The Biblical Definition of Love

You know, the interesting thing about growing up in one scenario and coming to the realization of another, as it relates to parenting and child hearing, is that there are certain things that we have experienced in our lives that were just normal for us, that we wouldn't want at all for our children. Amen. Like, for example, as a boy, I can remember vividly the dirty Hairy movies, you know, Clint Eastwood and the gun looked this big, you know, and goes around and shoot people up, and when he gets mad at him, and Charles Bronson and guys like that. There was a whole genre of film, the vigilante cop film, where there's a bad guy who does something that's horrendous and the rest of the film was this process of you watching as the vigilanti cop just plows through bad guy after bad guy after bad guy, and you wait for that moment when he will get the guy who is the baddest of the bad and by the end of the movie, you can't wait for this guy to get what's coming to him. Now, you don't have to admit that you've ever had that experience before. Some of you may never have had that experience before of watching one of those films and finding yourself by the end of the film just eager to see someone get what's coming to them. But is that an appropriate attitude to have? Today we deal with a continuation of what we looked at on last week. And I hope that as you see, as we've gone through through these various antitheses, that you've seen that they have built upon one another, that there has been a relationship between all of these antitheses. And as we come here to the last antithesis, to the end of chapter six and deal with the issue of our enemies and our attitude and disposition toward our enemies, in one sense, we've come to a summation of all of the antitheses that have gone before. In another sense, we come to a summary of the second Table of the Law, a summary of commandments six through ten. This is a foreshadowing of a conversation that Jesus is going to have later in Matthew chapter twenty two. And some of our kids and their scripture memories have been doing Matthew Chapter twenty two Versus thirty seven through thirty nine. They know exactly what's coming here. The greatest Commandment, what's the greatest commandment, Jesus say, is the greatest commandment is the love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And the second one is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. Now, it's interesting. There are a couple of ways that we can look at that statement that Jesus makes. There one way that we can look at it, and the way some people look at it is this Jesus is actually supplanting the Ten Commandments. He is replacing the Ten Commandments with something more significant, with something more loving, with a kinder, gentler form of religion, if you will. In fact, it's no religion at all. We've moved from religion to relationship. No longer is there a need for such outdated, arcane rules like the Ten Commandments. But there is another way to view this statement that Jesus makes, and I believe his statement in the Sermon on the Mount is actually a precursor to the statement he makes later on. Here's the way you look at it, Jesus, what's the greatest commandment? And you can you can hear the Pharisees. You know in the background, somebody's going, I know he's gonna say it's number one. No no, no, no, no, no no no. He's not gonna say it's number One's gonna say it's number five. Because number five, of course, the first one with a promise, you know, on your father and your mother. It's going to say that. No, no, no, no no, I believe it's gonna be number what's the greatest commandment, Jesus? And instead of Jesus saying a number, pick a number one through ten. Jesus, what's the greatest commandment? Jesus say is the greatest commandment is the love Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and might. In other words, the greatest commandment is one through four, the vertical commandments your duty toward God. By the way, the second one is like it, love your neighbor as yourself, which, by the way, is a summary of commandments five through ten. Jesus, what's the greatest commandment? I'm gonna have to say one through four, followed closely by five through ten. Jesus doesn't supplant in commandments. There's no need. If you remember where we began here with these antitheses. We understood that the law of God is perfect, the law of God is timeless. The law of God is relevant and applicable. Even though the law of God is insufficient for our salvation, it is still incredibly important. So what we have here in Matthew chapter five, verses forty three and following, is really a summation, if you will, of the second table of the law our duty toward our fellow man. That's what Jesus is referring to here. Now you have to understand a couple of things. One, let me give you the case law backdrop. In Leviticus. We find Leviticus chapter nineteen, verse eighteen. You shall not take vneh or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. Also, for example, in Exodus twenty three, verses four through five, if you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it. You shall rescue it with him. However, as William Hendrickson notes, the time of the Pharisees, there had been