Mom Fine (Norma)
“Everybody ought to love everybody.”
Definition of enemy—
someone who ….
• is a threat to your well-being
• is willing to do you harm and hurt you.
• is against you.
Matthew 5:43-45
43“You have heard that it was said,
‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
44 But I tell you, love your enemies and
pray for those who persecute you,
45 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
Genesis 4 on Domestic Violence
4 The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering,
5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.
So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry?
Why is your face downcast?
7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?
But if you do not do what is right,
sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you,
but you must rule over it.”
8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel,
“Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field,
Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
Friend or Foe???
The violence here is not deserved by Abel,
not in the least,
but it is a very profound statement
of the inner condition of Cain.
What is going on inside of me
that wants to turn that person
into an enemy?
James 4:1-4
1 What causes fights and quarrels among you?
Don’t they come from your desires
that battle within you?
2 You desire but do not have, so you kill.
You covet but you cannot get what you want,
so you quarrel and fight.
You do not have because you do not ask God.
James 4:1-4
1 What causes fights and quarrels among you?
Don’t they come from your desires
that battle within you?
2 You desire but do not have, so you kill.
You covet but you cannot get what you want,
so you quarrel and fight.
You do not have because you do not ask God.
3 When you ask, you do not receive,
because you ask with wrong motives,
that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
4 You adulterous people, don’t you know
that friendship with the world means enmity against God?
Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world
becomes an enemy of God.
Enemy making comes from
wanting gone wrong!
Romans 12
19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends,
but leave room for God’s wrath,
for it is written:
“It is mine to avenge;
I will repay,”says the Lord.
20 On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this,
you will heap burning coals on his head.”
21 Do not be overcome by evil,
but overcome evil with good.
Luke 6:27-28
27 “But to you who are listening I say:
Love your enemies,
do good to those who hate you,
28 bless those who curse you,
pray for those who mistreat you.
Luke 6:27-28
Love enemies by
Doing Good
Blessing
Praying
Proverbs 16:7
When a man's ways please the LORD,
he makes even his enemies
to be at peace with him.
Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness
multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.
So when Jesus says, “Love your enemies,”
he is setting forth a
profound and ultimately inescapable admonition.
Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world
that we must love our enemies—or else?
The chain reaction of evil—
hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars—
must be broken,
or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”
• —Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love
Next Steps
• I will ask God to fill me with His love for
difficult people in my life.
Next Steps
• I will ask God to fill me with His love for
difficult people in my life.
• I am going to do something good
to someone who has harmed me.
(buy and read Enemy Pie by Derek Munson)
Next Steps
•I will ask God to fill me with His love for
difficult people in my life.
•I am going to do something good
to someone who has harmed me.
•I will ask God for a greater faith
so that I can stay strong in the Lord
during the rough times in my life.