11th October 2024
Pray (ACts) Read (Matthew 5:38-48 focus v43-48) Message (Alan Burke) It is easy to hate your enemies, it is much harder to love those who have hurt you, those who are your enemies, those who have persecuted you. Think to someone who has stuck the knife in you (I’m thinking figuratively but it may be literal), slandered you, mocked you, and you know just how hard it is to do anything but dislike them. We have the expression once bitten twice shy. Well here Jesus addresses another misunderstanding. There were those who took what the scriptures said and because it didn’t command the people to love their enemy they took it as they could hate their enemy. Yet the teaching of scripture showed that God intended his people to show love for both their neighbour and their enemies (see Ex 23:4-5). Look though, to what Jesus commands his followers to do as he tells us to “love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you”. The reason why is that we may be sons of our Father in heaven. The enemy that we are to love is not only those who we have had a barny with and haven’t spoken to them in many years, or those who wronged us, the enemy of a country, made you could add the Russians in there today, but it goes further, it is even to show love towards those who persecute the church and the believer. While we do not face that that is the extent of what Jesus is commanding us, if we lived in North Korea, China, Libia, Mexico, Cuba along with many other countries where people are martyred for their faith, we are to love those who attack us and kill us for believing in Jesus Christ. We might think that this is too much for us to be asked of, how can we possibly love those who are our enemies, pray for those who persecute us? What we are being asked of, commanded to do is surely wrong? No it is not to much to ask, it is not wrong, we are only being asked to do by God what he has done for us, to love our enemies as he has done with us. We are quick to forget that we by our nature are the enemies of God, each one of us, Romans 5:10 makes that clear, 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son”. Loving our enemies is the kind of love, the love that was shown to us should be the motivation for why we love others, why we act the way that we do towards those who hate us, revile us, persecute us. Of course how we show love will have will look differently depending on the people and the situation. We might also think to ourselves that these people that they don’t deserve his grace, that they should suffer for what they have done but so should we for we were by our nature the enemies of God, what we deserved was not his grace but his wrath. We need to look to the example of our saviour for even as he faced the horror of the cross he prayed for those who tortured him, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34). We are to live like Christ, love like Christ and we are to bear the family likeness. Finally we are confronted with how God requires much more of those who claim to be his, we are to be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect. The good news is though that we stand before the Lord not on our righteousness but on the righteousness of Jesus that doesn’t mean that we should not want to be like our savour but when we fail, when we mess up we know that he has done what is required of us. We will not achieve perfection in this life, we will always live under the effects of the fall, but one day, we will be like him (1 Jn 3:2), we will be made perfect, we will fail many times along gate way, we will see our imperfection, but instead of causing us to despair it should make us once more filled with praise and thanks for the wonder of wha Jesus had done for us, for we will be made new, given perfected bodies and will be without sin. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q6. How many persons are there in the Godhead? A. There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
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