Part 4 | The Ultimate Test of the Christian Life
From Matthew 5:43-48
Christianity is .
📖 Matthew 5:20 ESV For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
agapē – “not an emotional, endearing kind of love, but a one-way, no-strings-attached kind of love that flows from grace and mercy.”
📖 Matthew 5:48 ESV You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
1. Loving my enemies is the ultimate test of how deeply I God’s toward me.
📖 Matthew 5:45 ESV so that you may be sons of your father who is 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.
📖 Romans 5:10 ESV For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
The to Christian faith is receiving .
But the of Christian faith is giving to .
And is always .
📖 Ephesians 4:32 ESV Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
📖 John 13:34 ESV A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
2. Loving my enemies is the ultimate test of God’s developing in me.
📖 Matthew 5:45 ESV so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
📖 Matthew 5:46-47 ESV For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
📖 Jonah 4:1-4 ESV But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3 Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the LORD said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
When I my enemies, I tell myself don’t me.
3. Loving my enemies is the greatest test of God’s .
📖 Matthew 5:44 ESV Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
📖 Proverbs 25:21 ESV If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, 22 for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you.
📖 Romans 12:17-20 ESV Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
📖 Romans 12:21 ESV Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
When we love/serve our enemies, we reveal of God’s , to God’s , and in God’s Word.
