors and pagans, to be told that they were not any more loving and kind than this despised group was about the worst thing that could said to you.
Jesus is using them for an illustration and saying that if we greet only those like us, we are just doing the natural, easy thing. We are to greet our enemies, love our enemies.
IV. DOING GOOD TO YOUR ENEMY
. . . 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.
This idea mirrors Matthew 7:12, “The Golden Rule” that reads, So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
God is no blind deity, yet he lets the rain fall on the righteous and the unrighteous, the good and bad, the vile and the godly. God lets His sun shine on the stingy, the robber of the poor, the child-molester and the godly family. Those who would rob a widow get rain just like those who would support a widow.
“The rain comes to those who do not even acknowledge the existence of God. It waters the atheist’s fields, and refreshed the pastures of the fool who saith in his heart, “There is no God.” (Spurgeon, WNotes, Common Grace, 57)
God does not tell us to do what he would not do. He loves his enemies and does good to them and he commands us to do the same.
“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. …. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. …. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:14, 17, 21).
Instead of hating those that hate Him, He pours benefits on them and asks us to do the same.
“If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink” (Proverbs 25:21).
“Our enemy is seeking our harm; we must seek his good. For this is how God has treated us. It is ‘while we were enemies’ that Christ died for us to reconcile us to God. If he gave himself for his enemies, we must give ourselves for ours” (Stott, 118).
ILL: Peter Miller, a Baptist pastor, lived in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, and enjoyed the friendship of George Washington. In Ephrata also lived Michael Wittman, an evil-minded sort who did all he could to oppose and humiliate the pastor. One day Michael Wittman was arrested for treason and sentenced to die. Peter Miller traveled the seventy miles to Philadelphia on foot and pleaded for the life of the traitor. “No, Peter,” George Washington said. “I cannot grant you the life of your friend.” “My friend!” exclaimed the old preacher. “He’s the bitterest enemy I have.” “What!” cried Washington. “You’ve walked seventy miles to save the life of an enemy? That puts the matter in a different light. I’ll grant your pardon.” And he did. (WNotes, Mt. 5:43-48, pg 34)
ILL: Eight times the Ministry of Education said no to each of Uwe Holmer’s eight children when they tried to enroll at the university in East Berlin. The Ministry of Education wasn’t in the habit of giving reasons for why an applicant was rejected. But in this case the reason was not hard to guess. Uwe Holmer was a Lutheran pastor. For 26 years the Ministry of Education was headed by Margot Honecker, the wife of East Germany’s premier, Erich Honecker. When the Berlin wall fell, Honecker and his wife were dismissed from office. He was under indictment for criminal activities including the shooting of people trying to escape from East Germany. The January after the collapse of the wall the Honeckers were evicted from their luxurious palace. They suddenly found themselves friendless, without resources, and with no place to go. All of their former cronies refused to lend them a hand. No one wanted to be identified with the Honeckers. Enter Rev. Uwe Holmer. Remembering the words of Christ in our Scripture reading, Rev. Holmer invited the Honeckers to stay with his family in the parsonage. (Gordon J. Peters Leadership-Vol. 12, #1)
READING: The best illustration I know of to explain what Jesus is talking about comes from the life of one of my wife’s dearest friends. She and her family had just returned from overseas and had rented a rather nice town house – – at least it was very nice compared to what they’d had on the mission field. She is a very creative person and did a wonderful job of decorating the place, so they settled in. Only one thing was wrong – the family who moved in next door. They turned the front yard into a desert, broke the windows out of their house, were always using foul language, urinated in the front yard and generally caused havoc in the neighborhood. The final straw was when one of the boys climbed into our friend’s yard and threw a whole can of orange paint over the patio walls. My wife’s friend was really angry. She did not like her neighbors. She was not happy with the Lord for putting her where he had put her. Realizing that her heart was not right, she got down on her knees and said, “Lord, you know that I do not like these people at all. God, help me to love them.” She did not feel any different, but she resolved to exercise love. She baked her neighbors a pie and took it to them, thus beginning a caring relationship. Those neighbors did not change, but she did. She had begun to love them. When those neighbors moved away, she wept. (Hughes, 143-144)
FLIP CHART / HOW WE CARE FOR OURSELVES
We are to love and care for our enemies as we love and care for ourselves.
Do we have the same concern for our enemies / our ‘unfriendly’ that we do for ourselves? Are we primarily concerned for their spiritual well-being? What about their other needs as listed on our chart?
ACTIVITY: Let’s take another 60 seconds of prayer and pray for our “stick figure” that God will meet each of the needs listed on the flip-chart.
SO WHAT???
1. We are commanded to love our enemies. This is not an option.
2. There is little self-interest in loving our enemies so it is a higher form of love.
3. Praying for my enemy helps cure me of my addiction to myself. It helps me develop compassion for the individual.
4. Doing good to our enemy is treating an enemy exactly how God treats those who dislike Him.
5. It would be good for us to list our enemies or those who we don’t like or who don’t like us on our prayer list and pray for them consistently.