a reworking of this understanding, Hendrickson writes, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy must have been the popular way in which the average Israelite during the days of Christ's ministry summarized the Second Table of the Law and regulated his life with respect to friend and foe. Love your neighbor, hate your enemy. That must have been the way that they summarized the Second table. Love your neighbor, hate your enemy. Therefore completely shocking when Jesus gives, for example, the parable of the good Samaritan, the good Samaritan, the Samaritans are our enemies. We love our neighbors, we hate our enemies. Even when they began to speak about neighbors, the question would income who's my neighbor? How many people cannot put in the enemy category. So that's the backdrop, that's the mindset into which Jesus drops this last antithesis. Beginning in verse forty three of chapter five, you have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven. For he makes his son, rise on the evil and on the good. He sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same. And if you greet only your brother, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the gentiles do the same. You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Amen. This is a meaningful passage for those of us who have enemies, which would be all of us. Some of us just have more enemies than others. Amen. But what should our disposition be toward our enemies? This is a great debate going on raging right now in our culture. For those of you who keep up with the news, you're aware of all of these issues that are going on with the Nancy Pelosi, the current leader of the House of Representatives, and what did she know and when did she know it, called the CIA a bunch of liars and said they lied to Congress over the issue of what waterboarding. It's find it very ironic, this whole waterboarding question, this whole question about whether or not it's appropriate in the time of battle to make your enemy think that you're drowning him to scare information out of him in order to save people's lives. And regardless of what you feel about waterboarding, here's what I find ironic. I find it ironic that the individuals who are saying, on the one hand, the ethic of the United States is, we don't torture and we do not waterboard people because it is wrong and it is unethical to make a man bent on killing you and everyone you know think that you might drown him in order to get information from him. However, if a baby is in the womb and is inconvenient, crush its skull. So again, regardless of how you feel about this issue of you know, waterboarding and towards and things of this nature, the irony, of course, is that there are people who are claiming to take the moral high ground on this issue who are completely and utterly inconsistent from a philosophical and logical perspective as it relates to applying the ethic of the value and worth of a human life and how human beings are to be treated across the board. But lest we get too high on our horse, you and I are guilty of much the same. I'll speak to those people who are nice to me, but I won't speak to the ones who don't treat me the way I like to be treated. I will love those who have earned the right to be called my neighbor, but I will distance myself from and mistreat those who have not earned that right. Double standard, to say the least, one of which we are all guilty. Amen. So, now that we've established that we're all evil ranked, nasty, sinners with double standards toward people that we like and we don't like, how about some healing this morning, Amen. Several things we need to understand about this love for our enemies, which is what this is all about, is defined by God's love, not the Greco Roman myth of romantic love. That's one of the reasons we have a difficult time with this, because we've bought the lie. We believe the Greco Roman myth of romantic love. We believe love is an overwhelming, uncontrollable, sensual force. That's how we define love. It's an overwhelming force, it's an uncontrollable force. It's a sensual force. This thing is bigger than both of us. I mean, that's what we think about love. And so when you see love, your enemies. We believe what we're being called to is some sort of sappy sentimentalism toward people who, in some instances hate our guts. And the reason this is difficult for us to understand is because here's our attitude toward love. Here's how we define the word love. Elizabeth Barrett Browning helps us at this point, How do I love THEE? Let me count the way. I love THEE. To the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach when feeling out of sight for the end of being and ideal grace. I love THEE to the level of everyday's most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. I love THEE freely as men strive for right. I love THEE purely as they turn from praise. I love THEE with a passion put to use in my old griefs and with my childhood's faith. I love THEE with a love I seem to lose with my lost saints. I love THEE with the breath, smiles tears of all my life. And if God choose, I shall but love THEE better after death. WHOA Now, If that's the way we define love sentimentalism, If we define love as this overwhelming, uncontrollable