Love Your Enemies

On this Remembrance Sunday morning our theme, as we carry on with our studies in Luke’s Gospel is “Love your enemies.” We will be looking at Luke 6.27-36. And my headings are first, LOVE AND DO GOOD; secondly, DOES JESUS MEAN ALL HE SAYS? and thirdly, THREE TYPES OF PEOPLE.

It is providential that our series of sermons has brought us to these verses in Luke’s Gospel on this Remembrance Sunday. They have teaching that is relevant to issues of War and Peace. But by way of introduction let me ask a question: “what is the difference between a pagan and a Christian attitude to sacrificing your life in war?”

On some War Memorials there are words of the pagan Roman poet, Horace:

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.

Translated that means, “it is sweet and noble to die for your Fatherland.” By contrast on other War Memorials are the words of Jesus himself, from John’s Gospel chapter 15 verse 13:

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

Those two quotations highlight a fundamental difference and it is this. Horace’s poem shows that the great motive for Roman young men dying in War is to give the Roman army a reputation for heroism that will terrify their enemies. But when Jesus talks of self-sacrifice he links it to the Christian virtue of love – of love for those for whom someone is willing to die. In fact such sacrificial love defines what love is. 1 John 3.16 says:

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

According to Jesus and the Bible, the great motive for, and the great end of, all ethical action, and not just ethical warfare, is to be love. That is why on this Remembrance Sunday morning it is good that we are being made to think about love and what Jesus means by love. Well, so much by way of introduction. That brings us to our …

… first heading, LOVE AND DO GOOD;

Look at verses 27-28:

But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

The context for these words is Jesus’ sermon to the crowds on (chapter 6 verse 17) a “level place”. And he started off, as you see in the previous verses, with statements of “blessing” for believers and of “woes” for those who lived for themselves and the present. But now, beginning the main part of the sermon, he majors on “love”. And this teaching underlines that love is at the heart of the Christian faith. It is of the essence of Almighty God. He is our loving Creator God. 1 John 4.8 says “God is love” and that statement is repeated a few verses later.

Then New Testament Christianity is seen as a response to that love of God for sinners in sending Jesus to die for our sins. “Love” is then seen as the number one Christian grace or virtue. Paul writes in Gal 5.22-23 about the fruit of the Holy Spirit. He says first of all comes “love”:

“the fruit of the Spirit is love, [then he goes on] joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

So what should be the first mark of a Christian? Answer: love. “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (says Jesus in John 13.35). With love, therefore, at the heart of God and of the Christian faith, it is not surprising that Jesus majors on love in this sermon. But what does Jesus mean by love?

There are three words in Greek which can be translated by the English word “love”. One is erōs – that is sexual love – the love between a man and a women, romantic love. Then there is philia which is friendship and affection. But then, for the Christian (and the word that distinguishes the New Testament), there is agapē – divine love. And this love is to be mirrored in the life of the believer. And, says Jesus here (verse 26), mirrored through loving “your enemies”.

But are you meant to “feel” loving towards your enemies? No! For this love is not about “feelings”. That is why it can be commanded in a way certainly “erōs” cannot be. You cannot be told to “fall in love” with your enemies. But you can be told to show “agapē” love towards them. For this love involves action and the will, rather than feelings and natural desire. So Jesus explains in verse 27 that what is involved in “loving your enemies” is “doing good”, not “feeling good”. Verses 27-28 say:

“do good to those who hate you, bless [literally ‘speak well or positively to’] those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

That means you are not actively to reply in kind, but the reverse. You are to go good to, speak kindly to, and pray for such opponents. Is that how you react at work, or anywhere else for that matter, when people are unpleasant to you or oppose you?

I have just come back from an Anglican church conference in Abuja, Nigeria. All this is a great issue for Christians in Nigeria at the moment. Just over a week ago, churches were being destroyed and Christians killed in Northern Nigeria by extremist Muslims. Apparently they were threatening Abuja, this past week. So we had a police escort to and from the airport. And there was tight security at the huge church building we met in.

Of course, these verses challenge us, too, when the opposition is not so violent. But you then ask, “does Jesus really mean all he says here in these verses?” Well, that is our …

… second heading, DOES JESUS MEAN ALL HE SAYS?

Look at verses 29-31:

“If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

The most important thing with these verses is first of all to take them on board without trying to think of exceptions. Jesus’ first followers did that. So Paul writes in Rom 12:17 and 19:

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil … Do not take revenge”, and (1 Th 5:15) “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.”

Nor was it only Paul who said this - so did Peter:

(1 Pet 3:9) “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”

So this is part of your Christian calling - not to seek revenge or repay evil with evil.

However, if you are honest, don’t you often feel (notice that word) like seeking revenge when someone wrongs you? But at that point your will and your mind have to take over. You must say “No!” to your feelings and instincts. And, in God’s strength, you must “act” differently towards the person concerned, even though you may still have hostile feelings. The Puritans used to call this (following biblical teaching) “mortification” – putting to death things in you that are wrong.

But Jesus is not only saying that practical love involves no vengeance. He is also, secondly, saying that it means being generous and not greedy. Verses 29a and 30:

“If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.”

And, thirdly, he is saying practical love is not just a question of negatives (of not taking vengeance or not being greedy). It is also positively seeking opportunities of doing good. That is so important. This comes from the Golden Rule of verse 31:

“Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

This appears in many religions and philosophies but – and it is a big “but” - in the negative form. In the Apocryphal Book of Tobit 4.15, for example, you read: “What you hate, do not do to anyone.” The ancient Rabbi Hillel was once asked to recite the whole law while he stood on one leg. So he said:

“What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole law and all the rest is commentary.”

