Love Your Enemies

Father, Your Word says that in Your presence there is fullness of joy—joy forevermore. As I prepare to give Your word, I confess that my heart desires to find my joy and satisfaction in You alone. But sometimes I feel the weight of hurt, the sting of rejection, the struggle to forgive—and it reminds me that I am still alive and living in a fallen world. But Lord, it is here—in the ache of life—that Your call to love shines brightest. Not love that comes easily, not love that flatters me, but love that stretches me. Love that looks like Jesus. So as I open Your Word today, I ask: strip me of every distraction in my heart, mind, and soul. Silence in me the noise of pride or fear, and ready my heart—and our hearts—to hear You clearly. May this not be about my words, but about Your Word, alive and piercing, healing and freeing. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

The Most Radical Command I want to invite you to open your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 6, verse 27. Let me also welcome those joining us online—we're honored to gather with you to hear what one writer has called the most radical, most difficult command Jesus ever gave. Another said these words are the summit of Christian love—the highest peak of the mountain. And rightly so. Because in a perfect world, love would be easy and natural. In a perfect world, there would be no evil, hurt, or pain. But that's not the world we live in. C.S. Lewis once wrote in Mere Christianity: "Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.” Think for a moment how radical the idea of forgiveness really is. We live in a world that says "An eye for an eye." A world that celebrates getting even. A world where the person who hurt you first is supposed to pay. It's in our books, our movies—all around us we're taught to get what's yours. But then Jesus shows up and flips the script entirely. He tells us to love one another, and through this love, people will know we are His disciples. And I think about this, and I go... man, loving the people who have hurt me is so unnatural to me. It’s not in me. Maybe you feel that too. It’s easy to nod your head in church and say, “Amen, love your enemies.” But it gets a whole lot harder when the face of that person flashes in your memory—the words, the betrayal, the wound—and you feel it all over again. That’s where this gets radical. Real, Christ-like forgiveness is not some shallow idea—it’s one of the highest, hardest calls of the Christian life. It’s what I’d call the ascent of love. It’s love climbing higher than your wounds, higher than your bitterness, higher than that instinct to get even. And you might ask, “Okay, but what does that even look like?” Let me give you just one example…

The Text: Luke 6:27-31 "But I say to you who listen: Love your enemies, do what is good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If anyone hits you on the cheek, offer the other also. And if anyone takes away your coat, don't hold back your shirt either. Give to everyone who asks you, and from someone who takes your things, don't ask for them back. Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them.”

Let's unpack this. If you're taking notes, write this down: "Here's the call: Because you’ve been loved without conditions, you can now love without conditions. Jesus is saying love without holding back. Full love. No reserves. No condemnation. Not the kind of love where you smile on the outside but secretly resent on the inside. He's talking about a love that goes deeper than feelings, deeper than politeness—it's a love that pours out even when it costs us. Let's be honest—that kind of love requires something we don't have in ourselves. We don't naturally bless those who curse us. We don't naturally pray for those who mistreat us. Our natural response is to protect, fight back, defend ourselves. What Jesus is calling us to here is not just higher morality—it's a supernatural reality. It's the Spirit of God producing in us what we could never produce on our own.

What Jesus Is NOT Saying Before we dive deeper, I need to pause because I know some of you are thinking, "Wait a minute, Pastor. Are you telling me I'm supposed to be a doormat? Should I just let people walk all over me? That's a fair question, because Jesus's words could be easily misunderstood. Let me be clear about what Jesus is NOT calling us to: First, Jesus isn't saying we should never resist evil. If the devil is prowling around trying to destroy your life, your family, your faith - what do you do? Resist him! —Later in the Bible, James 4:7 says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” So Jesus is not saying, don’t resist evil. Second, Jesus isn't saying we should be okay with evil. Romans 12:9 says we should "abhor what is evil." That word means to hate it, to be disgusted by it. Third, Jesus isn't telling us to never confront people doing wrong. Jesus himself gave us a process in Matthew 18 for addressing sin. But remember—being confrontational isn't about proving you're right. It's about making a wrong heart right. It's not about winning an argument; it's about winning a brother or sister back into relationship through love. Fourth, Jesus isn't saying we should never separate from dangerous people. Sometimes love means creating distance. If someone is abusing you or your children, loving them doesn't mean staying in harm's way. Finally, Jesus obviously supports justice. When someone commits a crime, they should face consequences. So Jesus isn't asking us to be pushovers or enable evil or ignore injustice.

