Our natural response is to hate our enemies… avoid our enemies… bad-mouth our

enemies

But Jesus tells us to love our enemies

Luke 6:27-31, “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies…”

Examples from early church history:

In his book, “The Rise of Christianity,” Rodney Stark: How did a tiny and obscure
messianic movement from the edge of the Roman Empire dislodge paganism and
become the dominant faith of Western Civilization?

EXAMPLE 1: 2nd & 3rd Century: plagues ripped through Roman Empire… one historian:
¼ to 1/3 of Roman population died as a result… it was the Christians who did not flee
the cities, but stayed to nurse their families back to health… AND took care of pagan
families who had been abandoned by their families…

City of Rome: 5,000 corpses/day

Rodney Stark: tilted population in direction of Christianity

Background Info: Jesus made this statement at least twice:

In Matthew—Sermon on the Mount

In Luke—Sermon on the Plain

Verse 43

The *Old Testament *Law said that people should love their neighbours (Leviticus 19:18). There was no
command to hate their enemies. But the *Jews believed that they must hate God’s enemies. That would
mean that they could hate their own personal enemies. To most *Jews, ‘neighbour’ meant another *Jew
only.

Ipanalangin
V. 44

Best example: Luke 23:34, And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do.”

And it’s what Stephen did as he was being stoned: Falling to his knees he
cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” (Acts 7:60)

But I tell you love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. (v. 44)

How can you hate someone and pray for them at the same time? You can’t. Impossible
to pray and not love. Jesus says, “Try it!”
Chrysostom said praying for our enemies is “the very highest summit of self-control”

But what should we pray for? Perhaps Jesus would suggest we pray for their success in
their career, for their family times to be filled with love and joy, for their years of life to
be long, full and healthy, and for them to find ultimate joy in an intimate relationship
with Jesus himself.

Bonhoeffer wrote – “Through the medium of prayer we go to our enemy, stand by his
side, and plead him to God.” (Cost of Discipleship, p. 149)

And that takes love, not hate.

HOW DO WE PRAY FOR THEM?

Pray for their conversion

Like Jonah in Nineveh, we want our enemies to receive their just desserts, not mercy and
forgiveness.

Pray the evil they do may be restrained

It is to their benefit as well as ours that they be prevented from committing more evil. For those who
have hardened their heart against God, it would be better that their life was shortened than for them
to continue to persecute his children.

Proverbs 24:17 (ESV) Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be
glad when he stumbles,

Pray they will receive divine justice

In asking that divine justice be done, we should be careful to guard our motives.
Praying for divine justice can be a way to circumvent our duty to love our enemy. While
we must leave vengeance to God, we must not forget what is commanded of us. As
Paul writes in Romans 12:19-21:

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written,
“Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is
hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will
heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with
good.

In the order of our prayers, asking for divine justice should be included as the “last
resort” option, a plea for doing what is necessary for those who will neither turn to God
nor turn away from doing evil.
Pagpalain
1 Peter 3:9 Huwag ninyong gantihan ng masama ang gumagawa sa inyo ng masama.
Huwag ninyong sumpain ang sumusumpa sa inyo. Sa halip, pagpalain ninyo sila dahil
pinili kayo upang tumanggap ng pagpapala ng Diyos

When we bless, a blessing is returned to us. In many, many ways, we reap what we
sow, and that’s one of the reasons

Gawan sila ng Mabuti

Love them with deeds

In a similar passage, Luke 6:27, Jesus says (NLT): “But if you are willing to listen, I
say, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you.

Romans 12:21 says… Don’t let evil get the best of you, but conquer evil by doing good.

After all, the alternative to loving an enemy is to hate him. BUT...

 Hating someone is sort of like burning down your house to get rid of a bug.

 Others may hate us. But those who hate us don’t win unless we hate them back. And
then we destroy ourselves!

Someone once said, “Love your enemies: they’ll go crazy trying to figure out what
you’re up to.” (Unknown)

Maging Ganap
I MUST BE “PERFECT,” NOT MERELY HUMAN

We might think, “Pefect? Give me a break Jesus! I’m barely staying afloat as it is!”
Listen to this in verses 44-48…

READ V. 44-48

Jesus isn’t talking about moral perfection, because in the Beatitudes he already gave a
blessing to the poor in spirit and those who mourn the loss of their innocence.

Instead Jesus says the standard for our love is not some earthly standard. Aim high
with your love. The standard is God Himself!

He sends sunshine and rain to the evil AND good. He doesn’t discriminate with his love.
So… v. 45
To be “perfect” just means to love like God does

Jesus says if you love those who love you – big whoop! Traitorous oppressors, Mafia
members and terrorists do that.

And, Jesus says, if you greet only your own kind…Do you ever do that? See your friends
and say, “Hey, how’s it going. Nice to see you. Have a great day.” See someone you’re
not real thrilled about (turn and whistle) – Everyone is capable of doing that!

Jesus says, Do MORE!

That’s probably the key word in this section of Bible. More. If we act like this…

Verse 47, what are you doing more than others?

So Jesus says, do way more. Be like God in His love. Do the extraordinary, the
amazing, the unearthly – in your love, be like God!

Alfred Plummer says, “To return evil for good is devilish; to return good for good is
human; to return good for evil is divine.”

Augustine wrote, “Many have learned to offer the other cheek, but do not know how to
love him by whom they were struck.”

Jesus says, But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

God would never ask us to do something He is not willing to do Himself.

God loves his enemies. At one time those enemies included us

In the book of Colossians it says, You were His enemies, separated from him by your
evil thoughts and actions, yet now he has brought you back as his friends. He has done
this through his death on the cross in his own human body. (Colossians 1:21-22)

We might say, I’d die for my spouse – that’s great! I’d die for my child – that’s
wonderful! I’d die for my best friend – that’s heroic!

But, I’d die for my enemy – that’s just like God

That’s some amazing love.