Daily Devotional For Wednesday, October 2, 2024
We have made it to “Hump Day.” The weekend is just around the corner and we are making our way through Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount. Currently we are in Matthew 5:43-48 looking at Jesus’ last of six statements that all begin the same way: “You have heard that it was said . . . but I say to you . . .” Read it below:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ (44) But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (45) so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (46) For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? (47) If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? (48) Therefore ]you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (NASB).
Today we come to one of the most challenging verses in Scripture – we are commanded to love our enemies. Why are we commanded to love our enemies? Because we were once enemies of God. Believe it or not, we were once anti-God due to our sin. New Testament scholar William Hendrickson writes this:
“All around him were those walls and fences. He came for the very purpose of bursting those barriers, so that love—pure, warm, divine, infinite—would be able to flow straight down from the heart of God, hence from his own marvelous heart, into the hearts of men. His love overleaped all the boundaries of race, nationality, party, age, sex. . . . When he said, “I tell you, love your enemies,” he must have startled his audience, for he was saying something that probably never before had been said so succinctly, positively, and forcefully” (Source: William Hendrickson, The Gospel of Matthew, p. 313.
The religious leaders in Jesus’ day were very biased, prejudiced, proud, judgmental, and contemptuous of others. To hear Jesus say, “Love your enemies” was a shock. Jesus in each of these six statements we have looked at, used the pronoun [ἔγω, ego]. This translates as “I.” Jesus uses this in an emphatic way and in doing so literally puts His own words above that or the traditions of the religious leaders. This means not only what He was saying was important, but also Who was saying it. Jesus was teaching that the traditions of the religious leaders were wrong. We have already seen this when we’ve looked at previous devotionals where in the Old Testament, God had commanded His people to love their enemy. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan in the last sermon series we saw that a neighbor is anyone — even my enemy.
We tend to love those people who we identify with in life and who agree with us. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus made a point that a Samaritan (who was a known enemy of Jews) was the one who helped a Jewish man beaten up and left naked to die – not two Jewish religious leaders. So, since we are to “love” our enemies, what does Jesus mean?
Unlike the English language, Greek has four different words for love. When we hear or read the word “love,” we let the context fill-in the missing pieces for us to the degree of what kind of love it is. The Greeks did not like that and attempted to let a specific word for love do that. Here are those four types of love in Greek:
- Philia – this is brotherly love and friendship love.
- Storge – this is the love between family members.
- Eros – desiring, romantic, sexual love.
- Agape – is sacrificial love. It involves both emotions and actions.
If you are not sure what kind of love Agape is, just read Paul’s letter to the Corinthians – 1 Corinthians 13. In this chapter Paul gives all 15 characteristics of agape. “Agape” is the love that God has in 1 John 4::7-12:
“Beloved [ἀγαπητός, apapetos], let us love one another, for love [ἀγαπάω;, agapao]is from God; and everyone who loves[ἀγαπάω;, agapao] is born of God and knows God. (8) The one who does not love [ἀγαπάω;, agapao] does not know God, for God is love [ἀγάπη, agape] (9) By this the love [ἀγάπη, agape] of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. (10) In this is love [ἀγάπη, agape], not that we loved [ἀγαπάω;, agapao] God, but that He loved [ἀγαπάω;, agapao] us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (11) Beloved [ἀγαπητός, apapetos], if God so loved [ἀγαπάω;, agapao] us, we also ought to love [ἀγαπάω;, agapao] one another. (12) No one has seen God at any time; if we love [ἀγαπάω;, agapao] one another, God abides in us, and His love [ἀγάπη, agape] is perfected in us” (NASB).
Jesus’ last night prior to His arrest, trials, crucifixion and death, said these words to His disciples in the Upper Room in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love [ἀγάπη, agape] one another, even as I have loved [ἀγάπη, agape] you, that you also love [ἀγάπη, agape] one another” (NASB). Jesus said these words to His disciples right after washing their nasty, dirty feet. Jesus modeled humility and sacrifice to His disciples by washing their feet.