What Jesus IS Saying So what is Jesus saying? Look at the context. Jesus is talking about personal relationships. He's calling us to selflessly love the people who do evil to us personally. Look at the illustrations: If someone slaps your right cheek (Kid, mom rings? ) —likely a backhanded insult—instead of taking revenge, absorb it and turn the other cheek. If someone wants to unjustly sue you, don't take things from them—be generous. The picture in all these illustrations is selflessness. The only person who can react these ways is someone who has died to themselves. Think about how upside down this is. You mean give what I have to someone who hurt me? Release my grip on what I think I deserve, and instead pour out grace on the one who least deserves it? Yes. That's exactly what Jesus is saying. Because that's exactly what Jesus did, and continues to do for us. Listen, churhc, Love is easy when it costs us nothing. But when love requires us to lay down our rights, our pride, our need for payback—that's when it becomes truly Christlike. But how is that possible? In a world so different from what we've been taught our entire lives, how do we accomplish that? How can we be like that father in the video? Well, look at the five verbs Jesus says in our text…

The Five verbs: A Pathway to Supernatural Love 1. Listen (Verse 27a) "But I say to you who listen..." That sounds familiar, right? Last week we talked about the Shema: "Hear, O Israel." That word "hear" meant more than sound bouncing off your eardrums. It meant hearing in such a way that your whole life bends toward obedience. To hear is to do. To hear is to let the Word take root in your heart until it transforms you. To hear is to let the Word ignite a love for God so real, so consuming, that it spills into every part of your being. And when that love takes root, it doesn't stay contained. It overflows into your hands, your words, your relationships. It's not just love you feel toward God—it's love that reaches other people, even the ones who don't deserve it. This is what the glory of God is—His holiness put on display through His people. When you forgive instead of retaliate, when you bless instead of curse, when you love without conditions—that is God's glory being seen in you. That's exactly what Jesus prayed in John 17: "The glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are one.” The very first verb matters so much: Listen. Because if you don't hear His Word, you'll only hear your wounds. But when you hear His Word, it births worship, and worship births love.

