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Loving Your Enemies
Die to
Self-righteousness and Rise in Christ
Author: Jo-Anne Leroux
“You have heard that it
was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you,
love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and
pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of
your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good,
and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."
Mathew 5:43-45 NKJV Jesus
goes on to tell us in verses 46-47 that we are no different from the
non-believer if we do not love our enemies. Anyone can love a friend.
Luke 6:36 exhorts us to be merciful.
Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Our enemies can be
defined as anyone that opposes who we are for the sake of who they think we
ought to be.
Conversely, our enemies are also those who do not measure up to who we think
they
ought to be.
Our offended self is not capable of loving.
We have conditions on our love. If these conditions are not met, we withdraw love and fall
into judgment.
So how do we love our enemies? Only by
the Spirit of God living within us, can we shift from the conditional love of
the soul-life to the unconditional love of God.
But you may argue, but
we are not to be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and
wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?"
2
Corinthians:
6:14-15 NIV.
The enemy would be delighted to have you use this scripture to justify not loving an enemy.
We can love but not be united (or yoked) with someone. The Lord loves us
while we are in sin, but cannot unite with us.
Now that we've nixed that
line of defense, lets take
a look at the offended self.
All aspects of
manipulation and control revolve around either offending (withdrawing our love)
or being offended (having love withdrawn.)
When our eyes are on the enemy, the enemy is in control.
All energy is expended on either protecting our own position or judging our
enemy.
We will attempt to change
ourselves to suit our enemy or change our enemy to suit us.
We are controlled by our fear of man.
The people who have the most power to hurt us, of course, are those most dear.
When someone close attacks us, our belief that we are a good loveable
people is immediately challenged.
With our eyes on our enemy, we see only half the picture and are blinded to our
part; our sin.
My sin is in my self-righteous reaction; my need to justify and preserve
myself,
regardless of whether or not
this attack is deserved.
My sin is in a counter reaction of hurt, offense and self-defense.
To smooth the path and see the glory of the Lord, we need to repent of
our own sin at the foot of the cross, not make our enemies repent.
Isaiah 40:3-5
We need to fix our eyes
on Jesus when we are attacked. We need
to examine our hearts with the Holy Spirit.
Did we offend?
How?
Am I protecting myself?
What role am I playing here? What am
I afraid of?
These are some of the
questions we take to the Lord.
We need to get right with the Lord.
We either need to forgive or be forgiven.
We need to shift our love source from man to God.
Only supernatural Love can love enemies.
How many of you know
that hurt people, hurt people. The offended, offend.
This understanding is a key to loving your enemies.
Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
Luke
23:34KJV
This is absolutely true!!
When blinded by the pain of offense, they know no other way.
They don't know they are
suffering from a love deficit.
They don't know the Love of God.
They are trapped in performance.
You don't have to stoop to this level.
You can rise above it in the resurrection with Jesus if you just call on His
name; if you just humble yourself
before him.
He IS Love.
In His Love, you can love your enemies.
Let us fix
our eyes on the prize that is set before us.
Let us reach for the high calling in Christ Jesus.
The fullness of this
is attainable.
Ephesians 4: 12-13 says we are
to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of
Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the
knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of
the fullness of Christ.
We can have this!
"For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have
been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority."
Colossians 2:9-10
It's ours in Christ Jesus!!
So let's go for it.
ALL of it!!
Let's learn from Him what it means to love our enemies.
Let's go for the glory.
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