Why Do They Hate America?
Uncommon Love for Enemies (Matthew 5.38-48)
Edited from a sermon by Tim Sean Youmans, Associate Minister at First Baptist Church, Shawnee, OK. (www.TimSean.com)
Summary
Scrolling through your own list of enemies may be difficult. We can name people we do not care for (and in turn those for whom we are the object of scorn), personalities at work and extended family we may need to maneuver around. But enemies? Enemies are people I want to see dead, right? And the thought of that seems extreme.
We may have failed to recognize who are enemies are, and that showing them kindness places us on the fast track of spiritual growth.
Your enemies are those who unfairly hurt you.
- Roman soldiers often commandeered (v41) labor, equipment, supplies, transportation and shelter. Who has unfair expectations of you? Who do you feel “owes you.”
- Stealing money, property, dignity and invading personal space are all carriages of injustice. Justice seems like a reasonable response.
Jesus completes the ancient laws of justice by turning them upside down.
- The law of reciprocity in Exodus 21. 24 (eye for eye, tooth for tooth, etc) makes sense to our instinctual sense of fairness.
- One way of getting in touch with your individual sense of justice is to name those things (or people) that make you angry. Jesus tells us to flip these around. Why? It must be for good reason.
When you love your enemies you are imitating God.
- God shows care to both good and evil people. In doing so, it demonstrates God's depth of character. God is not like us in this way. It places him above the evil and brings about, in some instances, the redemption of evil.
- When you love your enemies you work toward developing this same depth of character. You are imitating God. As Jesus puts it in v.47, you are growing toward perfection.
- Such imitation should not build up pride, but be motivated by the notion that we are among those that God loves in spite of our weakness.
Personal Application
Name those whom you count as enemies, those who have done an injustice to you or ones you love. Then love them: pray for their well-being, for God’s blessing on them. It will begin an internal process in you that is uncommon to human beings.