2. Love Your Enemies (Verse 27b) "Love your enemies..." This is agape love—sacrificing love. Love that gives without expecting anything in return. But here's where Jesus meets us. Last week we talked about original sin—the bent of our desires toward disobedience. But before original sin, there was something even greater: original love. So, Don’t miss this: Before you ever fell, you were loved. Before you ever sinned, you were loved. Before you could perform, before you could impress, before you could even respond—you were loved. And think about this, we sometimes hurt others, or we get hurt and we go strait to the pain. The hurt. But what if we first, went strait to the source who loves us? I just think we try to forgive others, in our own love. In our own understanding. But that kind of love is always transactional. I’ll forgive if you change. I’ll love if you love me back. I’ll give if I get something in return. And that kind of love can never survive the weight of real pain. But what if, forginvness flowed from God first? This is the voice of God over you: "I loved you before you could love Me. I loved you before you were capable of receiving love from anyone else. You are not loved because you performed well. You are not loved because people approved of you. You are loved because you are Mine. Think about those words, you are mine. You are the Beloved of God. You belong to Him. He chose you. He set His affection on you. He is jealous for you. Last week we were in Deuteronomy and in chapter 6, if we would have went down a little further into verse 14 and 15, God tells them as they are about to enter into the promise land, “You shall not go after other gods…for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God.” He knows the heart can love anything else other than God. Jealousy is not a picture we usually associate with God. For that matter, jealousy is not an attribute we think about positively at all—and with good reason. In our lives, jealousy is most often wrong. It’s often driven by pride or covetousness or some kind of insecurity in us. But there is a good sort of jealousy that is driven by love, which is exactly what we see in God. God is not insecure. He knows He is infinitely good. He loves His people so much that He wants us to experience our greatest good. He knows that when we focus on gifts and wander after other gods, it will not be good for us. He wants to keep us from that. Remember, God’s covenant with His people is like a marriage relationship. I think about our marriage. I love my wife. I want good for her. She and I both know that God has designed our marriage for both of our good. Which means I am jealous for her affections. Even the thought of her giving her affections to another man is not good. That’s why anyone or anything that threatens to steal her affections from me as her husband will be met with the strongest of opposition. Is that clear? This is good. This is the way marriage is supposed to be. This is the way our relationship with God is supposed to be. He’s infinitely good. He’s infinitely loving. And He’s called us to experience that love in a relationship with Him, because it’s in that relationship that we will experience our greatest good. God has created us for a wholehearted love relationship with Him. Before the world rejected you, before people failed you, before wounds shaped you—God's jealous, pursuing, steadfast love had already claimed you. And that love is unshakable. Which means you don't have to spend your life begging from others what only God can give you. If I'm honest, this is where I see myself so clearly. I feel that need for affection, that pull for affirmation. And if I'm not careful, my life can start to orbit around those needs. Maybe you know what that feels like. You finally hear the words you longed for—and for a moment it feels like water to your soul. But then anxiety creeps in: Was it real? Will I hear it again? Again, I think about our marriage. My courtship with Alicia began with flutters in the stomach, the hunger to always be near her, the "I love yous" and "we complete each other" feelings. But over time, deeper needs for affirmation surfaced in our marriage. Different needs began to rise and we had no clue how to go deeper than, I love you… Over time, One says, "I don't feel seen." The other says, "You don't take us seriously enough." And suddenly, what was meant to bring life begins to feel like a weight no one can carry. Why? Because we start asking another person to do what only God can do. And so, in my own life… Beneath my longing for praise, I've recognized embed within me was rejection—that deep wound that whispers, "You're not enough. You're not really loved.” And listen, Whenever any of us try to live out of that wound, or any wound for that matter, we become needy. But here's the gospel: before rejection ever scarred me, before anyone ever failed me, God's love had already named me His. That's the first love. The original love. The love that says, "I loved you before you could love Me." And, This love is older than any sin. Before Genesis 3—before original sin—there was Genesis 1: "And God saw everything He had made, and behold, it was very good." That’s the Original blessing. Thats the Original love. So, let me ask you… What’s the hurt you keep replaying in your head? Maybe betrayal that still blindsides you. Maybe words that cut so deep you can still hear them. Maybe rejection that makes you wonder if you'll ever be enough. But what if you stopped hitting "replay" on the pain and started rewinding further? Before the wound. Before the betrayal. Before the rejection. Go Back to the beginning. When God looked at creation and said, "It is good." When His first word over you wasn't guilty but good. Listne, churhc, When your heart is focused only on the wrongs done to you, bitterness feels justified. But when your heart shifts back to God's first love, you realize His love is greater than the hurt. You don't have to carry revenge. You can forgive. You can bless. You can even love an enemy. Not because it's natural, but because God's love is more real to you than anything else. So here is our lesson, You can't always control what happens to you. But you can choose to anchor your life in God's love before it happened to you. When we touch the first love, we touch that center of our being where we feel totally loved without condition. When we know the first love, we're free to love people without asking for anything in return. That's not what worldly love is about. Worldly love is transactional. But Jesus says, "Give without expecting anything in return." And here’s the thing: that kind of love never just stays hidden inside. It always moves. It always acts. It always leads us into doing.

