We have had a wonderful time chewing on this epic sermon by Jesus.  Every time I have a great meal, I am satisfied and feel good.  This is the way I have felt after eating this excellent spiritual food Jesus has supplied for us.  I expect that this meal will be delicious today also.  We have tasted how we are blessed as we enter the Kingdom of Heaven and live as members of His Kingdom. We have savored the truth of who we are as members of His Kingdom– salt and light– and how He uses us to change what is around us.  We have enjoyed the picture of the law which Jesus has given to us, the fact that our sin is greater than we know as we understand the law the way Jesus explains it to us here, and then we also delighted in the truth of the greatness of the grace of God, which is much fuller than any sin we have committed or ever will commit. We touched on the inward obedience which Jesus asks of us and the wings He has given to us to fly by His grace in obedience.  If you missed any of these, you can get them at our Information Desk.  This morning we will build on these wonderful dishes by chewing on this truth:  The Lord our God fills us with His love so we can truly love everyone else God puts in our path.

I. Loving our neighbors and hating our enemies?

Last week, we looked at the difference between how the teachers of the law in Jesus’ day taught the law versus how Jesus taught the law.  Teachers of the law taught the people to obey the outward command, with no heart commitment, and to only obey at the minimal level.  Jesus called us to complete inward obedience, and then gives us grace which enables inward obedience.  In our text this morning, this is the last example Jesus gives to us to illustrate this truth of inward obedience.  I wanted to look at it separately this morning because of the importance of its application.

When Jewish teachers taught this, they applied it by saying that Jews were supposed to love other Jews– those who were like them in culture and religious faith and background.  The Old Testament law in Leviticus 19:18 does command them to love their brethren, but it does not tell them to hate their enemies– this thought is not in the Bible.  This was an addition by the teachers of the law, which once again, misses the heart of God.  Listen to this quote from one of these teachers of the law: “A Jew sees a Gentile fall into the sea, let him by no means lift him out; for it is written, Thou shalt not rise up against the blood of thy neighbor– but this is not thy neighbor.”  If you read what is said about a Jew who apostates, who rejects his Jewish faith, it is said that this person should be hated and if possible, killed.  You have to understand their mentality.  Part of it is a lie, but part is understandable.  They were God’s chosen people.  The Lord had put His Name on them alone.  No one else was chosen by the Lord as they had been.  They reasoned that God loved them because He had chosen them, so must hate the pagan nations whom He did not choose.  The reason this is false is because they are called to declare to the nations the goodness of the Lord and peoples from surrounding nations were to come to worship the Lord because of what they saw and felt in the midst of the Jewish nation.  From the beginning of the Bible to the end, God’s plan of salvation has included all peoples of the world, from every tribe, language and nation.  Look at Psalm 67:1-2 for one example of a prayer: “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.”  Why are they praying for God’s blessing?  So that other peoples may come to know the Lord.  This is the heart of God.

The other piece of this which informs their response is history– these very Jews had been abused by the surrounding nations.  They had been at war with many of them and there was a mutual hate and distrust, much as what you see between Israelis and Palestinians today.  If you are being killed consistently by members of another nation, in very little time, you do not like people from that nation who have hurt or killed members of your family.  This is understandable.  We would feel the same way I believe.  This is the background for the teachers of Jesus’ day.  But Jesus knows the heart of the Father, and this is what He teaches to them.

II. How to truly love our enemies.

Jesus has a radically different message for them!  “But I say to you...”  These are Jesus words, and commands from the Lord Himself- Love your enemies!  Pray for those who mistreat you!  Enemies is from the root word “hate”, so these people are those you hate.  Jesus assumes you will love those who love you.  This is natural.  In fact, He goes on to tell us that even pagans and tax collectors– the lowest people on earth in their culture– these love their own family and greet them warmly.  Loving those who love you is natural, it is expected within the culture, so does nothing to set you apart from the darkness around you.

