Love Your Enemies Was a Command, Not a Suggestion

Sermon outline

When you position yourself before God with honesty, as David did, He changes the condition of your heart, and true repentance shows itself in forgiving daily and loving your enemies, which Jesus gave as a command.

1. Everybody needs to go through change

   Change is a constant: if we are not changing, we are not standing still but dying. Some changes are easy adjustments; others deal with our character, take years, and do not appease the flesh. The Spirit gives the grace to embrace them. Peter went from rough fisherman to apostle, Paul was thrown off his high horse, and John, a son of thunder, became the apostle Jesus loved.

   Illustration: He admits he used to be a son of thunder himself: when he was angry, he let the thunder go on everybody, until God changed him.

   “As long as we are changing, we are growing.”

   • Acts 26:28-29
   • Acts 1:8

2. Position yourself and God changes your condition

   David came to God in Psalm 51 with honesty and transparency: blot out my transgressions, create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit within me. God already sees the heart, but the honesty must come from our mouth. When we position ourselves like David, the Holy Spirit shows us what needs to change, and when He has changed it, teaching His ways to others becomes easy.

   Illustration: God has a sense of humour: He will put the very person who wronged you in front of you, greeting you with a hug and a kiss while you both know what was done.

   “When we position ourselves correctly, it changes our condition.”

   • Psalm 51:1-13

3. A life of perpetual forgiveness

   If we want to be forgiven, we need to forgive. Peter asked whether seven times was enough, and Jesus answered seventy times seven, which in truth means daily. Even the people we love will falter, and we still walk in the love of Christ. Forgiveness is an act of the will and not the emotions, and when we act from the will, the emotions submit to the Spirit and we begin to pray for the offender.

   “Forgiveness is an act of the will and not the emotions.”

   • Matthew 18:21-22

4. Love your enemies: a command, not a suggestion

   Jesus Himself said to love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who despitefully use you. It is a command from the same Jesus who gives us access to the Father. Refuse to let self-pity crawl back in, rehearsing what they did and said, because feeling sorry for yourself is a dead work, and dead works involve no faith.

   “It wasn't a suggestion, but it was a command.”

   • Matthew 5:44

5. Repent and believe

   The whole message of the Bible comes in the order repent, then believe. Many who say they struggle with faith have never met the condition of repentance. False repentance is remorse: sorry words without a changed mind or surrender to the lordship of Jesus. True repentance is metanoeo, a 180-degree turn from our way to the Lord's, asking in every act whether it will glorify Him. Then times of refreshing come, and the double blessing and great grace are in that refreshing.

   Illustration: Modifying your behaviour just enough for people to like you only sets up the perfect storm; the devil springs the trap and everything falls apart.

   “People who say that they are struggling with faith, it's not that they are struggling with faith, but they may have never met the condition of repentance.”

   • Mark 1:15
   • Acts 3:19

6. Your deliverance comes before they ever say sorry

   He tells of a woman in last year's discipleship class who, after the teaching on forgiveness, forgave a family member for a grave wrong done to her as a child. She experienced peace for the first time in her life, and within three months the man came to her house unannounced, in tears, to ask her forgiveness. Her deliverance came before he arrived, because she had already forgiven. Then think on what is true, honourable and worthy of praise, and the peace of God will be with you.

   Illustration: A woman of nearly fifty, a Christian, who had never known peace, found it for the first time on the day she forgave.

   “Your positioning yourself correctly will change your heart condition, and you'll be able to move forward irrespective of whether the perpetrator is there or not.”

   • Philippians 4:4-9

In this message