Bless Them That Curse You
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27 But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,
28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.
Introduction
Introduction
Last week, we spoke about the first part of verse 27 on loving your enemies, and what a tall order that is…Outside of the help of the Holy Spirit, it’s impossible for us to practice that kind of love...
I mentioned how in the world’s eyes, love is cheap…It’s cheap because it’s misunderstood, and because it’s misunderstood, it’s almost impossible to find. But “love” remains the justification for just about anything people wish to do.
So people tell us that any two people who “love each other” should be able to marry—even if the two people are of the same sex. Their professed “love” for each other provides moral justification for their acts.
“Love,” we are told, “conquers all,” and “love wins.” - I’m just wondering, with no moral compass, where our society’s view of love is going to take them?
To our world, love is just a feeling, an emotion, but let me tell you…it takes more than a feeling or an emotion to love your enemies...
Here comes Jesus, the Great Moral Teacher. And if Jesus taught anything, he taught us the truth about love. He showed us in his teaching and in his death on the cross the nature and scope of divine love. And the Lord calls his disciples to live out that love...
James Bryan Smith, author of The Good and Beautiful Life, says, “When we hate our enemies we betray the God who loves His enemies. Conversely, when we pray for and bless those who curse us, we align ourselves with God and His kingdom. We are doing what Jesus did.”
Jesus tells us to love our enemies, and in the verses we will look at tonight, He is going to tell us the depth to which we are to love our enemies...
Tonight, we are going to focus on the phrase in verse 28, “Bless them that curse you,”
Now, conflict and war have been a part of human history since the very beginning.
It’s amazing to discover how some wars started. The Pig War is one example.
What began with the shooting of a pig developed into a full-fledged confrontation between the United States and Great Britain.
The conflict occurred in 1859 on San Juan Island, located between the mainland United States and Vancouver Island, which at that time was the residence of American settlers and British employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The Americans and British both asserted right of ownership of the fertile land.
When an American farmer, Lyman Cutlar, discovered a British-owned black boar eating the potatoes on his farm, he shot it, causing tensions between the two groups of settlers to flare. British authorities threatened to arrest Cutlar. As the conflict escalated, American troops arrived on the island, led by Captain George Pickett who declared the whole island US territory. This enraged the British who sent their armed naval vessels to the coastline. Both sides were locked in a standoff for weeks, eventually ending the conflict with a formal agreement.
Sometimes the most trivial matters spark a major crisis between nations. And as ridiculous as that may seem, the same sometimes happens among individuals.
I have people in this city that don’t like me and I can’t tell what I’ve done to them. I just go on and be nice anyway.
There are people around town that don’t like me because of who my Dad is…Go figure that one out!
Sometimes a simple form of misunderstanding or negative communication on the part of one or both parties begins a conflict. Other times, there is purposeful hurt on the part of one or both parties which leads to deep wounds.
In either case, we are to obey God’s instruction in Luke 6:28: “Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.”
When others verbally abuse us, our natural response is to retaliate—to their faces or behind their backs. But as you might guess, the biblical response is the opposite of our natural inclination: we are to bless them.
Christ demonstrated this response when people not only verbally assaulted Him, but also physically assaulted Him.
23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
The instruction of our text verses from Luke 6 is repeated in Romans 12.
14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
• The word bless carries the idea of praising or saying kind things about another. This is the Greek word where we get “eulogy” from...
• The word persecute is broad. It can refer to something as small as minor harassment to something as big as physical persecution.
• The word curse means to speak evil of. So we see that God desires for us to say kind words to those who ill-treat or slander us.
The words “curse not” mean we are not to curse, doom, or imprecate evil upon people. We are not to call down divine curses.
10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long to find out that not many Christians are actually obeying the teachings of our Savior!
It would take me about 10 seconds on Twitter to show you how even Pastors and preachers don’t practice this.
As the book of James states, these things ought not so to be.
The Ultimate Example
The Ultimate Example
Loving your enemies, blessing them that curse you…The best example for us to follow is the One Whom, as children of God, we should be following and that is our Savior Jesus Christ...
For whom did Jesus die?
For whom did he suffer?
The Lord was crucified at the hands of his enemies. The very people who put him to death were the people he came to save. They mocked and abused him. Jesus prayed,
34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.
They whipped and beat him.
Jesus never said a mumbling word but gave his body to be broken for them and for us. The Bible says he was led as a lamb to the slaughter…He made no argument, he didn’t fight. Remember 1 Peter 2:23 I quoted earlier?
23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
They took his tunic and his robe, stripped him naked. He willingly allowed it.
He did not demand his rights, repayment, or even an apology.
The Son of God gave his life for sinners so that even though we were enemies of God, we might be made sons of God through faith in him.
When we were his enemies, Christ loved us. By so loving us, the Lord enables us to love him and love our enemies.
We love God because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).
Never underestimate the redemptive power of love.
D. L. Moody, in one of his sermons, pictures the Lord Jesus after His resurrection giving directions to Peter.
“Go, find the man,” He says, “who thrust his spear into My side and tell him there’s a much quicker way to My heart. Find the man who crowned Me with thorns and tell him I should like to give him a crown of life.”
It is a dramatic way of depicting the true spirit of Christianity. Did not Jesus practice what He preached? On the cross He prayed for them that despitefully used Him.
He opened the gates of paradise for that thief who moments before had been pouring curses on His head. It was this that won completely the centurion in charge of the crucifixion. “This was the Son of God,” he cried (Matt. 27:54).
Christ’s policy of blessing those that cursed Him won to Himself that day a Gentile and a Jew, blessed firstfruits of His cross.
Can we hope to live like that? Sometimes, we say, but Preacher, you’re talking about Christ, like we cannot live like Him! He was sinless, He was perfect! That’s true, we do contend with sin, but I believe we can do more than we think when it comes to living holy!
Church history is full of examples of Christians that show us, yes, we can...
Adoniram Judson was a missionary from Massachusetts that took the Gospel to India and surrounding countries in the early 1800s...
When Adoniram Judson was serving Christ in Burma, he suffered severe persecution in the early years of his ministry.
Judson was almost starved to death and driven across a desert by the lash of a whip. He was also imprisoned for two year under treacherous conditions. While he was imprisoned, Mrs. Judson gave birth to a child. Not long after this, there home burned down. Their oldest child developed smallpox too, driving Mrs. Judson to the brink of despair. To make matters worse, Adoniram’s execution was announced and he was smuggled away. Finding him was extremely difficult for Mrs. Judson.
When they were finally reunited, he was terribly scarred, maimed, and drained by suffering. She was dressed in rags, destitute, and her head was shaved.
In spite of the harshness that Burma threw at the Judsons, they never lost their love for the people of Burma. The love of Christ constrained them and strengthened their wills. By blessing those who persecuted them and not cursing, they were able to disarm their opposition and conquer through Christ.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Some people have enemies, not because of their position in Christ, but their disposition.
There is a difference between sharing “the offense of the cross” and being an offensive Christian. We are not to be obnoxious, rude, unkind, judgmental, hateful, or proud.
If you have mistreated someone, then you need to seek their forgiveness. Has someone been mean to you? Bless them! Have you been mean to someone? Get right with God and with them.