Love Your Enemies

On the Lord's prohibition of Renewing Your Mind how difficult it is to love your enemies, but Jesus spells out what that means it has to do with how we behave towards those who are our enemies unless understand something we all have enemies says, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all but that doesn't mean we will face opposition because Paul also said indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

So today I'm Renewing Your Mind, Dr. RC Sproul is going to help us understand how to respond. Continuing with our study of the gospel below. Saint Luke and we are still in chapter 6 and one the most difficult passages in the entire gospel that we will see on the reading from verse 27 through verse 36 but I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, blush, those who curse you and pray for those who spitefully use you and to him who strikes you on the one cheek offer the other also and from him who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic. Either give to everyone who asks of you have from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back and just as you want men to do to you. You also do to them. Likewise, but if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you for even sinners love those who love them that if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you for even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you for even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much back, but love your enemies, do good and land hoping for nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the most I for he is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore, be merciful, just as your father also is merciful. Here we have the heart and soul of the New Testament ethic taught to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. He speaks these commands by divine authority and I hope that you will receive them as such. Let us pray for God. If ever we needed your help to understand the difficult tax them to apply it to our lives. It is this morning and so we's for the gentle conviction of the spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, to accompany the hearing of these were that he will take these words and cut between send you and muscle for we ask it in Jesus name, amen. If we look at this text that you have just heard from one perspective, it stands that I believe is one of the most radical teachings that ever came to us from the lips of Jesus, certainly to those who heard this mandate that he gave on that occasion were shocked by it, and certainly the scribes and the pharaohs sleeves were utterly hostile goal to it. But if we look at it from a different perspective. Another perspective we will see that even in this changing of our Lord Jesus Christ. There was nothing new at all about it when he gave his explanation. For example, of the 10 Commandments.

His ideas seem then to be shocking, but one he told the people that the law that says you shall not kill carries with it the implication that you should not even be angry at a person without just cause, and that you should not only not commit the actual act of adultery, but that law against such things as violated when we even have lustful thoughts in our minds that Jesus didn't add new content to the 10 Commandments. Rather, he explained the full intent of the law of God as it was originally given that he's doing the same thing here for the great commandment given by God to his people in the Old Testament was this you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and all of your mind and all of your strength and your neighbor as yourself in a course.

The Pharisees gave a most narrow interpretation to what was included in the great commandment.

And the neighbor was defined as a fellow Jew and that that mandate to love your neighbor as much as you love yourself did not apply to Gentiles or foreigners who were outside the camp but they twisted and distorted. The originals significance of the great commandment in what Jesus is doing here is simply say wait a minute. This is what the great commandment entails. This is the full import of that great commandment. And I'll go even a step further, that Jesus exposition of the great commandment indicates that the great commandment was only an exposition of the original commandment that God gave to every creature in creation when he's damp his image on every human day that ME carried with it the mandate to live in such a way as to mere at the roof the character of God. And so, in the brief time that we have this morning before we come. The Lord's table.

I want us to look at these strange sounding mandates given by Jesus and think of them in these terms, how God relates to us. We who are by nature, the enemies of God constantly received from him.

His beneficence and his benevolent love.

Even though we are his enemies. He has loved us and he has loved us when we were all together unlovely and when we were not thankful to him. He was merciful to us and when we send against him.

He never returned evil for evil, but God's pattern of relating to his people is the same pattern that Jesus is teaching us to display as imitators of Christ, who is God incarnate. So let's look briefly at these things but I say to you, love your enemies, what does it mean it doesn't mean that you have to have feelings of warm fuzzies and affection towards those who are your enemy here as almost everywhere in the Scriptures, love is defined more by a verb then and now we could translate it this way. Be all loving toward your enemies. I know a Christian counselor wants a man come to see him and he wanted to divorce his wife and the reason he gave. He says now my wife was not unfaithful and she hasn't left me or anything like that but I just don't love her anymore and the counselor said to Lily.

Manny said while the Bible says husbands love your wives so you don't have an option here. This is the command of Almighty God, you have to start loving your wife faces you don't get to decide.

You only want to be around her.

I want to live in the same house with her and he said he wanted to do this want to have a trial separation and wanted to move next door for a few. What good will that do. He said well the Bible says love your neighbor and now shall be your next door neighbor and the followers really getting more more exacerbated with this counselor and then she said you don't get it.

He says it's not that I don't want to be near.

He says I can't stand the thought have nothing but enmity in my heart towards her. Most of the counselor she's your enemy yes and he says well, the Bible says love your enemies, I think that fellow the next week. Went to a different counselor, but how striking this is how difficult it is to love your enemies, but Jesus spells out what that means it has to do with how we behave towards those who are our enemies unless understand something we all have enemies.

Not everybody out there is our friend and so, as Christian people we need to learn how to deal with those who we can identify as our enemies. He said do good to those who hate you. That's what it means to love your enemy. You do good to those who hate you. You bless those who curse you know what's our flesh going to do if somebody curses us. We want to curse them right back.

Somebody wants to harm us would want to do good to them because we saved them.

There were up to no good. Why should I do want a good for them. Next, he says, pray for those who spitefully use you and I look back I think to this day.

One of the most moving funeral services I ever experienced was back in Pittsburgh when a good friend of mine who was an Episcopalian priest died suddenly in his 40s from a fatal heart attack and we went to the huge Episcopalian Cathedral for the funeral.

