Love Your Enemies

Does Jesus really expect you to love your enemy, what? Welcome to the line of fire, friends. This is Michael Brown.

So glad to have you with us on the broadcast. If you're enjoying this broadcast, our series now on the words of Jesus that are Thor the Jewish Thursday broadcast, other interviews that we do, one great way to help spread the word is to give this a good rating. Wherever you are listening to this podcast, go ahead and give it a good rating. If you're watching on YouTube or somewhere else, you can give it a thumbs up. But go ahead and give it a good rating if you're enjoying it.

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So If you look in the Old Testament... You'll see Psalm 139, Lord, don't I hate those that hate you with a perfect hatred? And the Bible not only speaks of God hating evil, but of God hating evil people. in the Old Testament. Is it possible?

that that God wants us to hate our enemies. enemies, hate those that are not saved, hate those who do evil. How do we work this out? Jesus says Matthew 5. Verse 43, you've heard it said.

Love your neighbor. and hate your enemy.

Now There's nothing in the Torah. or the Old Testament that explicitly says hate your enemy. There is teaching in Dead Sea Scrolls, so would be the Judaism that was practiced there in Qumran. that does speak of hating one's enemy. And again, you could understand a context for this.

For example, If you say, I hate the Nazis. Or I hate Hamas. or I hate Boko Haram. you can understand what someone would mean by it. I hate what they do.

I hate who they are. I hate what they've become. I hate their dehumanizing of the image of God. I hate their brutality. I I hate their They're Rape and torture of people, all the things that they do.

I hate those things. And you could say that there's a moral calling to do that. My friend Rabbi Shmuley wrote a passionate article after the Charlie Kirk Memorial saying, well, it's commendable that Erika Kirk could forgive. The the The man who murdered her husband in cold blood, that President Trump was right in saying that he hates his opponents. Of course, President Trump was actually putting himself down.

It wasn't the time to say it, obviously, in that setting, but putting himself down, saying, yeah, I'm not like Charlie or Eric. I hate my enemies, and maybe you could help me with that. And Shmuly was saying it's good that he does. Because he's not talking about his personal opponents, he's talking about, he's talking about enemies of the state, he's talking about. Iran and players like that that are exporting terror around the world and oppressing their own people.

In context, however, President Trump was talking about his own enemies. And certainly that's how he feels about his political opponents. There's no question about it.

So this is not so much about your stance toward enemy combatants. That that as you're about to take out a terrorist who's about to rape and kill little children. in the name of some perverted cause and you're about to kill that person, you say, you know, I really love you, I really care about you as a human being. I hate to have to do this. You've already slaughtered 20, and I hate to have to do this.

That's not the context of this. Although even if you kill another human being in war, it's still grievous that you had to do that, but it was a righteous thing to do, it was a just thing to do, it was saving lives, it was ultimately a good thing to do, it was in service of God and the people that you did it. Those that fought against the Nazis were doing a service to God and to humanity, although it's a shame that these people died without God. But Jesus is not talking about that here. He's talking about in our interpersonal relationships more than anything.

And in those that directly persecute us and directly try to hurt us, in that case, The attitude, that a Christian could have even towards a Nazi. that was torturing them personally. I think of Richard Wernbraun. If you've never watched the movie that speaks of his life and getting to know Richard and Sabina was. Was so impactful for me, spending hours for them in 19 with them in 1993.

the best-known persecuted Christians of the 20th century, I believe. And uh If you've never seen the movie about Richard Warnbaugh and Sabine, it's extraordinary. It's very realistic, it's very intense, though. Don't expect it just ends on some happy note. It's very intense, very realistic.

about what they suffered. And If you've never seen it, just... go to persecution.com. And look for the movie or just search for Richard Warnbraun movie. You can watch it for free or you can watch it as a church community together, as a house group.

I strongly encourage you to do so. There's one moment in it where Wormbond is praying in his prison cell and he knows if he's found praying he's going to be beaten. and his torturer comes in and screams at him, You've lost everything. You've lost your family. You've lost your name.

You've lost everything. Whoa. What is there to pray for? And Warren Brown says, I'm praying for you. I'm praying for you.

Christians in the midst of unspeakable torture. torture. praying for their persecutors and actually loving them. That's supernatural. That's grace.

Jesus said, You've heard it was said, Love your neighbor. and hate your enemy.

But I tell you... Love Your enemies. Love. You're enemies. and pray for those who persecute you.

That you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good. and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors who are very corrupt doing that?

And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father. Father is Perfect.

Okay, first thing. He's saying. that we are to emulate the character of God. and every single day He gives life to wicked people. every single day When the rain falls, it falls indiscriminately.

Oh, there are times. Say in covenant with Israel, when God said, if you disobey, I'll withhold the rein. And that was his way of teaching, training, and equipping them. teaching them obedience and the consequences of disobedience, but otherwise, Every day when the sun shines and the sun rises, It's shining and rising on the good and the evil, just the same, on everyone. This is a reflection of the nature of God.

Yes, He is a righteous judge. Yes, everyone will give account to Him. Yes, there will be tolerable punishment for those who reject Him and for those who do evil. Absolutely. And still, Every day he shows kindness.

Every day he extends mercy. Every day that he lets a wicked person live, he's giving them another opportunity to repent. In fact, it can be misunderstood, which Paul emphasizes in Romans 2. In the fourth verse, we all know that the goodness of God or the kindness of God leads you to repentance. The context is the reason that God hasn't punished people earlier is not because they're good, not because their sin does not deserve punishment, not because he's failing to be holy and righteous, but he's giving them time.

His kindness towards them and not destroying them is meant to lead them to repentance. But there's another reason. where we're called to do good. and to be kind. It's because we too once acted wickedly.

We too were once worthy of the wrath of God. And yet He was merciful and kind to us. We should show that kindness to others. There are things that are really easy for you to do as a believer. that are really hard for me.

And there are things that are really easy for me to do as a believer that are really hard for you. We each have certain grace in our lives and we learn from each other and we can be exhorted by each other and encouraged by each other. But I've just known the way God forgave me. as as a lost sinner. The way my father forgave me without even being a believer then.

The way he forgave me. And then seeing over the decades, year in, year out, the mercy and kindness of God in my life, I found it easy to forgive others. And yes, there are people that will hurt you deeply and wound you deeply. And yet there is that supernatural grace to forgive because you've been forgiven. That's why Paul says in Titus 3 to be very careful about the way we speak of others, not to malign and slander, because we too were once foolish.

Even when Jesus hangs on the cross. and says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Look at the context there. He's talking about the men who are crucifying him in that immediate context. They didn't know that it was the Son of God.

They they were just doing their job. Here's here's some criminal Here's some Slave rebel? Here's some traitor to the state. Here's some danger to our nation? They deserve death.

It's my job to nail him to the cross. And Peter even says in Acts 3 that the Jewish leaders that gave Jesus over, he said, you did it ignorantly. Paul said when he was persecuting believers, he did it ignorantly. I I I sat with my dear friend Yesu Pottam. the truest Christian that I know on the planet personally and closely.

And and he said Brother, I tell people when I preach. He said, I tell them, I was a terrorist. He said, I was a murderer before I was saved. He was a Naxalite, which is a Maoist communist. And they were devoted to stealing from the rich, taking from the rich, and giving to the poor.

And he grew up in such abject poverty as an untouchable. He watched his mother die where simple medicine would have cured her. But her father his father did not have money for a bus ticket. To bring her to the hospital where she would have been treated. He watched her die in front of his eyes when just the simplest, just a tiny drop of money.

That millions of people could spare. Would have saved his mother's life. He so hated the society and so hated the rich. I asked him, we were together recently, I said, did you think you were doing evil? when you killed people as an axe lady said no brother I said, you thought you were doing good?

He said, yes, brother. How many of us were ignorant? Yeah, we will give a count. will ultimately give account to God. But so many people don't realize what they're doing.

I've had people hurt me deeply over the years and they really thought they were doing good. Others knew they were doing bad. It's the same with you. You've had people deeply hurt you, but they really thought they were doing the right thing. Forgive.

as you have been forgiven. Love as you have Loved. Ah. I've got a story. I want to tell you.

One of the most impactful stories I've heard in my life. First, we'll take a quick break from our co-sponsor, Trivita. They help us do what we do every day of the week. And Trivita supplements are part of my own healthy lifestyle. Quick word from Trivita.

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So call now 1-800-771-5584. one eight hundred seven seven one fifty five eighty four. or online at T R I V I T A. Trivita.com All right, so 1993. I spent time with Richard and Sabina Wernbraun, several hours together.

I had read many of Pastor Rohnbraun's books. The best known, of course, Tortured for Christ. If you've never read it, really, you ought to read it. Tortured for Christ. Many of his other books I read.

