LOVE YOUR ENEMIES
LESSON FOR JUNIORS
Study Scripture: Luke 6
Lesson 6 October 10, 2020
Key Verse
“But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you .
Luke 6: 27-28
INTRODUCTION
Admit it, we all like to be comfortable. We sometimes feel that Jesus wants us to do things which are very difficult to do and might even seem to be impossible. So we don’t feel at first comfortable obeying Jesus. We tend to forget that Jesus will help and give us the strength and ability to do what He wants us to do. He will not leave us on our own.
We all like people to do good things for us. We like it when they are generous with their talents and use these talents to help us. We like when they give us some of the candy and goodies that they have.
But sometimes it is very difficult to share with people when you think they do not like you.
Mind you, you don’t really know what is in their heart and you do not know what kind of hurt and pain they have inside them that make them behave as if you are their enemy.
So God reminds us that you have a special kind of love which God has given you and it is called “agape love”.
This is different from all the other kinds of love ,even the love you have for your mother and father, your sisters and brothers, and your friends. This is the kind of love that God has for you, and it is so special that God has determined that He will love you even if you make mistakes.
So this kind of love is a love that you make up your mind to do. Your will is to love and to do good things even for your enemies. This love God gives you is an “action” word and it shows up in how you treat people.
Jesus says that we must treat our neighbour as ourselves. We would like people to treat us well and we should behave according to that rule, treating people just as how we would like them to treat us.
It is called the Golden Rule. God loves us especially when we do that, following that Golden Rule.
So Jesus reminds us that when we do things for our family and friends we are not really doing anything special for we expect that they will do the same good things for us because we are part of their family and we are also their friends. When you behave in that way, Jesus says that though those kinds of actions are good, you are not doing anything special, and you should not expect any special reward from God for that kind of behaviour.
But God wants us to do something which is more difficult than loving your family and friends. He wants you to do good things for the people that do not particularly like you and who sometimes make your life difficult and might even want to bully you.
So Jesus advises you to love your enemies in the same way that God loves us even when we do not behave well toward Him. When you look at what we do sometimes we are behaving as if we are really treating God as our enemy. That of course is not right. We therefore should make sure that our behaviour is according to what pleases God.
Jesus tells us to start by doing little things such as doing small favours to your enemies. The more of these little things that you do the more Jesus will strengthen you so that their behaviour will bother you less and less.
Then Jesus also says it is important that in your heart and mind you bless them and pray for them when you see them getting into trouble. When you start by doing this little bit of blessing and little bit of prayers for them you will grow and mature and God will help you to become stronger and stronger in love.
So don’t worry so much about your enemies. Start small by doing little things in your mind and your heart and in your actions so that your enemies would benefit.
You are not doing it to shame them but you know that when you do a little bit of good for them Jesus will see what you’re doing and will work on them to change their minds and attitudes. When Jesus sees that you love those that don’t like you He will make a little extra effort to change them. He loves to do that so work with Him so that He will change people to become better. Jesus is looking forward for you working together with Him to make the world a better place.
This is important because you know that if your enemies keep on doing bad things they will suffer tremendously when they face Jesus in the Day of Judgment. On that Day everybody will have to face up to what they have been doing .You don’t want that kind of punishment to happen to them so you want to help them little by little so that they will change and become acceptable in the sight of Jesus. So ask Jesus for help and He will help you to love your enemies in addition to loving your family and friends.