This band of brothers were always fighting and quarreling among themselves. They were proud, self-serving and self-centered. Jesus showed and taught them what love is. New Testament scholar R.C.H. Lenski writes this:
“[Love] indeed, sees all the hatefulness and the wickedness of the enemy, feels his stabs and his blows, may even have something to do toward warding them off; but all this simply fills the loving heart with the one desire and aim, to free its enemy from his hate, to rescue him from his sin, and thus to save his soul. Mere affection is often blind, but even then it thinks that it sees something attractive in the one toward whom it goes out; the higher love may see nothing attractive in the one so loved,... its inner motive is simply to bestow true blessing on the one loved, to do him the highest good.... I cannot like a low, mean criminal who may have robbed me and threatened my life; I cannot like a false, lying, slanderous fellow who, perhaps, has vilified me again and again; but I can by the grace of Jesus Christ love them all, see what is wrong with them, desire and work to do them only good, most of all to free them from their vicious ways” (Source: R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of Saint Matthew’s Gospel, p. 247).
This means as a disciples of Jesus Christ, your question is never, “Who do I love?” because we are commanded to love everyone – including our enemies. The real question is: “How do I love my enemies in a way that is most helpful?” This means we cannot let our feelings and emotions guide us in this only. We have to love by serving. Why do we do this? See, from their perspective we are their enemy. But from Christ’s and our perspective they are supposed to be our neighbors.
Elon Foster in his book tells this following true story:
“In 1567 King Philip II of Spain appointed the Duke of Alba as governor of the lower part of the nation. The Duke was a bitter enemy of the newly-emerging Protestant Reformation. His rule was called the reign of terror, and his council was called the Bloody Council, because it had ordered the slaughter of so many Protestants. It is reported that one man who was sentenced to die for his biblical faith managed to escape during the dead of winter. As he was being pursued by a lone soldier, the man came to a lake whose ice was thin and cracking. Somehow he managed to get safely across the ice, but as soon as he reached the other side he heard his pursuer screaming. The soldier had fallen through the ice and was about to drown. At the risk of being captured, tortured, and eventually killed—or of being drowned himself—the man went back across the lake and rescued his enemy, because the love of Christ constrained him to do it. He knew he had no other choice if he was to be faithful to His Lord” (Source: Elon Foster, New Cyclopedia of Prose Illustrations: Second Series, p. 296).
John Foxe in his book tells this true story:
“The Scottish Reformer George Wishart, a contemporary and friend of John Knox, was sentenced to die as a heretic. Because the executioner knew of Wishart’s selfless ministering to hundreds of people who were dying of the plague, he hesitated carrying out the sentence. When Wishart saw the expression of remorse on the executioner’s face, he went over and kissed him on the cheek, saying, “Sir, may that be a token that I forgive you” (John Foxe, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, p. 252).
Questions To Consider
- Is there anyone you hate? You know what the Lord tells you that you should do. What is holding you back? Our sin put Jesus on the cross. Their sin against you is nowhere as bad as our sin against Jesus. Even from the cross, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Do you really think you are better than Jesus in not loving and forgiving this person?
- When it comes to people you consider your enemy, what makes them your enemy? Jesus says you need to see them as your neighbor – someone to love – instead of your enemy. What difference would this make if you did and why?
- Take your Bible and read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a. Which of these characteristics of love need to be in your life as a disciple of Jesus Christ and why?
- Jesus’ love knows no bounds. Does yours? If so, why?
- In the two stories above, where are you similar and where are you different and why?
Scripture To Meditate On: Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, it is so easy to love people I already love, but to love those who are adversarial to me, well, that is a whole other story. I want to be like You – even with my enemies. Help me to see them as my neighbors as You do. Please remind me that before giving my life to You, I was Your enemy and yet You still chose to die for me and offer me salvation. Thank You. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly