Everything that has happened in 2020, and, in fact over the last few years, has really pointed out the divisions that exist here in this country. Divisions on race, gender, religion, politics, the wearing of masks, open schools, online schools, a combination, I could go on and on. My point is that there are deep divisions in the country and even more important for us, in the body of Christ. All those divisions I just mentioned also exist in the church. In this sermon and in the scriptures that I am going to read today you will hear and read the words adversary and enemy. Change those words "to the person with whom you disagree"
Let’s start looking at what has gone on in 2020 and a lot has gone on this year, as an opportunity.
Scripture tells us that no matter what happens God will work if for our good. We don't know how but we trust that He can and will because He is love and He has an eternal purpose for us. God’s purpose for us to conform us to the image of His Son Jesus, who is the embodiment of LOVE.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13 NIV Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Everything that has happened in 2020, and, in fact over the last few years, has really pointed out the divisions that exist here in this country. Divisions on race, gender, religion, politics, the wearing of masks, open schools, online schools, a combination, I could go on and on. My point is that there are deep divisions in the country and even more important for us, in the body of Christ. All those divisions I just mentioned also exist in the church. In this sermon and in the scriptures that I am going to read today you will hear and read the words adversary and enemy. Change those words "to the person with whom you disagree". Let me give you an example.
Here is Matthew 5:25-26 from the NKJV.
Matthew 5:25-26 (NKJV)25 Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.26 Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.
Now let’s read it again
Agree with "the person with whom you disagree" quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest "the person with whom you disagree" deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.26 Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.
Reading it that way does not change the meaning or context of the statement.
In The Sermon on the Mount which is where we find is in Matthew 5:25-26, Jesus said that we should agree with our advisory.
What Jesus is talking about was what to do in the event you have a dispute about property or money. The adversary here was a creditor, who demands and insists upon payment. Jesus said agree before you go to court because if you lose and can’t pay the judgement you could be put in prison until it was paid.
Later in this same sermon Jesus said that not only should you agree with your adversary, but that you should also love your enemy. Remember whenever you hear adversary or enemy today think "the person with whom you disagree".
Matthew 5:44 (NKJV)44 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,
He was even more specific than that at another time. When He was asked what was the greatest commandment;
Matthew 22:37-39 (NKJV)37 Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'38 This is the first and great commandment.39 And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
To make it even more plain, He went on to describe, with a parable, exactly who that neighbor we are to love is. In His parable that neighbor actually turns out to be an enemy, or "the person with whom you disagree".
We all know the parable of the Good Samaritan. I’m not going to read it because we’re familiar with it. If you want to read it’s in Luke 10:30-36. To summarize;
There was this Jewish guy who got beat up, was robbed and was laying on the side of the road in bad shape. A couple of Jewish men, in fact a couple of religious leaders, a priest and a Levite, passed by, saw that he was in bad shape, looked at him, and crossed to the other side of the road so that they would not even come close to him. Then a Samaritan came by. Now if you look at the history of the Jews after their return from exile, you’ll see that the Jews and Samaritans were mortal enemies. It was a lot like the animosity today between Christians and Muslims, Jews and Muslims, or the feeling of some toward someone of a different race or today between Democrats and Republicans or liberals and conservatives. It was that way between Jews and Samaritans. So this Samaritan, an enemy, somebody who was supposed to hate Jews, was the one who stopped to help, even to the extent of spending his own money to see that his enemy,"the person with whom he disagreed" the Jewish guy, was taken care of.
What Jesus was saying through this parable is that we are supposed to show love to everybody, friends, enemies, everybody, whether we agree with them or not. No matter who they are.
What does love have to do with solving the problems that we have here in this country? I may be naive but, I believe that if we love each other then we can talk to each other, if we love each other we can admit that we all have problems, if we love each other we can agree to seek help to solve our problems.
In order to have that kind of love, we have to love like God loves. The presence of sin in the world is what prevents us from loving like God loves all the time. Sin is really rebellion against the authority of God as the Creator of all things. He told Adam and Eve that there was only one thing they couldn’t do and that was to eat from one specific tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they disobeyed, and sin entered the world that God created. Since all mankind inherited that sin nature it became impossible for sinful man to have the God kind of love for everybody, all the time, even though Jesus told us we should to have it.
Scripture tells us that God is love.
1 John 4:7-8 (NKJV)7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
The scriptures also tell us that if we believe in Jesus that we are born of God.
1 John 5:1 NIV Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
When you are born of God as we mature we should become more like God.
In fact it is God's purpose for us to be conformed to the image of Jesus and we believe that Jesus is God.
Romans 8:28-29 NIV And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
God is love so we should become love.
It’s funny that we don’t talk a lot about love for each other until something bad happens. Like hurricanes, wildfires, murders, terrorist attack, families being separated, or in the aftermath of a contentious election.
Then everybody, white folks, black folks, red folks, yellow folks, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Gentiles, Catholics, Protestants, gay folk, straight folk, start saying that we should all love each other. It's probably going on today in churches, and other places, across the country. There have been prayers about love, speeches about love, blogs about love, editorials about love. Love, love, love. Like the song written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, everybody is saying, “All You Need Is Love”.
And they are all right.
Love is a wonderful thing and if we all really start to love each other there will be big changes, not only here in America, but throughout the world.
But it is going to take more than just talking about it. It’s going to take the kind of love that Jesus taught when He walked the earth. It’s going to take the kind of love that God has for us to make the kinds of changes in us that will heal all these divisions between us.
Yes, love is really all we need, but that means that many of us are going to have to open ourselves up to what it really means to love like God loves.