And every priest in the diocese made up the choir and the opening hymn the processional hymn was for all the same, who from their labors rest. Never forget I was transported into heaven. On that occasion, tears just running down my cheeks. What a glorious celebration of a life. This was while if there was ever a man who no one expected would be an Episcopalian priest that was that young man who died that day, he didn't have a parish. Instead, he was the direct or the executive director of an organization in Pittsburgh called the Pittsburgh experiment's an organization founded by the late Samuel Shoemaker, Sam Shoemaker started this group by meeting with downtown businessmen every week at lunchtime and he would give a message and he would give the Pittsburgh experiment challenge and the date of this challenge. If you don't like somebody. If you're having trouble getting along with somebody being a coworker be your boss. Whoever it is that you are against picked your strongest enemy, and a satellite challenge you to pray for that person every single day for 30 day this one businessman who was a tough ex-Marine drill instructor came to one of these meetings, kicking and screaming against as well and when he heard that he says I like that made the blankety-blank manner get me to pray for somebody that I hate, and in fact, he stood up and said that to Sam Shoemaker and Sam said term Sir, you may be right, but don't tell me that until you've been on your knees for 30 days praying for your enemy.

I want you to take this challenge. I want you to come back here next month.

I want you to tell me what happened, but I did come back the next month and the month after that became converted to Christ. He entered into the ministry and became the director of the Pittsburgh experiment. It was Don James, whose funeral service. I'm talking about who learn what it meant to pray for those who spitefully use Jesus goes on with other examples here on a says to mood strikes you on the one cheek offer the other also from him who takes away your clogged down with Holger Tony give it to everyone who asks of you, and so on. Once gave a lesson to the Pittsburgh Steelers in behalf of the fellow who was the chaplain of the Steelers and I was Terry Bradshaw's house and I was thinking on this text. If somebody strikes you on the right cheek, turn the left one to them as well and I wanted to use as an example, LC Greenwood, who was about 6 foot seven and I had that stand on a chair and I said now I'll say plate I'm going to show you what Jesus meant here in this text. I'm not going to hurt you is if your worry but please just break all I didn't want him to take off on me and so I went to try to hit you on the right cheek, so I tried to reach around them with my arm and get them on the right cheek so that won't work. Well it is the only way I can strike you on the right cheek is if I'm right-handed pitcher of my right hand on your right cheek.

I have to do what to give you the back of my hand which was the classical way the Jewish people would insult somebody so Jesus is saying here is the somebody insult you by giving you the back of the hand give him turn the other cheek M insult you and install to add insult to, but do not return insult for insult. They want your coat given your short somebody comes and asked you for help help them know the Bible does not deny the legitimacy of loaning money for interest, what the Bible deny its is Usery the kind of interest that is so heavy and burdensome that it exploits the person in the if you want to see what Usery is cellular credit rates are the interest rates on your credit cards. They are so ungodly. These rates of interest that they are usurious and in direct violation to the law of God, but Jesus is going beyond that he's giving the golden rule. Somebody needs something, give it to them, even if it means you're not getting anything back. Don't use the help of your brother simply for your own profits but Jesus is asking us to do here is to be like God.

He goes on to say what good is it if you love those who love you even sinners do that. What good is that if you only do good to those who do good to you but he says you will be if you follow this advice, the sons of the most high. Because God is kind to the unthankful and to the evil. Therefore, the merciful, even as your heavenly father is merciful. If there is a core meaning to these expectations. It's this mercy, not vengeance.

God isn't avenging God. God promises to make unjust things just God says vengeance is mine, I will repay, but it's not yours. Again, when it comes to public matters. There still a legitimate place for the role of the state and for the role of church courts, and so all the rest of the New Testament teaches, but he's talking here about Christian personal ethics and what should be the mark of your behavior is that you might be known as a person of mercy because you been a recipient of mercy, and as God has been trying to you.

So be kind to your neighbor and there's no greater kindness than this, that he has into his family Christian should be marked by the character traits of kindness and gentleness and mercy. Dr. RC Sproul is better teacher today here on Renewing Your Mind.

As we have thought through some challenging commands of Jesus treating those who despises with kindness requires a supernatural love but you knows I was hearing Dr. Strohl concluded his sermon today. I'm reminded of what's etched on his tombstone just outside of St. Andrews Chapel where he copastor for so many years. It said he was a kind man redeemed by a kinder Savior.

I hope you been a regular listener to the Lord's day edition of our program as we walked verse by verse through the gospel of Luke.

We just reached the middle of chapter 6 so we have a lot of ground. Still, the cover in the coming weeks may recommend that you contact us today and request a resource offer. It's a helpful study companion to you is that we continue our series and Luke request a digital download of Dr. scrolls commentary on Luke when you give a donation of any amount today to leader ministries and nearly 600 pages you will find helpful insight into every verse you can make a request when you go online to Renewing Your Mind.org. Our goal with leader ministries is to faithfully proclaim the holiness of God to as many people as possible in your financial gifts help us do just that.

The thank you next week in preparation for holy week and were going to stay in the loop but were going to jump ahead toward the end of that gospel Dr. Spruill preaches on the resurrection. I hope you make plans to be with us next Sunday here for Renewing Your Mind