In context, Jesus is telling His listeners to love those people from other nations who have treated them so badly in the past.  Yes, those who have thrown you into jail, taken you into exile and killed your family members, those are the very ones you are to love.  So, when I asked you to think of the person in this world whom you dislike the most... that is the person Jesus is asking or commanding actually, you to agape– selflessly love.  And He tells you why in this passage.  You act like your Heavenly Father when you love like this.  His character is love.  Who did He love who was His enemy?  The answer to that is the Lord loved me... and you... and the person sitting beside you.  We were all, by nature, enemies of God when He loved us and called us to Himself, when He gave faith to us and caused us to believe.  When He sent His Son to die for us, we were not God’s friends.  We were running the opposite direction as fast as we could go.  Even now, as His children, as we talked about last week, we still sin grievously and repeatedly against Him.    God demonstrates His love for us in this– while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  In another place, Paul says it this way, Colossians 1:21‑22, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.  But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”  God did not wait for us to love Him before He loved us.  That would never have happened.  In our sinful and fallen state, we never would have loved the Lord, nor been capable of doing so.  But love is the character of our God.  As His children, who have been adopted into His family, we now look like Him, those who love the people around us, even our enemies. 

Now, this is much easier to say than to do.  In fact, Christians say this a lot and do it much less often, so I want to unpack what we are talking about and what this involves, so we are crystal clear.  When there is emotional hurt in a person, Jesus is willing to heal that place of hurt as we forgive the person who has hurt us and invite Him to heal us.  Again, forgiveness means you let go of the person’s throat.  You leave judgement to God.  You choose to forgive the person, and sometimes this takes hundreds of choices a day to completely forgive them.  You ask Jesus to help you in this as with all things. You forgive because God has forgiven you.  Plus, unforgiveness hurts you, it does not hurt the other person who may not even know you hold something against them.  When Jesus was speaking to His disciples, He was speaking about loving and praying for people who had persecuted them.  Jesus forgave those who nailed Him to the cross.  Few of us have been sinned against as grievously as the audience with whom Jesus was speaking, but even if this is your case, God’s grace is there to empower you to forgive.  Do not wait.  Now is the time to forgive and now is the time Jesus is calling on you to love that person in this specific way. 

What else does this look like to love my enemy?  After you have forgiven them from your heart, you begin to pray blessing over them.  Ask God to turn their heart to Jesus if that person does not know Him.  Ask the Lord to bless that person’s business and family or other relationships.  People have asked me, well, what do I do when he repeats the same hurtful action again and again?  Every healthy relationship has boundaries– either unspoken or spoken.  If a person crosses boundaries which hurt you, tell them what your boundaries are and what you will do when they cross this boundary.  There are a hundred examples I could give to you, but I will give one.  Jack was 27 years old and had come back home.  His parents had always said he could stay with them whenever he needed to do so for as long as he wanted.  Jack found that he needed money for his bad habits, so took over the whole basement.  He expected his mom to cook for him and wash his clothes.  One day, she came into my office exasperated because he told her she did not love him when she asked him to do his own laundry because she had hurt her back.  I told her to draw clear boundaries– first, he was 27 and had his own job, so he could help with household work and pay some of the household bills.  Tell him you love him period, but you will not do his wash since he should be doing many things around the house.  If he says anything about you not loving him, tell him he is lying to you and seeking to manipulate you and he knows it.  My guess is he will storm out of the house.  Keep communication lines open and pray for him, but refuse to be manipulated any more.  In time, he will see how much you served him and hopefully come to his senses, which is exactly what happened over the next year.  They now have a healthy relationship.  Loving a person means just that– you love them enough to tell them the truth and to draw healthy boundaries.  You serve and give of yourself in relationship with the other.  The key idea is relationship which always involves giving and receiving, forgiving and asking for forgiveness– every relationship has these qualities.

Let me be clear about one last thing on this point.  Agape love originates with God Himself.  You are not able to love with agape apart from His love being poured into you first.  You come to worship, and experience the love of Christ for yourself.  You know you are loved and ask God to fill you with His love and life.  By faith you receive His love.  As you know you are loved, you choose to give love to others.  This is especially important for people who are harder to love.  It takes prayer, believing that God will love the person through you, a choice to love by doing generous and gracious things towards that person, and watching how emotions follow.  Remember, we choose to love, we choose to think positive thoughts about a person, we do beautiful things for a person and in time our emotions will follow our mind and actions.  The emotion we call love follows our mind set and actions.  This is the way God has made us.  So choose to love first.  Act in love second.  Know that the only love you have has been given to you by God Himself, so ask for His supernatural love for others.  And then watch to see what God does!!

III. Loving each person God brings into our lives.

It is not accident you have connections with the people you now know.  No matter how you define your relationship with those around you, biblically, you do not have any option but to show them love.  Love, by definition is an action. 

