Love, Pray For, and Do Good to Our Enemies :: By Sean Gooding
Matthew 5:7-12, 43-48 7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. […]
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Matthew 5:7-12, 43-48
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
43 You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 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, 45 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.
46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
There has been a lot of grief about the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. And while many, even Christians have tried to say that it was not intended to be an attack on Christianity, the apology by the Olympic committee would say differently. Now, I am not going to go into the whole mess. I am going to say that I continue to be astonished by Christians who are surprised at these attacks. Why?
Do you not have a Bible, or do you not understand that these are the normal events that will happen over and over again as we get closer and closer to Jesus’ return. These are the things that happen to a depraved society that has defied its Creator, according to Romans 1. I would like to offer some positive ways to view this mess and offer ways that we are instructed to respond.
- The Attacks Should Bolster Our Faith
They are not attacking Islam or Buddhism or any other religion; they are attacking Christianity. The Devil, we are told, does not run a divided kingdom. He is a smart fellow; he is not going to attack his counterparts and harm them. The mere fact that Christianity is the focus of deviant behaviors should bolster our faith, our trust in the scriptures, and our hope in the truth of God’s word.
This means that many of these participants know that the Bible is true, that Jesus is real, and that salvation is good. They choose to defy God to His face. They think that they can do this without repercussions, but they cannot. One can only defy the grace of God for so long before the wrath of God comes to the surface; see Genesis 6-9. They make fun of the truth, and we should find a certain security in that as believers.
- We need to Be Merciful, verse 7 (above)
Were it not for the kindness and grace of God, maybe we would be the ones in drag, in the homosexual life, and in the drug life. Maybe we would be alcoholics, and on and on we could go. We are not better than these folks in and of ourselves; we have Jesus. Without Him, we are just sinners with no hope and no help. We would be blind like those around us, hard-hearted and dead in reality. But we met Jesus, we saw our sin, saw our need, and humbled ourselves to His grace, His mercy, and His salvation. And then our eyes were opened, and our dead bodies were made alive in Jesus. Now, let us extend mercy to these folks, even the ones who deny our God and make fun of Him.
- We need to Rejoice in the Middle of it all, verse 12
As I mentioned before, they are trying to disrupt us. The worst response we could have is to rejoice and be thankful that we are counted worthy to be persecuted. Why? This has been the pattern for the truth tellers from the very beginning of sin; the story of Cain and Abel reminds us that liars will always hate those who stand for the truth. Jesus often told the Pharisees that their ancestors had killed the prophets. Why? Because they hated the truth. They killed Jesus because they hated the truth from Him. Rejoice, bless God, and thank God for the enemies of the truth; they remind us that we have the truth.
- Love, Pray for, and Do Good, verse 43-48
Jesus died for their sins as well. God, in 2 Peter 3, tells us He is not willing that any should perish (go to Hell). He wants these vagabonds to repent, see their need for Jesus, and spend eternity with Him. Jesus came to save sinners; these are the very people He came for. I was the person He came for. You are the person He came for. I read an article about this mess, and the author, a Christian, pointed out that there were teams of Christians on the ground there in Paris sharing the Gospel.
Our church association has a team of 37 people this week and more coming next week to hand out Gospel tracts and Bibles. They are sharing the Gospel and winning people to Jesus. We should be praying for these very folks to meet someone with the Gospel and that the Holy Spirit would open their eyes to see and ears to hear.
We should want them to meet another believer and be transformed; we should want them to be saved. Sadly, too many of us want to call fire down from heaven, but we should call grace down from the cross for them. We should call mercy for them and beg that they will come to know Jesus as Savior. One day they were blaspheming and the next worshiping because they met Jesus who came to save ALL of us from our sins.
Let us never forget how gracious God is and has been to us; we should pray that all men, even drag queen men, would fall at His feet and be changed. Jesus is coming soon, and the time for judgment will be here, but now we have the time of grace, mercy, salvation, redemption, and restoration. Jesus – the Way, Truth, and Life – is still saving souls. Oh, that all men would come to Him today.
God bless you,
Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church
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