emotion. It makes no sense whatsoever that we should feel towards someone who hates us the way Elizabeth Barrett Browning feels toward the love of her life, about whom she speaks in this poem. But is that what's meant by love? Do we define the love that we're to show and the love that we're to demonstrate toward our enemies by the picture that is painted for us by poets carried along by this Greco Roman myth of romantic love? Or is there another way to understand love? And I would argue that there is another way to understand love, based upon what we see in the teaching of Jesus that we've already looked at in Matthew chapter twenty two, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your mind and strength, and the passage that he is actually quoting from, which is found in Deuteronomy. And so we have the Greek version of this Hebrew passage in the Shemah, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul and all your might. Well, when you exegeat these words, it's interesting that Jesus adds to the dimension of the mind when he talks about it in the New Testament. But when you exegeat these words in the Hebrew, you basically get this. And here's the definition that helps me understand the word as it's used in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The word it's used in the Bible, that biblical love is an act of the will accompanied by emotion that leads to action on behalf of its object. We said again, Biblical love is an act of the will accompanied by emotion that leads to action on behalf of its object. And again we've talked about this before, but it bears repeating here. We've been duped into believing that love is something that it is not. From a biblical perspective. Biblical love is first and foremost and act of the will. By the way, the ultimate picture of this love, if you're wondering, is Jesus in the garden of Gathseimone. If there is any other way, let this bitter cup pass from me, this bitter cup of God's wrath. And yet he comes to that moment where he says, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. The love that Jesus demonstrates in the Garden of Gathseimone is first and foremost and act of the will. He chooses to love his bride the church. It is accompanied by emotion, emotion so intense that he sweat drops of blood, and it leads to action on behalf of its object. Love manifests itself in outward action toward its object. That's what we're speaking of here. The love that we owe to our enemies is not this sappy sentimentalism. But the love that we owe to our enemies is the love that we see demonstrated by God himself in Christ. An act of the will accompanied by emotion that leads to action on behalf of its object. Sometimes there will be a lot more will than emotion. Amen, But it is an act of the will accompanied by emotion that leads to action on behalf of its object. Look with me, if you will at the text again. You shall love your You've heard it said that you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemies. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. In other words, Jesus adds action here, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. So he's not just talking about sentimentality here, nor is he just talking about action here. There's a package deal. Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. By the way, is this new. It's not new at all. We've heard this before. Turn with me to the left. We just read it in our Old Testament reading just a few weeks ago. Actually it's been a couple of months now. But in Jeremiah chapter twenty nine and Jeremiah Chapter twenty nine, Jeremiah sends this letter and reminds God's people that they are going into exile and Babylon, and that they're being sent into exile in Babylon by God himself. The boot of the oppressor is on your neck, and God is the one who put it there. Now, look at what he says in light of this, says, this is what God did. Look at verse four. Thus says the Lord of Host to God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives who are your sons and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters and multiply there. And do not decrease, but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf. I'm sending you into exiles. You're going to be a slave in Babylon. They will burn your cities down, burn your homes down. They will rape, pillage, and plunder. And when you are in exile as a slave or less than that in Babylon, serve the King of Babylon and live. We read in chapter twenty seven, and here he says, seek the welfare of this place that I'm sending you to, and pray for its welfare. So, no, Jesus is not bringing something that's foreign to the God of the left side of the Bible. And again oftentimes we think that, you know, Jesus is the kinder, gentler version of God. The God of the Old Testament is a god of love and mercy as well. So this is not a new concept. This is not a new idea. Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. Again, not sappy sentimentalism. He doesn't say, like what they do to you. Oh, I am so pleased with the oppression that you've brought upon me. What does thou please but oppress me the more? No, that's not the attitude here. And again it doesn't make sense yet, but just hang in there. We'll get there. Secondly, not only is love for our enemies defined by God's love as opposed to this grecor Roman myth, but love for our enemies is motivated by obedience to God. We see that in verse forty four. I say to you, love your enemies. There's a command there. It didn't say you ought to, didn't say try to. He says love your enemies, doesn't even say you have to feel like it necessarily love your enemies. Love for our enemies is motivated by obedience to God. Love your enemies we talked about. We talk about this a lot in submission, that our submission to authority is born out of our obedience to God. And we often say, if we wait, regardless of what situation that we find ourselves in, whether it's a wife struggling with submission to a husband, or its child struggling with submission to their parents, or it's a citizen struggling with submission to the authority over that citizen. If we wait for the individual to be worthy of submission, will never submit. Amen, ma'am, your husband will never be worthy of your submission. Son, daughter, your parents will never be worthy of your submission. Citizens, your government will never be worthy of your submission. But we offer it because we are commended to do so. Your enemy is not worthy of your love. They have done things to you that have hurt you, that have angered you, that have injured you. God is not saying that people who do this don't deserve to be punished. We've already looked at that vengeance. This is mine, said the Lord. I will repay, And in fact, here is the beauty. It is only those of us who believe in a God of love and a literal hell that can ever get here. Well, what do you mean? Listen, people who do not believe in a God of love and do not believe in a literal hell have no choice but to hold on the grudges and take out vengeance, because it's the only way that wrongs can be made right. But if you believe in a God who says vengeance is mine, I will repay, And even if you don't see it in the here and the now. I'm the God who says all evil and wickedness will be punished in an ultimate sense, in a literal place called hell. Sometimes it is only then that you and I can hold our peace, close our mouths and wait for God to do what we wish we could do with our own hands. It's because we believe in a God who will exact such vengeance, and because we believe in a God of love who owed that same vengeance to us. You see these individuals who walk around and you know, and say that they don't like our God. They don't believe in our God, they don't believe in our Jesus, they don't believe in our gospel. How could a loving God do something so terrible as to send people to hell. Here's what's amazing. Those individuals see atrocities with their eyes and they get angry and they want vengeance. Wait a minute, Wait a minute. Are you saying to me that there is a sense of justice that abides in you, that says the action that you just witnessed deserves vengeance, and that you even wish that you could be the one to meet out that vengeance, But you refuse to believe in God, because he's the ultimate expression of that. You can't get there from here. We love our enemies, and we're motivated by obedience to God, trusting obedience to God. Let me say this too. When you hold on to your anger towards people and refuse to obey God and have a disposition of love toward them, you're basically saying, God, I don't trust you to make this right. I really don't. I believe it would be much more appropriate for this person to feel the sting of me averting my eyes from them, of me not speaking to them, or of me saying nasty, hurtful things to them or about them. I believe that's a much more appropriate consequence for this individual than to let you deal with them. That's what we're saying when we refuse to obey in this regard God, Your vengeance is just not sufficient. Letting me show you how it's done. I've said this before and I'll say it again. There's some of us in this room, right here, right now, and our lives are being controlled by people who died a long time ago. They're controlling us from the grave. Why because we refuse to let go of what they did, and we hold on to it. And again it has been said, and I don't know who said this first, but holding on to that kind of unforgiveness is like you drinking poison hoping they die. There's some of you in your life is controlled by people who live a thousand miles away. And their birthday comes and you don't call them. I showed them. Christmas comes, you send everybody else something. You don't send them something I show them. You know what's so horrible about that? In some instances, they're not even worried about you. They're occupying space in your mind because you're thinking about ways to hurt them, and it never dawned on them that you should have sent them something in the first place. Obey God recommended to love our enemies, or command it to again, not sappy sentimentality, not to be walked on by our enemies. But our disposition toward them is to be one of love, because we're commanded to. Thirdly, love for our enemies is evidence of our sonship. Love for our enemies is evidence of our sonship. Look at what we find here in our passage, so that verse forty five, you may be sons of your Father, who is in heaven, For he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. Look at the