3. Do Good to Those Who Hate You (Verse 27c) "Do what is good to those who hate you..." Do you see the progression? Listening roots us in God's love. That original love frees us to love without conditions. But love that never takes shape in action,…….. is incomplete. Jesus doesn't just say "Feel love toward your enemies." He says "Do good to them.” Feeling something and doing something go hand in hand. Its our love for Christ, through his original love, that drives us to do. Or you can get technical and say, it drives us to obey. When someone wounds you, the natural instinct is to pull back, to build walls, and sometimes ot run the other wya… But Jesus says the exact opposite: don't step back—step toward. Move toward them, with good. This is the heart of the gospel. Romans 5:8: "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." While we were enemies, Christ came near and went forward. He didn't wait for us to prove ourselves. He did the ultimate good—He gave His life for us. … Think about the cross. While enemies poured out judgment on Christ, Christ held fast to His first love. Soldiers mocked Him, leaders condemned Him, friends abandoned Him—yet His heart never wavered. He kept loving from the original love. Above all the wounds, on the cross of sacrifice, was Jesus loving the Father, and those who were wounding him. And Because His love for the Father never broke, His love for us never failed. That's why He could pray with nails through His hands, "Father, forgive them." The cross wasn't weakness—it was worship. The Son delighting in the Father's glory, even as He bore our sin. That's the love that now lives in us by the Spirit. A love rooted in God's glory that is stronger than hate, stronger than sin, stronger than death. So, Love without conditions doesn't stop with feelings. It acts. It moves. It gives. What does this look like? Well, Refusing to celebrate when the person who hurt you stumbles—and instead quietly asking, "How can I serve them?" Sending a text to check on someone who betrayed your trust. Helping a coworker who bad-mouthed you. Doing good doesn't mean erasing boundaries or excusing sin. It means refusing to let bitterness dictate your steps. You live in the economy of the kingdom—where mercy triumphs over judgment. And Every time you choose to do good to someone who hates you, you declare with your life that God is more satisfying than revenge, His glory sweeter than bitterness, and His Spirit stronger than your flesh. But Jesus doesn’t stop at what you do. He presses into what you say.. Look at verse 28…

4. Bless Those Who Curse You (Verse 28a) "Bless those who curse you..." This gets even closer to home. Most of us may never face someone trying to kill us—but we will face words. Words that cut. Words that curse. Words that stick to the soul. Jesus says: don't return curse for curse. Instead, bless. Speak life. Doing good touches our actions, but blessing touches our words. And words carry enormous power. "Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21). When others weaponize words against you, you turn your words into instruments of grace. When others curse you, you speak blessing. When others cut you down, you build up. That's what Stephen did in Acts 7. As stones crashed against his body, his final words weren't curses but blessing: "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." Peter echoes this in 1 Peter 3:9: "Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing." Blessing your enemies is not optional—it's your calling. And when you bless, you don't just release life into them—you step into the stream of blessing God is pouring out on you. Blessing instead of cursing is how heaven's vocabulary breaks into earth's conversations.

5. Pray for Those Who Mistreat You (Verse 28b) "Pray for those who mistreat you." Why end here? Because Jesus knows something about us. On our own, our actions will eventually run dry. How long can you love someone who consistently hurts you? How many times can you do good to someone who returns evil? We all have a breaking point. Our patience has limits. Our kindness has boundaries. Prayer is different from all the rest. Prayer for your enemies is one of the deepest forms of love, because it means you really want something good to happen to them. You might do nice things for enemies without genuine desire for their prosperity. You can fake actions. And words But prayer? That's in the presence of God who knows your heart. You cannot fake that before an all-knowing God. Prayer does two things: First, prayer takes the burden off your shoulders and puts it on God's. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." You don't have to play God. Second, prayer changes you. When you pray for your enemies, it's almost impossible to keep hating them. God softens the bitterness. Instead of being chained to revenge, you walk in freedom. Prayer isn’t meant to change your enemy, it’s meant to change you. Prayer pulls poison out of your heart. Prayer loosens hate's grip. Prayer opens the door for God's love to flow where your love has run out.

The Call to Supernatural Love Jesus isn't just giving us a list of nice religious verbs—listen, love, do, bless, pray. He's showing us what love without conditions actually looks like in real life. Listen—because if you don't hear His Word, you'll only hear your wounds. Love—because you can't pour out what you haven't first received from Him. Do—because love is more than feeling; it's a choice that moves toward the other. Bless—because love changes your words, even when they don't deserve it. Pray—because love will always run out in your strength, but never in His. Love without conditions means that even when evil comes, you answer with love. Not because it's natural—it's not. Not because it's easy—it won't be. But because you've been loved first. Loved with an original love, a love older than your wounds, stronger than your bitterness, deeper than your rejection. Here's the call: stop trying to manufacture it. Stop trying to prove you can do it. Instead, anchor your life in the God who is love. Because when His love fills you, it doesn't stop with you. It flows through you—to friends, to family, and yes, even to enemies. Church, this is the mark of true discipleship. To listen to His voice above the noise of our wounds. To love from the overflow of His first love. To do good where evil is expected. To bless when curses come. And to pray—not because we're strong enough, but because He is. This is the way of Jesus. This is the glory of God in us. Because you've been loved without conditions, you can now love without conditions.*