Chapter 13 - The Enemy -- the "Extraordinary"
Mat 5:44 ...do good to them that hate you…
Bonhoeffer- 'We must love not only in thought and word, but in deed, and there are opportunities of service in every circumstance of daily life.
Rom 12:20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink…
My thoughts-
Our deeds.
Our actions.
These reveal so much about us, don't they?
We can say we love, we can shout we love, but all the while our actions are saying we don't love at all.
What do we do?
Today I was listening to a sermon called, 'The Anatomy of Faith', and one of the points being made was our KEEPING the faith of Jesus. The word KEEP meaning the following-
1. to attend to carefully, take care of
a. to guard
b. metaph. to keep, one in the state in which he is
c. to observe
When we KEEP the faith of Jesus we are ACTIVELY attending, guarding, observing and what are we attending, guarding, observing?
Rom_10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Faith we are keeping the FAITH of JESUS and FAITH comes by HEARING and HEARING by the WORD of GOD. We are keeping God's WORD! We are actively guarding, observing, attending to the WORD of GOD. We are doing this in a very literally way! The words we HEAR are meant to be kept close to our hearts, not discarded as if they are merely being spoken to pass time, or entertain us. Faith is a REAL thing, not something that doesn't exist.
Heb_11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
It is SUBSTANCE, it is REAL. It is a REAL HOPE, a SOLID HOPE, and the EVIDENCE, the PROOF of things NOT SEEN.
NOT SEEN!
But HEARD. Remember- faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
We must HEAR the word of God if we would have FAITH. It must be a REAL ACTIVE HEARING.
We are to love others and that LOVE must be REAL in our doing GOOD to them that HATE US!
They hate us!
HATE US. DETEST US. PERSECUTE US.
We are to LOVE THEM!
And if we are to love those who HATE us, it's already a given that we are doing good to those we love, right? Shouldn't we be?
Luk_6:33 And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same.
It's a lot easier to do good to those who do good to you, right? But to do good to those who hate you, that is truly much more difficult, and I’m going to say nigh unto impossible without CHRIST living in us!
We shouldn't hesitate to say that WE cannot love our enemies, WE cannot do good to those who hate us, because it's true! ONLY CHRIST IN US CAN MAKE THIS LOVE POSSIBLE, BECAUSE IT IS HIS LOVE!
His LOVE!
Love them! Do good to them! All through CHRIST'S POWER, not any of your own!
All though HIS GRACE, HIS MERCY, HIS LOVE, AMAZING WONDERFUL LOVE!
Please Lord, live in us, love in us!
Mat 5:44 ...do good to them that hate you…
Bonhoeffer- 'We must love not only in thought and word, but in deed, and there are opportunities of service in every circumstance of daily life.
Rom 12:20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink…
My thoughts-
Our deeds.
Our actions.
These reveal so much about us, don't they?
We can say we love, we can shout we love, but all the while our actions are saying we don't love at all.
What do we do?
Today I was listening to a sermon called, 'The Anatomy of Faith', and one of the points being made was our KEEPING the faith of Jesus. The word KEEP meaning the following-
1. to attend to carefully, take care of
a. to guard
b. metaph. to keep, one in the state in which he is
c. to observe
When we KEEP the faith of Jesus we are ACTIVELY attending, guarding, observing and what are we attending, guarding, observing?
Rom_10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Faith we are keeping the FAITH of JESUS and FAITH comes by HEARING and HEARING by the WORD of GOD. We are keeping God's WORD! We are actively guarding, observing, attending to the WORD of GOD. We are doing this in a very literally way! The words we HEAR are meant to be kept close to our hearts, not discarded as if they are merely being spoken to pass time, or entertain us. Faith is a REAL thing, not something that doesn't exist.
Heb_11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
It is SUBSTANCE, it is REAL. It is a REAL HOPE, a SOLID HOPE, and the EVIDENCE, the PROOF of things NOT SEEN.
NOT SEEN!
But HEARD. Remember- faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
We must HEAR the word of God if we would have FAITH. It must be a REAL ACTIVE HEARING.
We are to love others and that LOVE must be REAL in our doing GOOD to them that HATE US!
They hate us!
HATE US. DETEST US. PERSECUTE US.
We are to LOVE THEM!
And if we are to love those who HATE us, it's already a given that we are doing good to those we love, right? Shouldn't we be?
Luk_6:33 And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same.
It's a lot easier to do good to those who do good to you, right? But to do good to those who hate you, that is truly much more difficult, and I’m going to say nigh unto impossible without CHRIST living in us!
We shouldn't hesitate to say that WE cannot love our enemies, WE cannot do good to those who hate us, because it's true! ONLY CHRIST IN US CAN MAKE THIS LOVE POSSIBLE, BECAUSE IT IS HIS LOVE!
His LOVE!
Love them! Do good to them! All through CHRIST'S POWER, not any of your own!
All though HIS GRACE, HIS MERCY, HIS LOVE, AMAZING WONDERFUL LOVE!
Please Lord, live in us, love in us!
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