Some of Sabina's own writings I read. He was in a slave labor camp, suffered terribly. He was in prison 14 years over the course of two imprisonments.

So think you get out, you've been tortured, you've been held in solitary confinement and beaten and suffered unspeakable things, get out of prison and go back to preaching. get imprisoned again and ultimately ransomed out of the country before he was imprisoned once more, ransomed by Western nations.

So When I was with Richard and Sabina, it was like people from another planet. You sit with him. He can't walk. He can walk, but he can't stand for long because his feet were so battered through torture that he was just in lifelong pain. The sufferings he endured, just indescribable.

And When you sit close, you see he's got like a hole in the side of his neck. He testified before Congress when so many were enamored with communism and thinking it was so good. He said, Let me show you what communism did. He took his shirt off in front of Congress and you could see it like look like he had gone through a meat grinder.

So Richard told me this story. Sabine is there. I spent time with him subsequently, some more time, but the most in 93. He tells me this story. that when the Nazis occupied Romania before the communist takeover.

When the Nazis occupied Romania, he would use it as an opportunity to preach the gospel. These Nazi German soldiers were away from their home and family. and just looking for some company.

So he was multilingual. He spoke... many languages fluently, including German.

So he would go somewhere at some restaurant or bar where there was a Nazi soldier just hanging out, nothing to do. And he'd speak to him in German and say, Listen, I'm a pastor. I also play piano. Come to my home. We'll give you some refreshments.

Uh I'll entertain you on piano. Under one condition. You let me preach the gospel to you.

So most would say, sure, what's this harmless guy? I've got nothing else to do.

So He brings this fellow home with him one day. His wife Sabina is sick. Remember, he's telling me this story firsthand. She's there in the room. His wife Sabina is sick.

And uh she's in bed, so she can't entertain them that night, can't, you know, bring them stuff and things.

So Pastor Roman plays piano for him and says, okay, now I'm going to preach the gospel to you. But as they're talking, this Nazi begins to tell him It begins to boast. You know, I gave the execution order. He doesn't know that Pastor Wernbraun and his wife are Jewish Christians. He doesn't know they're Jewish believers in Jesus.

He begins to boast, you know, I responsible for the Death of everyone in this village. I gave the warrant for this village. Yeah, I gave the warrant for this, kill all those Jews. Average Christian, he knows anti-Semitic, he'll be glad to hear this, right? That's what the Nazis are thinking.

Yeah, I gave the uh death death call for this village, everyone was shipped off to die and And Pastor Warnbrand says, that was my wife's village. What? That was my wife's village. You gave the call to execute all of my wife's family. And the guy comes under deep conviction.

Wernbron preaches the gospel to him, and the man cries out for mercy. And it's boring. Again. Pastor Wernbrand says to the man, remember he told me this story to his face with his wife Sabina in the room. He says, we are now going to meet.

My wife. We are going to go into the bedroom, She's asleep in bed. I'm going to wake her up. And I'm going to tell her this man. gave the death order, For your entire family, but he is now your brother in Christ.

She will get out of bed and hug you. And he goes, No, I can't, I can't. Who can imagine that? Who can imagine? No, I can't.

Pastor Omar says, we're going to do it. He insists. And he does it. He brings the man into the room. He wakes up Sabina.

He says, this man. Gave the Death. Order. for your entire family. He is responsible for the murder of your entire family and he is now your brother in Christ.

He has received Jesus. And she gets out of bed and hugs them and the two of them weep. Friend, that's the gospel. That's the power of the gospel. That's how we change the world.

not through a vengeful spirit, Not through, I'm going to do to you what you've done to me, the eye for eye, tooth for tooth we looked at last week. Not I'm gonna hate my enemy, no. I'm gonna love. because we overcome hatred with love, and we overcome evil with good, and we overcome lies with truth as Martin Luther King said, darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can drive out darkness.

with God All things are possible. Can I pray with you now? Father. I asked you. to share your heart with us.

You're so loving. You're so gracious. You're so compassionate. You're so long suffering. You're so merciful.

May we show that same mercy to others. May we bless those who curse us. May we pray for those who persecute us and despitefully use us. May we love our enemies with the love with which you loved us when we were your enemies. the love that Jesus showed when He died for His enemies.

May that come through us and through us may that message. and life changed the world. In Jesus' name. Amen. Mm-hmm.