Sermon Tone Analysis

Love Your Enemies

Luke 6:27-36

I. Introduction

A. Then Jesus described how his disciples were to live as citizens of the kingdom of God.

Unlike many preachers, Jesus did not soft-peddle his message.

B. He did not try to sugar coat what he was about to say.

C.

He did not ease into his message with a funny story aimed to set his disciples at ease.

No.

D. Jesus immediately gave his disciples what commentator Philip Graham Ryken calls “The Hardest Commandment.”

E. All of us find some people easy to love and others more difficult to love.

And, if we probed deep enough, we would discover that there are some people we really don’t like at all.

In fact, some of us might even admit to hating them.

F. In his outstanding commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Philip Ryken tells the story of Ernest Gordon who wrestled with the question of loving our enemies.

1) Ernest Gordon was a prisoner of war in the infamous Japanese work camp on the River Kwai during World War II.

Extremely harsh conditions brought Gordon to the verge of death.

Finally, Gordon writes,

i.

I was headed for the Death House.

I was so ill that I didn’t much care.

But I was hardly prepared for what I found there.

The Death House had been built at one of the lowest points of the camp.

The monsoon was on, and, as a result, the floor of the hut was a sea of mud.

And there were the smells: tropical ulcers eating into flesh and bone; latrines overflowed; unwashed men, untended men, sick men, humanity gone sour, humanity rotting . . . .

The last shreds of my numbed sensibilities rebelled against my surroundings – against the bed bugs, the lice, the stenches, the blood-mucous-excrement-stained sleeping platforms, the dying and the dead bedmates, the victory of corruption.

This was the lowest level of life.

2) In the providence of God, and through the compassion of some of his army friends, Gordon did not die, but survived.

More than that, he and many of the men in his camp came to faith in Jesus Christ.

They learned to love each other.

3) Yet they still found it impossible to love their enemies.

As Gordon writes,

i.

We had learned from the gospels that Jesus had his enemies just as we had ours.

But there was a difference: he loved his enemies.

He prayed for them.

Even as the nails were being hammered through his hands and feet, he cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

We hated our enemies.

We could see how wonderful it was that Jesus forgave in this way.

Yet for us to do the same seemed beyond our attainment.

G. Whether it seems beyond attainment or not, Jesus commands all his disciples to love their enemies.

H.

If you are a Christian here today, if you are a disciple of Jesus, then today’s message is aimed directly at you and me.

I.

And if you are not yet a Christian, then I have good news for you.

Today, you also will learn how to love your enemies

J.

The context for this commandment is significant.

Jesus had just called twelve men to be his apostles.

1) These were the divinely appointed ambassadors who would preach his gospel to the world.

2) But no sooner had he called them than he began to teach them what it would mean to follow him.

3) Jesus pronounced four blessings on his apostles, and on everyone who would suffer for his sake.

4) They would have to endure poverty, hunger, sorrow, and persecution, but in their suffering they would know his blessing.

(Luke 6:20-23)

5) Jesus also pronounced four woes against self-satisfied people who were living for the pleasures of the moment and thought they could do without God.

(Luke 6:24-26)

6) According to Jesus, therefore, there are two kinds of people: people who suffer for his sake and have his blessing, and people who live for themselves and will come to an unhappy end.

7) But how should the first group relate to the second group?

In other words, how should the true disciples of Jesus Christ respond to people who persecute them?[1]

II.

The Command about Loving Our Enemies

Luke 6:27 27 “But I say to you who listen: Love your enemies, do what is good to those who hate you 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

A. Four Commands to Loving our Enemies (6:27b-28)

1) Love your Enemies

i.

This was counter to the culture of the day and today

ii.

Jesus’ disciples must have been taken aback.

What?

Love our enemies?

How in the world do we love our enemies?

iii.

This is where knowledge of Greek is helpful.

In English we have one word for love.

But, as Leon Morris notes,

a) There are several words for love in Greek.

Jesus was not asking for storge, natural affection, nor for eros, romantic love, nor for philia, the love of friendship.

b) He was speaking of agape, which means love even of the unworthy, love which is not drawn out by merit in the beloved but which proceeds from the fact that the lover chooses to be a loving person.

iv.

Agape is different from all other loves.

It is not a love based on natural affection, romantic love, or friendship.

It is a love based on a deliberate, willful choice toward another and empowered by God.

v.

As Phil Ryken says, “Jesus called his disciples to show a deliberate affection that was not based on what people deserved, but on the grace of God.”

vi.

Deuteronomy 32:35 35 Vengeance belongs to Me; I will repay.

In time their foot will slip, for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”

vii.

Proverbs 25:21 21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;

viii.

Romans 12:17-21 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil.

Try to do what is honorable in everyone’s eyes.

18 If possible, on your part, live at peace with everyone.

19 Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for His wrath.

For it is written: Vengeance belongs to Me; I will repay, says the Lord.

20 But If your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head.

21 Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.

ix.

What about enemies?