God says love your enemies1/22/2024 ![]() ![]() This teaching raises a host of difficult practical questions about the Christian life, which can’t be addressed if we don’t talk about this issue. This is what we teach that Christian faithfulness means for followers of Jesus. It is our church’s position to love all of our enemies. We will come back to these and others to look more carefully at them in another class.Ģ. There are other Scriptures that teach not returning harm for harm, but rather returning good for evil – Romans 12:17:21 I Thessalonians 5:15 I Corinthians 4:12-13 I Peter 3:19.This is the climax of the storyline and focus in all four Gospels. The example of Jesus dying on the cross for us, his enemies.Loving and caring for a national enemy in need. It is the point of the parable of the good Samaritan in Luke 10.Here the topic takes up over 1/4 of this sermon. It is also highlighted in the Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6.In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 (our text), this is the culminating example, out of six different topics, of the greater righteousness of the kingdom of God. ![]() Love of enemies is an important topic biblically. But, as I said, this whole class is about saying that this phrase does mean what it says.ġ. And we will look at these interpretations and objections as we go along. Now there are many who say this simple phrase – “love your enemies” – doesn’t mean what it seems to mean. Now, the implications of this teaching are enormous! For instance, how do you treat: Someone who cuts you off on the road? A neighbor who harasses you? Someone who threatens to kill you or your family? Your country’s enemies in a time of war? These are all enemies, whom we are called to love, according to Jesus. More broadly as Jesus teaches in this passage, we should not return evil for evil, harm for harm, but rather return good for evil to anyone who harms us. It covers all kinds of enemies, in any context in which we find them – from personal enemies to the enemies of your nation, which in Jesus’ case would have been the Romans, who occupied and oppressed his country.Īt a minimum this teaches us that we should not kill our enemies.
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