last verse, verse forty eight. You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. The love that you show toward your enemies is actually evidence of your sonship. It's evidence that you belong to God. Now again, we've covered this theological ground before, but recognize when we see some like this, we know the doctrine of salvation. We know that Jesus is not saying here, if you want to be a Christian, then you do this, and then through doing this you can be a Christian. That's not what he's saying here, And our understanding of the Gospel makes it clear that that's not what he's saying. So when he says so that you may be sons of your Father, what he's referring to here is so that you may demonstrate, so that you may act like so that it may be shown that you are sons of your father. That's the only way we get there. By the way, here's another reality. We can only do this as a byproduct of a regenerated life. I'm not gonna do this as an unconverted man. You can't do this as an unconverted man. As an unconverted woman, You're not gonna do it. It's not difficult to do, it's impossible to do even as an individual who's been born again, who's been transformed by the same power that raised Christ from the dead. The only way this happens is that it's appropriated in me by God on the high, so that when it happens, I don't stand up and say, oh, look at how long suffering I am. No, no, no, no, no. When I love my enemies, when I find myself actually loving my enemies, you know what that out to lead me to do. It ought to lead me to fall on my face and say, God, thank you for showing me that piece of evidence that says you own me. Because I ain't do that one. Everything in me wants to go dirty harry on that person. So any response other than that that was from you. Ever been in a situation like that. You ever been in a situation where there's an individual and you know you're gonna see this individual and they just wronged you. I mean, there's there's no no they wronged you none of this. Well, you know, there's always two sides to the story. No, they would say they wronged you. Their side would be the same as your side in this story. They just wronged you. There's nothing in question. And you're gonna see this person, and all of a sudden, you run through in your mind. Don't act like you don't do this. You run through in your mind what you're going to do, what you're gonna say. And there are these these movie clips that run through your mind. You know that that that just you know a lot of them involve you speaking your mind and slapping them and walking out, you know, or you know a lot of them involve them. You know, you say these words and then they just crumble in a puddle of tears, and you know, and all of a sudden, and all of a sudden, you have the opportunity to be in the presence of that person, and you open your mouth and the love of Christ comes out, and a minute you look into their eyes. You don't want to destroy them. In fact, you pity them. He doesn't know God, she doesn't know God. And I'm more concerned that they feel something that they're incapable of feeling. That I am with the fact that what they did to me as an expression of the reality that they don't know God. There are some of you in this room, and you've sat in a courtroom. You've been wronged by a person, or you've been violated by a person, and you sat in a courtroom and you thought that when the gabble went down and the judge said whatever, that you would be vindicated. But it didn't do that for you. It didn't do that for you at all. They get a fine that's bigger than what you wanted them to get, they get a sentence that's longer than what you wanted them to get. And you can't leave and celebrate why, because that's not how God's kids handle things. Our love toward our enemies is actually evidence of our sonship. Finally, love for our enemies is an outgrowth and an expression of God's love for his enemies. It's an outgrowth and it's an expression of God's love for his enemies. Look at what we find. Look at it again, he says. For he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good. Hiss. He sends reins on the righteous and the unjust. God does this. God does this. In fact, we get mad sometimes because God does this, don't we I mean, the hurricane comes, and when the hurricane comes, here's what we would like. We just come before God and we say, Okay, God, is it too much to ask that when the hurricane comes, you blow down the wicked people's houses, but you don't blow down the godly people's houses. Is that too much to ask? Or how about this one in our current circumstances? How about this one? God? How about as stocks crash, only the ungodly companies go belly up and the godly companies survive. Only the wicked people lose their life savings, but the godly people don't lose their life savings. But it doesn't work like that. His sun shines on the evil and the good. His ring falls on the just and the unjump us. God sends his mercy on the wicked every day, and yet Scripture says He's angry with the wicked every day. There is enemies. Listen if you will Romans chapter five and verse ten. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Newsflash. When God saved you, he saved his enemy. How dare you not love yours? Colossians one twenty one. And you who once were alienated, hostile in mind, and doing evil deeds, that's you the enemy of God before your conversion James four four, You adulterous people. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. And yet God is merciful toward his enemies. Our love toward our enemies is an outgrowth of this. It's an expression of this. I want to read you one last thing before we apply this a couple of times. Turn with me, if you will, to the book of Jonah. He's Amos's next door Jonah Micah. We know the story. God says to Jonah, go to Nineveh and preach forty days. Tell them forty days, and I'm gonna wipe them out. Jonah doesn't want to go to Ninevah and preach. Why because the Ninavites are enemies, not just enemies. But Jonah's been listening to the other prophets of his time and knows that God is going to raise up a mighty people to punish Israel. Jonah puts two and two together. Wait a minute, if God shows mercy on Nineveh, they may come get us. Jonah doesn't want to go preach in NINEVH. So Jonah gets swallowed up. Jonah goes to Ninevah. Jonah preachers, God is merciful and Jonah is angry. Look at Jonah Chapter four, beginning of verse five. Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself. There he sat under it in the shade till he should see what would come of the city. Now, the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die, and said, it is better for me to die than to live. But God said to Jonah, do you do well to be angry for the plant? And he said, yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die. And the Lord said, you pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know the right hand from their left, and also much cattle. What an incredible statement, Jonah, you have pity on this plant, but there are one hundred and twenty thousand babies in Nineveh, and you don't even have pity on them. He even mentions the cattle. God has pity on the cattle. Jonah has pity on none of them. What's the rebuke here for Jonah? He's got an inappropriate attitude toward his enemies. And ultimately, God says, listen, there's only one person in the world who doesn't deserve enemies, and that's me. I'm God, You're not. I'm having mercy on people who are my enemies, and you can't let yours go. I had mercy on the plant, I had mercy on you, Jonah. Do you actually think that you deserve my mercy? And then of a dozen? And I guess that's the question for all of us as it relates to our enemies. Do you actually believe that you deserve the mercy of God? And they don't? Think about that for a moment. Think about what you would have to say to God in order to justify God not being merciful to your enemy, or you not loving your enemy the way God commands you to. You would have to fix your mouth to say to God, God, do you not see that they are not as worthy as I am? Of mercy of love? Do you not see that? God? Do you not see that when you came to me, I was lovable and I deserved the grace that you showered upon me? Do you not see God that it would have been foolish for you not to save me seeing how great I am? And yet these individuals have none of those qualities that I had. Therefore they are not Do you see how ridiculous that sounds? Who do you think you are? Yeah? But you don't know what they did to me? Oh? I don't, but I bet it's not worse than what they did to the guy who said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Yeah, well that was Jesus. That's God in the flesh on the cross as he's being crucified. Really, how about you turned to the right with me and look at one more passage scripture. Turn to the book of Acts, Acts, chapter eight, since Jesus is so far above us chapter seven. Actually, sorry, chapter seven, Acts, chapter seven, beginning of verse fifty four. Now, when they heard these things, they were enraged. This is after Stephen's sermons, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, behold, I see the heavens opened, and the son of Man standing at the right hand of God. But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, Lord Jesus received my spirit, and falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, he died. Was he divine too? No he wasn't. He was a weak, frail, flesh and blood man, just like you and me. And he looked into the face of people who were in the process of killing him, and he demonstrated Christian love. What did you say they were doing to you? Again? What did you say you had against them? Again? I'm sorry? What was that wrong that you could not get beyond? Remember the love that we show our enemies, it's defined by God's love, not this sappy Greco Roman myth. The love we show our enemies is motivated by obedience to God. It's evidence of our sonship. It's an outgrowth and even an expression of the love that our God has for his enemies, which by the way, includes you and me. So what does this mean? A couple of things. First, let me tell you again what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean sappy sentimentality. And Stephen prays for these brothers. Stephen is not saying, oh, look he has a stone in his head, And how my heart is drawn toward him right now. That's not what Stephen is saying in this moment. It's not sappy sentimentality. It's not. Here's the other thing. It does not mean that we simply allow wrongs against ourselves. We