Whether a person is in your life by blood relationship, because you live near them, because you work near them, because you are involved in the same interests, or because you are a member of the same covenant fellowship or church, God has brought this person into your life, and it is not an accident.  No matter how you feel about a person the Lord has brought into your life, you have only one biblical option– to agape love them.  It doesn’t matter what color their skin, nor how much money they have nor what car they drive, nor what good and bad choices they have made in the past, your only biblical option is to love them with a love that does not originate in you, but does flow through you.  It doesn’t matter whether the person grew up in Florence or has only been in Florence for a few days, we believe the Lord brings people to live near us, and determines the places and times where we live, so your only option according to Jesus is to love them where they are, right where they live.  And it doesn’t even matter what lifestyle choices they have made, nor what they look like– how long their hair, how many rings they wear, whether they have tattoos or not, nor whether they have spent time in jail, because, your only biblical option is to love them in the midst of the mess of their lives.

Let me reiterate, it is the love of God which fills your heart and then is poured through you to others.  This happens as we encounter the Lord ourselves.  As we worship Him each day, and know that He loves us and is near to us, then we ask that He would fill us to overflowing by the power of His Word.  He does this very thing.  With the Lord, your supply will never run out.  There have been times when I have been moved by the love of God to pray for people or to embrace people.  There have been other times when I felt nothing, but knew a person needed the love of Christ, so I stepped forward to serve and experienced the love of Christ flow through me to them.  There have been other times when I felt very little, but chose to serve because I knew it was the heart of God.  Feelings are important, but remember how they work.  As you choose to serve and give to another person by choice of your will, your emotion follows this loving action and thought.  As you connect with the love of Christ for people, you will be moved more often and more deeply to reach out to others.  So outreach should be natural result of living like this.  As children of our Heavenly Father, those who reflect His character, we love others into the Kingdom of God.  I am referring to people like Osama bin Laden.  He needs to experience the love of Christ for him through a Christian, as does every person you will meet this week. 

Years ago Father John Powell told the story of Norma Jean Mortenson:
Norma Jean Mortenson. Remember that name? Norma Jean’s mother, Mrs. Gladys Baker, was periodically committed to a mental institution and Norma Jean spent much of her childhood in foster homes. In one of those foster homes, when she was eight years old, one of the boarders raped her and gave her a nickel. He said, ‘Here, Honey. Take this and don’t ever tell anyone what I did to you.’
When little Norma Jean went to her foster mother to tell her what had happened she was beaten badly. She was told, ‘Our boarder pays good rent. Don’t you ever say anything bad about him!’  Norma Jean at the age of eight had learned what it was to be used and given a nickel and beaten for trying to express the hurt that was in her.
Norma Jean turned into a very pretty young girl and people began to notice. Boys whistled at her and she began to enjoy that, but she always wished they would notice she was a person too– not just a body– or a pretty face– but a person.
Then Norma Jean went to Hollywood and took a new name– Marilyn Monroe and the publicity people told her, ‘We are going to create a modern sex symbol out of you.’  And this was her reaction, ‘A symbol?  Aren’t symbols things people hit together?’  They said, ‘Honey, it doesn’t matter, because we are going to make you the most smoldering sex symbol that ever hit the celluloid.’

She was an overnight smash success, but she kept asking, ‘Did you also notice I am a person? Would you please notice?’ Then she was cast in the dumb blonde roles.  Everyone hated Marilyn Monroe. Everyone did. She would keep her crews waiting two hours on the set. She was regarded as a selfish prima donna. What they didn’t know was that she was in her dressing room vomiting because she was so terrified. She kept saying, ‘Will someone please notice I am a person. Please.’ They didn’t notice. They wouldn’t take her seriously. She went through three marriages– always pleading, ‘Take me seriously as a person.’  Everyone kept saying, ‘But you are a sex symbol. You can’t be other than that.’ Marilyn kept saying ‘I want to be a person. I want to be a serious actress.’
And so on that Saturday night, at the age of 35 when all beautiful women are supposed to be on the arm of a handsome escort, Marilyn Monroe took her own life. She killed herself. When her maid found her body the next morning, she noticed the telephone was off the hook. It was dangling there beside her.

Later investigation revealed that in the last moments of her life she had called a Hollywood actor and told him she had taken enough sleeping pills to kill herself. He answered with the famous line of Rhett Butler, which I now edit for church, ‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t care!’ That was the last word she heard. She dropped the phone– left it dangling.