"How to Love Your Enemies" {Matt5:43-48}
* Intro
- Revenge familiar to all
- Desire for justice -- and desire to mete out that justice -- inherent
- SotM gives diff paradigm, seemingly imposs paradigm
* Teaching of OT
- His standard always been loving others and loving enemies {Lev19:18}
- Rabbinic tradition distorted OT view on enemies
* Perversion of Rabbinic tradition
- Perversion by omission (ignored "as yourself")
- Perversion by addition (added "hate your enemies")
* Perspective of Jesus
- Love enemies and pray for them
- Regardless of internal feeling, obedience to Him requires choice of action
- Why? To be His children; to reflect what He does and who He is
- Perfect impossible? No, perfect = mature, complete
- You cannot do this sans Him
* Application
- Bless them {Luke6:28}: RELee, "asked my opinion of him, not his opinion of me"
- Do good to them: Chinese farmer irrigation anecdote
- Pray for them: Prayer changes us. Healing not dependent on our forgiveness and goodness and love but on His.
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