saw that last week. It doesn't mean that. It doesn't mean that we're somehow more godly if we don't stand up when we need to. But what does it look like. Here's what it looks like. Here's what it looks like. Let me give you a battlefield example. There's so many battlefield examples as it relates, especially to the battles that we're fighting today. And one of the interesting thing about the battles that we're fighting today is that we see a worldview battle going on. We see people, on the one hand, who, no matter how far we fall in as a culture, we still are very much informed by a Christian ethic, very much informed by a Christian ethic, and a lot of the traditions that we have and military traditions and things of that nature, are very much informed by a Christian ethic. And we are fighting against a foe who is very much not only informed by, but motivated by and drenched in an Islamic ethic. Here's one of the differences. There is a fierce battle, and the battle is over. When the battle is over, our medics go bring in our wounded and theirs and mend them and care for them and treat them with dignity and respect. Men whose guns were trained on them just hours earlier. What sense does that make? None unless you are remotely familiar with this sixth antithesis. Love your enemies. That's the difference between people who say we need to go over there and turn that place into a parking lot. Least need to nuke them all. I can hear the Lord talking to Jonah sitting outside and enever it really you want a nuke Afghanistan? Do you know how many babies live there, how many helpless, defenseless people who have absolutely nothing to do with what's going on? Is that really what you want? Just wipe out the whole place? Is it really? Yeah? Well God has done that in the past, he sure has. But we're talking about you. Here's another way that expresses itself. Every last one of us in this room have people and our own families who hate our guts almost as much as we hate theirs. You can't say amen, you ought to say ouch. That's all of us, all of us, we do. We have people in our families that they despise us, and we despise them right back. Love your enemies. Why can't you say happy birthday to people on their birthday? Huh? Why can't you send people a card at their anniversary? Why can't you offer condolence when there's a loss. Why can't you do that? Yes, but you don't understand what they did to me. No, I don't, and I really don't care. Because if Stephen can fall to his knees the moment before he dies, you can send a birthday card, you can pick up the phone and say you know what I heard about your loss, and I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry and I'm praying for you. And that's all of us, me included. We stand up here and we tell you week after week after week that preaching is oftentimes a relief when it comes to passages like this. It's a relief. And today was a relief. It really was. It really was a relief to preach this. Why because I just couldn't wait to just unleash this on you, Because you guys just deserve it so much. No, I just wanted to share in the beating God's been whipping me all week long. I just looked forward to it being spread out a little bit. Amen. I have enemies just like you, and I would say that I don't always respond appropriately to my enemies, but that would be overstating my disposition. It would be wrong to say I don't always respond this way to my enemies. I usually don't respond this way to my enemies. That's worse than I don't always. I usually don't when people wrong me. This is not kind of knee jerk reaction for me. This usually has to come about after a process of me recognizing these truths again and reminding myself of these truths again, and then we got to come with brokenness and repentance and all this other stuff. That's why I'm so just happy and overjoyed in those moments where it happens right. And that's why I'm also very quick during those moments when it happens right to say Lord, thank you for that evidence of sonship, because that wasn't my normal disposition. That was not dirty, Harry, that resides inside me. That's how we do this here's a final one. There may even be people around you today whom you consider an enemy. And I'm not just talking about other members of this church, sir. I'm talking about your wife right next to you, ma'am. I'm talking about your husband right next to you. You know the one that you were saying nasty things too, just a couple of hours ago. You know the one that you know, the one that some days you fight with all the way up into the church parking a lot, and then y'all stop so nobody sees. You. Don't ask me how I know that happens. Sometimes I read a lot. Okay, Love your enemy, Love your enemy. Sometimes there are people within our household who are acting like our enemies. Love your enemies, within, without, near, far. Love your enemies, and remember that it is him who works in us, both to will and to do. It is a good pleasure. Love your enemies like Christ loved his enemies, Because the beautiful thing that Jesus demonstrates is this. When you love your enemies, sometimes you have the incredible privilege of seeing an enemy become a friend. That's what he did with us, and he can do it in our lives and through us. With others. Let's pray