Love Your Enemies

I want to start off with just dealing with the last couple verses of our text. Judge not and you will not be judged. It’s one of the most misused verses in the Bible, in my opinion. Oftentimes it gets used by people to say, you can’t judge me for speaking ill of somebody else, or you can’t judge me for living together with my boyfriend or girlfriend before we’re married, or you can’t judge me for practicing lesbianism or homosexuality, or being angry or judgmental. You can’t judge me. That’s not what Jesus is saying. What Jesus is saying is, you have no right to judge hearts. And the reason for that is very simple. We can’t read them. Other places in the Bible tell us specifically that we are to judge teachings. And when we find false teaching, false teachers, God commands us to withdraw ourselves from them. That’s judgmental. God commands us in other parts of the Bible to judge words and actions that are sinful, to warn people about their sin, to admonish them, and call them to repentance. He commands us to do those things. That’s judgmental. But even as we do those things, we are to do those things, not judging the heart. Because finally, I don’t know what’s going on in a person’s heart. The person who’s caught in an outward sin, inwardly they may be a believer in Jesus, struggling along. I can’t know that. Only God can know that. So my approach to them has to be from the outward appearance what I can see. Okay, with that, let’s go into the rest of our text. How would you have felt if you were Joseph in Egypt, seeing your brothers for the first time? (congregation chuckles) Yeah, the last time you’d seen your brothers, they had sold you into slavery. Oh, and by the way, that was the lesser decision. They at first were contemplating killing you. See, your brothers were contemplating killing you, then sold you into slavery. Do you think that might have stung a little bit? Go, I’m guessing. If I were Joseph, what would I have done? Well, I’m guessing that I might have done what I think most of us humans tend to do when people somehow hurt us. What do most of us humans tend to do when someone hurts us? I think what most of us tend to do is we tend to hold onto it, and we tend to think about it, and we toss it around in our brain kinda over and over and over again. Oh, and as we do, we try to figure out what our response is gonna be. And I’m guessing most of the time, our thought about response isn’t, “I wonder how I can tell them “that Jesus loves them and forgives them.” I’m guessing that’s not what most of us are thinking. What most of us are thinking, unfortunately, sadly, is how can I get back? How can I show that person? How can I prove to them that I’m right and they’re wrong? How would you have reacted if you were Joseph? And those brothers have shown up. You’ve had a lot of time to toss this around in your brain. You’ve had a lot of time to think about how you could respond if you ever saw them again. And not only so, but now hear your brothers come, and they’re bowing down before you. They’re not coming as beggars, per se. They’ve got some money and some stuff. But boy, they’re definitely in need. They’re struggling. Can you imagine how easy it would have been for Joseph to think, “Oh, dear brothers of mine, “you who sold me into slavery. “The shoe is on the other foot, brothers. “And you’re expecting me to help you out with food? “Are you using some of the money “you got from selling me into slavery to buy that food? “Oh, brothers of mine.” That’s not what Joseph did. Forgave them. Provided for them. (congregation laughing) It sounds an awful lot like what Jesus says in our text. Love your enemies. Do good to those who persecute you. And I would think at first glance, you and I would hear those words, and we’d go, “That’s crazy talk. “Are you kidding me? “Love my enemies? “Do good to people who are abusing me? “Who are persecuting me? “That’s nuts. “Won’t I become a doormat?” Joseph’s brothers deserved to be hammered by him. And I would guess if Joseph had hammered them, you and I might have cheered. Yep, they got what was coming. (congregation laughing) Would we cheer if God chose to hammer us? God says to us, “Love the Lord your God “with all your heart, soul, and strength.” Do we? Are you willing to give up your house for Jesus? Willing to give up your car for Jesus? Are we willing to give up our phones, our hobbies, our parents, spouse, children, grandchildren, for Jesus? Do we really love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength? Would other things get first priority in our lives? God says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If we were to do that, we would always, only always, treat everyone with kindness and respect. Oh, it wouldn’t matter what race they were. It wouldn’t matter what gender they were. It wouldn’t matter what political persuasion they were. It wouldn’t matter what background they were. We would only show kindness, compassion, respect. If we really loved our neighbor as ourself, we would put our neighbor’s best interests, even before our own. And we would do that all the time, always, without exception, never failing, not once. And if we fail to love God with all our heart, soul, and strength, and if we fail to perfectly love our neighbor as ourselves, we prove ourselves to be God’s enemy. How many enemies of God are there in here today? I should see every hand up at this point. How many enemies of God do we have in here today? Let’s see the hands. Every single one of us. And the reason I had you actually raise your hands is because we need to acknowledge this about ourselves. We deserve to have God hammer us. And then we look at Jesus. What does Jesus do? He takes the hammering. As the Jewish religious leaders condemned him, spit at him, mocked him, ridiculed him, struck him on the head, he never retaliated. As the soldiers are nailing his hands through, what’s he doing? Praying for them. Father, forgive them. Can you imagine? The ones who deserve to be hammered aren’t. The one who didn’t deserve to be hammered was because he wanted to forgive you and he wanted to forgive me. He wanted to show us love, not condemnation. He wanted to give us a home in heaven, not an eternity in hell. Love your enemies. Do good to those who persecute you. Huh. When we do that, we’re doing exactly what Jesus did. Is that so crazy? Of course not. Because Jesus would never do what was crazy. Jesus would only and always do what was right, what was perfect. Oh, and by the way, when we love our enemies, when we do good to those who persecute us, who gets blessed? Well, certainly they do, but you know who else does? We do. Jesus says if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? The Greek word that’s translated credit is the Greek word grace. In other words, we should probably better translate that passage. If you do good to those who do good to you, what grace is that to you? What’s Jesus saying? Well, it seems to me that what he’s saying is that when we reflect the undeserved love of God to others, when we understand and appreciate what God has done for us, and then we reflect that to others, it helps us to appreciate the grace of God just a bit more. Huh, this person didn’t deserve my forgiveness, but I’m giving it anyway. Maybe that helps me understand just a little bit more about how God felt when he forgave me. And that’s a grace to me. So by loving my enemies, by doing good to those who persecute me, I end up getting blessed. Oh, and by the way, so did Joseph. What if Joseph hadn’t shown love to his brothers? What if he hadn’t forgiven them? What if Joseph had said to them, “Sorry, guys, “you messed it up and I’m not fixing this.” And the brothers had gone home and ended up dying in that famine, which was a very real possibility. They were struggling after only two years of the famine. There’s five more years to go. What if they had died? Well, Joseph might have felt some degree of short-term satisfaction. I showed them. But he would have ended up tasting an eternity in hell. Why? Because the line of the Savior did not run through Joseph. The line of the Savior ran through Judah. And if Judah dies in the famine, humanly speaking, the line of the Savior dies with him. So if Joseph had failed to love his enemies as himself, who would have been really hurt? Joseph, along with a whole bunch of others, by the way. Now, do you think Joseph understood all that? As he did what he did? Oh, I doubt it. But did Joseph get majorly blessed through loving his enemies as himself? Oh, my did he ever. And did a whole bunch of others get majorly blessed because Joseph loved his enemies as himself? Yes, every single one of us here. Because humanly speaking, it was through Joseph’s love of his undeserved love for his brothers that the line of the Savior was kept alive. So that Jesus could come and win salvation for you and for me and for the world. Love your enemy, love your enemies. Do good to those who persecute you and mistreat you. Maybe those words aren’t so crazy after all. Because after all, that’s exactly what Jesus did for you, for me, and for all. Amen? – Amen. – And amen.