[THE FOLLOWING IS A SERMON NIKO PREPARED AND DELIVERED FOR OUR HOME CHURCH]

“Love Your Enemies”

This week I will be teaching on “Love Your Enemies”. Last week, we did something different where we all studied “Keep Your Word”. Today, I will be teaching from Matthew 5:44. Matthew 5:44 says “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”

I would like to please have some volunteers today. The first reference is from Luke 6: 27 and I would like a volunteer, please. “Thank you!” Luke 6:27 is focused on the same thing as Matthew 5:44.

I have another reference in Romans 12:14. I would like another volunteer, please. “Thank you!” Romans 12:14 says, not to curse and that when people persecute you that you are to bless them.

Persecute means to harass not with just punishment and bless means to “make happy”, which means to actually go out of your way to make them happy, not to just say, “May you be blessed”. Bless also means to wish for them to be happy, not just to say, “May you be blessed” or “May you be happy”, but to actually wish for them to be happy. So when it says to “Bless them that curse you” it does not mean to just say, “May you be happy and blessed”. It does not mean to just unhappily do nice things to them. It means to actually wish for them to be happy and to make them be happy.

And then in Luke 6:35, I would like another volunteer, please. “Thank you!” In Luke 6:35 it says, “To lend hoping for nothing again,” which means that we should lend not even hoping for the thing we lent to ever be ours again. I think that is hard. And what does it say that will happen when you love your enemies, do good, and lend not hoping for the thing you lent to ever be yours again? It says that “Your reward shall be great, and that ye shall be the children of the Highest,” which is God. And next it says, “For he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.” I hope I’m not one of them, well I probably am, on the sad side, but it says that he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil.

I would like another volunteer for Romans 12: 20, please. “Thank you!” In Romans12: 20 does it say, “If thine enemy hunger starve him?” No, of course, it does not say to starve him! It actually says to feed your enemy. Now is it easier to feed him or to starve him? It is easier to starve him, because to starve him requires less work. To starve someone you don’t feed him. To feed someone you actually have to work.

Romans 12: 20 also says that if your enemy is hungry that you are to give him drink. It also says that if you do that you will be heaping coals of fire on his head. Now does that mean to go over and heap coals of fire on his head? No, of course not, it means that in so doing it will feel to him like you are heaping coals of fire on his head. It is not saying that you really are.

I read a story once where some boys were mean to some other boy. One of the boys who had been mean got hurt. Later on his friends all ended up leaving him there. The boy who had been treated unkindly helped the boy who had been hurt. Later on as the boy who had been hurt was all bandaged up he told his mom how he felt so embarrassed. He said he would have rather had the boy whom he had treated unkindly to have hurt him, rather than to have helped him. The boy’s mom had said that “Billy” which was the name of the boy who had been treated unkindly had followed what the Bible said. So the boy “Neil” which was the name of the boy, who got hurt, felt what it was like to have coals of fire heaped on his head. Not that Billy had actually heaped coals of fire on Neil’s head, but that was what Billy’s kindness had made Neil feel like.

In Luke 23:34 I would like yet another volunteer, please. “Thank you!” Jesus prayed for God the Father to forgive the men who were killing him. That is a lot of forgiveness. I definitely do not have that much forgiveness.

Forgive means to pardon, to remit, and to overlook. The last one “To overlook” means to look right over it. So if someone did something unkind to me I should not think, Oh, if only I could do something back to him or her. They deserve something mean to be done to them. No instead I should think, Oh, good here is a chance to do something good. Now, I can make them feel bad. No, not that either. I should think, Now, I can do what the Bible teaches I can be kind to them. Even if they do not respond that is fine for I am doing this for God, not for the empty praise of man. That is what I should think. Not #1, Not #2, and Yes #3.

When Jesus prayed for God the Father to forgive the soldiers who were killing him, He said, “For they know not what they do.” So the soldiers who were crucifying Jesus did not know what they were doing. If you were one of the soldiers there and you knew that your fellow soldiers were crucifying the Son of God, would you consciously go ahead and be like one of them? I hope not. Yet when we sin it is like we are. Sin hurts God so much. If sin hurts God so much, then why do we do it? We do it because we are serving it, though it is dead. That is wrong, very, very wrong. It is like one of our teachers said, “That our dead flesh is like a dead dog, it keeps coming back up,” and then worse than it coming back up, we serve it. But as he said, “We should push it back down.”

I would like a volunteer for Acts 7:60, please. “Thank you!” In acts 7:60 Stephen cries out saying, “Lord lay not this sin to their charge.” After he said this, he died. Now that is very forgiving. That is especially very forgiving because Stephen was human, not God. Stephen was like any of us who has the Holy Spirit in us. Now Stephen said this with meaning. Stephen did not say this to make his attackers notice what they were doing was wrong.

Now this next reference is found in 1 Peter 3:9. I would like another volunteer for 1 Peter 3:9, please. “Thank you!” It says, “Not rendering evil for evil.” If we render evil for evil we are not obeying Matthew 5:44. Matthew 5:44 says to [Love our enemies]. Would it be loving to your enemy if you rendered evil to him, if he did it to you? Oh, of course it would! Right? That’s what he gets for being so mean! No! We are not to render evil to him no matter what he does to us.

I remember one time my dad showed us something he had done for Family Worship or devotions. My dad showed a sheet of paper he had done about what is really good, normal, and really bad.

This is something like what my dad put together. This is an illustration that shows how people react when they are treated kindly or unkindly. “Can everyone see it?” The sad faces stand for unkindness the smiling faces stand for kindness. Blue shows when someone is unkind to you and you are kind to him (or her). Green shows when someone is kind to you and you are kind to him (or her) and also when someone is unkind to you and you are unkind to him (or her). Red shows when someone is kind to you and you are unkind to him (or her).

Now which one do you think most people do? Who thinks that blue is the most common one that people do? It would be great if blue was the most common one that people usually do! How about who thinks red? Thank God that red is not the most common one. How about green? I think that green is. Now here is a hard one. Which do you think that you do? I probably do the green. But still I should try to go up to the blue. Which is loving their enemies red, green, or blue? Blue is loving your enemies. Red is definitely not. Green is like Matthew 5:46-47. I would like another volunteer, please. “Thank you!” Matthew 5:46-47 is saying that if you are only kind to those who are kind to you that you don’t deserve any reward, for the publicans do the same thing. The Jews did not like the publicans. The Jews considered the publicans sinners. So to close, please remember this illustration.