Maybe you find that hard. Maybe you don’t have many serious enemies. Maybe its just the driver who cuts in front of you in the traffic. Or maybe it’s the boss who makes unreasonable demands. Or maybe it’s the followers of a different political party. Maybe its just someone who irritates you and makes your life unpleasant. But I’m sure there are some of us who’ve got more serious enemies. Maybe there’s someone who’s bullying you at school. Maybe there’s a family member who’s been abusing you. Maybe there’s someone you know who’s raped you. These are more serious enemies. They arouse stronger feelings of hatred. But I want you to see, when Jesus speaks about enemies here, He’s including all kinds of enemies. You can see that from the many different examples He uses. So in verse 44 it clearly includes those who persecute you. Whether its minor persecution like we face in south Africa: (insults… slander… people who avoid you for being a Christian); or whether its major persecution like in North Korea where Christians are being tortured and killed. Jesus calls us to love our persecutors. In verse 45 it includes evil people, unrighteous people, people who’ve rejected God and are living in wickedness. Jesus calls us to love evil people. In verse 46, loving your enemies means more than just loving those people who love you. In other words it includes those who don’t like you. I’m sure you know people like that. People who see you regularly, but it’s obvious there’s no friendliness. No warmth. No concern for you. Jesus calls us to love those people.
Maybe you find that hard. Maybe you don’t have many serious enemies. Maybe its just the driver who cuts in front of you in the traffic. Or maybe it’s the boss who makes unreasonable demands. Or maybe it’s the followers of a different political party. Maybe its just someone who irritates you and makes your life unpleasant. But I’m sure there are some of us who’ve got more serious enemies. Maybe there’s someone who’s bullying you at school. Maybe there’s a family member who’s been abusing you. Maybe there’s someone you know who’s raped you. These are more serious enemies. They arouse stronger feelings of hatred. But I want you to see, when Jesus speaks about enemies here, He’s including all kinds of enemies. You can see that from the many different examples He uses. So in verse 44 it clearly includes those who persecute you. Whether its minor persecution like we face in south Africa: (insults… slander… people who avoid you for being a Christian); or whether its major persecution like in North Korea where Christians are being tortured and killed. Jesus calls us to love our persecutors. In verse 45 it includes evil people, unrighteous people, people who’ve rejected God and are living in wickedness. Jesus calls us to love evil people. In verse 46, loving your enemies means more than just loving those people who love you. In other words it includes those who don’t like you. I’m sure you know people like that. People who see you regularly, but it’s obvious there’s no friendliness. No warmth. No concern for you. Jesus calls us to love those people.