Luke 6:27-28 MEV “But I (Jesus) say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.
If we are not walking in Love:
- We will see the person as the enemy
- We will hate the person
- We will attempt to get others to hate this person also.
It can be also said this way:
- When I see only the person, I miss the true enemy.
- When I hate the person, I walk in destruction.
- When I walk in destruction, I persuade others to walk with me.
1 John 2:11 MEV But whoever hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
1 John 3:15 MEV Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him.
1 John 4:20 MEV If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar. For whoever does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
Jesus and His commandments under the New Covenant
Mark 12:28-31 MEV
28 One of the scribes came and heard them reasoning together. Perceiving that Jesus had answered them well, he asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?”
29 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. 30 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Jesus tells us of the Holy Spirit:
John 14:23-27 MEV Jesus answered him, “If a man loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our home with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words. The word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. 25 “I have spoken these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you. 27 Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
How to receive Jesus and the Holy Spirit:
Acts 2:38-39 MEV Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
Romans 10:9-13 MEV that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, 10 for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be ashamed.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is generous toward all who call upon Him. 13 For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Romans 5:5 MEV And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Matthew 28:19-20 MEV Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
How do we love our enemies when we can’t stand the things they do?
I can be compassionate to the fallen man, but I can have no compassion for sin.
- When God hates, He hates sin…it’s an abomination to Him.
Deuteronomy 12:31 MEV You shall not do so to the LORD your God, for every abomination to the LORD, which He hates, they have done to their gods. They have even burned their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
Deuteronomy 16:22 MEV You shall not set up for yourself any image, which the LORD your God hates.
Amos 5:15 MEV Hate evil and love good, and establish justice at the gate. It may then be that the LORD God of Hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
Amos 6:8 MEV The Lord GOD hath sworn by Himself, an oracle of the LORD the God of Hosts: I abhor the pride of Jacob and hate his palaces, so I will deliver up the city with all that is in it. (Arrogance, ease, laziness, complacency, no longer honoring the things of God, sinful nature)
- Separate the sin from the person.
John 8:2-11 MEV Early in the morning He returned to the temple. All the people came to Him, and He sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery. When they had put her in the middle, 4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. 5 Now Moses in the law commanded us to stone such, but what do You say?” 6 They said this, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear them. 7 So when they continued asking Him, He stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 Being convicted by their conscience, those who heard it went out one by one, beginning with the eldest even to the last. Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 10 When Jesus had stood up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are your accusers? Did no one condemn you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
- Bind the devil, loose God, pray for the person.
Matthew 18:18 MEV “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Luke 13:14-17 MEV But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, and said to the people, “There are six days in which men ought to work. Therefore come and be healed on those days, but not on the Sabbath day.” 15 The Lord answered him, “You hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead it away to water it? 16 Then should not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan has bound these eighteen years, be loosed from this bondage on the Sabbath?” 17 When He said this, all His adversaries were ashamed. And all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.
Mark 5:1-8 MEV They went to the other side of the sea to the region of the Gadarenes. 2 When He had come out of the boat, immediately a man with an unclean spirit came out of the tombs and met Him. 3 He lived among the tombs. And no one could constrain him, not even with chains, 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. But he had pulled the chains apart and broken the shackles to pieces. And no one could subdue him. 5 Always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones. 6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran up and kneeled before Him, 7 and cried out with a loud voice, “What have You to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure You by God, do not torment me.” 8 For Jesus said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”
- God is the only one who can save, deliver, and change a person.
John 5:19 MEV Then Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do. For whatever He does, likewise the Son does.
What does the devil see in you?
- One that is native to him?
- A person that is saved but powerless, fearful? (Milk)
- A person who looks, walks, and talks like Jesus?
Make a growth plan, be intentional.
- Salvation – repent, receive, grow.
- Milk
- Solid Food
- Walk in Victory
- Honor God and the things of God
- Share