But an ethics that consists of “not-doing” doesn’t compare with Jesus’ call for positive and unlimited good action. So – a small example: when you are with new people, do you like them being friendly towards you? Well, make sure when you see people looking lonely – for example, in church – be friendly and go out of your way to make them feel welcome. It is not just a question of not being rude.

There are 1000s of applications of this Golden Rule. It is all about thinking of opportunities for doing good and not just avoiding doing what is bad. But still someone is saying, “do I really have to turn the other cheek when someone punches me in the face? Do I really have to show a burglar where to find my super new high powered lap-top when he has only so far found the carrying case?” Well, “No!”

You must always remember Article XX of the Church of England’s Thirtynine Articles. It says you may not “so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another.” That is to say, you have to balance Scripture with Scripture. So in thinking about this passage you need to remember what happened at Jesus’ trial. You read in John 18:22-23 that

“one of the officials nearby struck him in the face. ‘Is this the way you answer the high priest?’ he demanded. ‘If I said something wrong,’ Jesus replied, ‘testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?’”

Jesus didn’t turn the other cheek on this occasion. You also need to realize that Eastern writing can be poetic, evoking pictures for the imagination and not just reasons for logical argument. And then you need to realize that Jesus is here talking to those who are seeking to follow him directly. He is talking to “you who hear me”.

Most importantly he is addressing them as individuals. And the command in Rom 12.19: “Do not take revenge” is for individuals. But that verse goes on “leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.” And you then read a few verses later in Romans 13 verse 4 that even before the final judgment day, the State is commissioned to be God’s agent to exercise judgment or “God’s wrath”, now, in the present – Romans 13.4:

“For [the ruler] is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.”

Such punishment is “love” in the public realm. For “love” seeks the good of all not just of some individuals. In this fallen world love supports “justice” and not “injustice”. So God’s love in the public square is “justice” but exercised by the State. And remember discipline and punishment is a mark of divine love. Hebrews 12.6 says:

“the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.

If you want the best for a child, you don’t let it do just what it wants. So it with God and us.

And that is obviously relevant for “Just War” theory. For what if your personal enemy is being unjustly attacked by a third party or an invading army? Do you just stand by and say, “jolly good”? No! In time Christians argued for a “just war” theory to deal with situations like that. Nor was war justified as self-defence but rather as a means of ensuring justice. So the personal or individual turning of the other cheek was not denied. It was simply that Just War theory regulated the political power of the State in seeking public justice. Just War theory was not to justify war but to bring war under the restraints of moral standards that apply to other acts of government.

One summary of a just war is that its cause needs to be righteous; its means controlled and its outcome predictable. I wrote about all this in a Coloured Supplement in May 1999 and it is on the web. Time forbids me to say anymore except to say: yes, Jesus does mean all he says; but other things are also said in the Bible; these, too, need to be heeded. So that brings us …

thirdly, and finally to THREE TYPES OF PEOPLE.

Look now at verses 32-36:

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

There are, in fact, three kinds of people in the world. First, there are people who repay evil with evil. These are people who live entirely for themselves. C.S.Lewis spoke of

“those who live simply for their own sake and pleasure, regarding Man and Nature as so much raw material to be cut up into whatever shape may serve them.”

Such an attitude has been characteristic of much of the West since the 1960s with dire consequences. A society in which individuals live for themselves will see two things – an increase of greed and an increase of sexual immorality. We are seeing both and with dire consequences.

But there is a second type. These people appear nice moral people. They appear to be loving and doing good. Indeed they are loving and doing good. However, it is simply loving and doing good to those who will love and do good to them. It is evidence of another ethic of self and self-interest. Like many Jews of Jesus day, they love their neighbours, but only if they are of their own sort (as many Jews only loved their Jewish neighbours). But this is not what God wants.

For there are a third type of people. These are those who don’t just act for what they can get out of it. Instead they “love their enemies” even when they do not get anything in return. These are people who are, as Jesus says, “Sons of the Most High”. They show they are truly born again into God’s family as they have that family likeness. For they seek to be like God. And verse 35 tells us …

“he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”

So the question for this morning is this: “which of those three types of people are you?”

Are you living simply for yourself and this present world and either through greed or sex simply using other people for your own benefit?

Or are you a respectable self-centred person, who is kind to others but still for your own benefit if the truth be known - as it will one day, at the final judgment day.

Or are you of that third type? Through faith in Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit you are verse 35, a son or daughter “of the Most High”? And the evidence of that new birth is that you are seeking to be “kind to the ungrateful and wicked” – people who will not benefit you.

I must conclude

On this Remembrance Sunday we should remember with thanks those who have died for our freedom.

But supremely we should remember Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God and the perfect man who gave his life in the perfect sacrifice. That was paying the penalty for us all who, whether respectable or not, are “ungrateful and wicked”.

Therefore, if you have never done so, trust Jesus Christ this morning - for the forgiveness of your sins – those sins of selfishness, unrespectable or respectable - and for the Holy Spirit to give you new life in Jesus Christ.

And if you have done so and are trusting in Christ, pray for his Holy Spirit to strengthen you so that you can obey more and more Jesus’ command in verse 36 to “be merciful, just as your Father is merciful”.