His love is unconditional. The fact that you are a human being is all that’s needed for God to show His love for you. He did that in sending His Son to die for you.
John 3:16 NIV For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
There are no conditions on that love. That’s the kind of love that we need before we can begin to solve the problems between us.
The Greek word that was translated love in the New Testament is agape. Agape is not the natural kind of love that we have for a friend, or relative, or spouse. It is the kind of love that God has for us, the kind of love we don’t deserve and can never earn.
That is the kind of love that caused Him to give His Son for our salvation and to give us eternal life when we were sinners and His enemies;
Romans 5:8-10 (NKJV)8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Agape is the kind of love that Jesus showed as He offered Himself as the sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. The scripture that I just read said that it was through the death of God’s Son that we are reconciled. Jesus loved us so much that He gave His life for us while we were enemies. That’s real love and the kind of love that we should have for each other including our enemies "those with whom we disagree".
John 15:12-13 (NKJV)12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
1 John 3:16 (NKJV)16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
That doesn’t mean that we always agree with each other but it does mean that we should love each other enough to talk. That’s what you do when you agree with your adversary quickly. You have to talk to each other in order to start to agree.
So what does agape, the God kind of love, look like.
Let’s go to part of the scripture that I read at the beginning;
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NKJV)4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
The first part of verse 4 tells us what love is like. It’s patient and kind. That’s the attitude that God has toward us.
That’s the way we should be with each other and with our enemies, "the person with whom you disagree". Be patient. Make your point, state your case and then wait. Give God a chance to work on your enemy, and on you.
The second half of verse 4 through verse 7 tells us what people with agape, the God kind of love, do not do.
1 Corinthians 13:4b-6 (NKJV)4 love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
● People with agape don’t envy others they are not jealous. The kind of jealousy I’m talking about is the destructive kind. The kind that is suspicious of someone or their achievements.
● People with agape are not boastful. People boast to make others notice them. It’s not possible to be boastful and love at the same time.
● People with agape are not puffed up or proud. A proud person thinks too much about his own importance. A person with agape is humble.
Romans 12:3 (NKJV)3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
The point here is that you are saved through God’s grace not because of anything you did or because of who you are.
● People with agape don’t behave rudely or badly or act inappropriately. That means more than just being polite. It means to think about others above yourself.
Romans 12:3 NKJV For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
● People with agape don’t seek their own first. They don’t look out for their own interest before considering others.
1 Corinthians 10:24 (NKJV)24 Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being.
Philippians 2:3 (NKJV)3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.
● People with agape are not easily provoked. They do not easily become angry. Paul started this description by saying that love is patient. One kind of patience is to be able to keep calm when other people are angry. Agape doesn’t answer insults with anger. It’s alright to be angry at times but love is patient even in anger.
Ephesians 4:26-27 (NKJV)26 "Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath,27 nor give place to the devil.
● People with agape don’t take pleasure in evil things, they don’t rejoice in iniquity, the fact that someone has fallen into sin, has made a mistake, and is now suffering the consequences.
Proverbs 24:17 (NKJV)17 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles;
A loving Christian doesn’t try to find fault in other people.
● People with agape don’t keep a record of how people have hurt them. God in Christ does not keep a record of our sins once we’re saved so if we have agape we shouldn’t keep remembering an action or insult against us.
Ephesians 4:32 (NKJV)32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.
Some people say, ‘I will forgive but I will not forget.’ This statement means that the person has not really forgiven. To truly forgive, we should treat the person as though what happened never happened.
And finally Agape is permanent.
1 Corinthians 13:8-13 (NKJV)8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part.10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
There are three things that are essential in the life of a Christian, and really all people, they are faith, hope and love. Faith that God will forgive us because of Jesus’ sacrifice, hope for the future because of Jesus’ resurrection and His love. When Jesus returns on the clouds with a shout there will be no more reason for faith or hope but love will last through eternity because God Himself is love.
Everything that I’ve said about agape sounds great doesn’t it, and if everybody had that kind of love there would be no problems in the country or the world. Jesus said we must love not only our Christian brothers and sisters but our enemies too.
The only way that we can obey the commandment to love everybody, to have agape, no matter who they are, is through the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit will produce godly characteristics or fruit in you.
Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV)22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Let’s start looking at what has gone on in 2020 and a lot has gone on this year, as an opportunity.
Scripture tells us that no matter what happens God will work if for our good. We don't know how but we trust that He can and will because He is love and He has an eternal purpose for us.
God’s purpose for us to conform us to the image of His Son Jesus, who is the embodiment of LOVE.
Romans 8:28-29 (NKJV)28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.Q1
What matters to God is our love for Him and our love for each other. Wealth, power and status count for nothing in the kingdom of God. When we truly love our neighbors, we do our part to make the world a better place, and we find our own fulfillment in life.
Romans 12:18-21 NKJV If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine , I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore “if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head”. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
The scriptures that I read today were written for and to Christians. In other words, we're to love everyone, even those we disagree with. That's how we Christians can stimulate one another to Christ likeness and when others see our love for each other and for them it’s an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to show them through us how much God loves them and wants to save them.
These times are an opportunity for us to let our lights shine. To take our lamps from under the bushel, to be that light to show the world what agape is and lead them to Christ. Jesus said;
Matthew 5:14-16 NKJV “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
We should realize that we are ambassadors and representatives of the Kingdom of God, and all that we say and do reflects on the one we represent.
II Corinthians 5:20 NKJV Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
People around us will look at us to determine whether they want to live for the one we serve.
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