5:43-48 | Love Your Enemies
Put in Jeremiah 29:7 for huuuuge application
The Old Way
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Love your neighbor as yourself
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God wanted Israel to look out for each other
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Had specific commands to help out their enemies within the camp | Exodus 22:3-4
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Pharisees questioned who their neighbor was
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Who is my neighbor? | Luke 10:25-29
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Latched onto Leviticus 19:1. This only applies to the congregation of Israel
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Hating your enemies was the natural conclusion of these interpretations and questions
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This is how most people live life, including us
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We restrict our love to a narrow group of people
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We hear constant prayers for our troops. How often do we pray for the enemies shooting at them?
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The Love Jesus Teaches
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Love the people we hate the most
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All aspects of love - emotional and through acts
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Don't just ignore or refuse to retaliate, but actively work for their good
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Pray for those who would harm us
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For Jesus that meant Rome and the very people who crucified him | Luke 23:34
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For us that means jerks we work with to the terrorists who want to murder us
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Should we pray for their good health and happiness, and ask God to reward them for their evil behavior?
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Me must pray for their salvation
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Imitating the Love of God
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Learn to love for the sake of love itself
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Why does God love you? Because God is love | Deuteronomy 7:7-8
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Our love must move beyond loving for reasons and mirror God's grace
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Jesus demonstrated his love by dying for his enemies | Romans 5:8-10
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We were those enemies, and should share that same love for others
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The least we can do is pray for them
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God does not desire that any should perish | 33:11
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A Radical Love
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This kind of love is what will set us apart from the rest of the world
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All the bad guys are playing by the same set of rules
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Even the worst people have others they care about
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What makes us different is loving people we don't care about
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How do people know you’re a Christian?
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Is it because you have to tell them?
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If they can't see it for themselves it's because you act just like everybody else
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We must be recognized by our love | John 13:34-35
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Have they seen your warm hospitality?
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Have they seen you be forgiving when mercy wasn't deserved?
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Have they seen you refuse to fire back when abused?
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Or do we sound just like everyone else?
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Attaining Perfection
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Love perfects us
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It is what makes us complete
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1 Corinthians 13:1-3 | We are nothing without it
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A troubling demand
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God is the highest standard
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His love goes beyond anything we could ever grasp
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We can't stand around patting ourselves on the back
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