JESUS LOVES: ENEMIES

Matthew 5:38-48

March 8, 2020

JESUS LOVES YOU!

John 13:34–35

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

HOW DO YOU TREAT

THE PEOPLE WHO ARE

CLOSEST TO YOU?

Matthew 5:43–45

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

ENEMY:• Someone who is

opposed to you.

• Someone who is intent to cause you harm or prevent you from success.

• Someone who hates you.

Matthew 5:46–48

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:38–42

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Exodus 22:26–27

If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset, because that cloak is the only covering your neighbor has. What else can they sleep in? When they cry out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

Matthew 5:38–42

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Matthew 5:46–48

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

“The Christian ideal has

not been tried and found

wanting. It has been

found difficult; and left

untried.”- G.K. Chesterton

The Plan:

• Look at our relationships.

•Discover the limits of our love.

• Encounter God’s love for those that we cannot love.

•Realize that “we” are “them”.

• Experience God’s love for us.

•Return to our relationships to love others in the way that we have been loved.

• Experience Jesus’ love completed in us.

Romans 5:8

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:9–11

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

JESUS LOVES ENEMIES.He loves you when you act

as His enemy.

He loves those who act as enemies to you.

He empowers you to love your enemies so that you

may know His love for you.