Loving Your Enemies

1 John 4:18New International Version (NIV)

18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (NIV)

Words to remind us there is no fear in perfect love. When we cause someone to fear are intent is not love, but is usually control, anger, bitterness and dishonesty.

In his sermon "Loving Your Enemies," Martin Luther King, Jr., said:

When Abraham Lincoln was running for president of the United States, there was a man who ran all around the country talking about Lincoln. He said a lot of unkind things. And sometimes he would get to the point that he would even talk about his looks, saying, "You don't want a tall, lanky, ignorant man like this as the president of the United States." …

Finally, one day Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States.… Then came the time for him to choose a secretary of war. He looked across the nation, and decided to choose a man by the name of Mr. Stanton. And when Abraham Lincoln stood around his advisors and mentioned this fact, they said to him: "Mr. Lincoln, are you a fool? Do you know what Mr. Stanton has been saying about you? Do you know what he as done, tried to do to you? Do you know that he has tried to defeat you on every hand? Do you know that, Mr. Lincoln? Did you read all of those derogatory statements that he made about you?"

Abraham Lincoln stood before the advisors around him and said: "Oh yeah. I know about it; I read about it; I've heard him myself. But after looking over the country, I find that he is the best man for the job."

Mr. Stanton did become secretary of war; and…later, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. And if you go to Washington, you will discover that one of the greatest words or statements ever made about Abraham Lincoln was by this man Stanton. As Abraham Lincoln came to the end of his life, Stanton stood up and said: "Now he belongs to the ages." And he made a beautiful statement concerning the character and the stature of this man.

If Abraham Lincoln had hated Stanton, if Abraham Lincoln had answered everything Stanton said, Abraham Lincoln would not have transformed and redeemed Stanton. Stanton would have gone to his grave hating Lincoln, and Lincoln would have gone to his grave hating Stanton. But through the power of love Abraham Lincoln was able to redeem Stanton.

[Martin Luther King, Jr., A Knock at Midnight, edited by Clayborne Carson and Peter Holloran (Warner Books, 1998) p.154]

We can quit or keep on trying

2 Thessalonians 1:3 (NIV)

3 We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.

Here the apostle addresses those in the church who are caring for one another. They don't give, instead their faith grows more and more in what they can do for one another.

On a drizzly afternoon in early 2015 seven people gathered for Washington D.C.'s newest group—The Quitters Club. Tagline: "Let's Give Up on Our Dreams … Together!" One attendee was ready to cast aside her long-held ambition to become an actress. Same deal for a would-be writer. Another was ready to quit Washington D.C. The hodgepodge group of strangers were drawn together by the same invite that read: "Most of us have something special we'd like to do with our lives. At the Quitters Club we can help each other stomp out the brush fires set in our hearts, and get on with our lives."

Founder Justin Cannon has quit all sorts of things—filmmaking, music, graphic design. He is tortured by the dueling forces of grand ambition and intense self-doubt. Most often, the battle leaves him frozen. And despondent. At one point Cannon expressed his growing exasperation. "I was like, 'We should have a group where people want to give up on their dreams.' I was making a joke," he recalls. "But somebody said, 'You know, that's a really good idea.'"

A few days later he took action. He posted a note on Meetup for his new group. He thought he might be forming a club of one, but within 48 hours, 35 people signed up. And for the next two hours, one after another the attendees expressed their dreams and their inability to make progress. But surprisingly they end up encouraging each other to persevere. The actress, they decide, should give it a hard push for a year before tossing out her ambitions of making it on the stage. The unhappy Washingtonian should look for a new job before giving up on the city. The writer whose day job is getting in the way of her artistic pursuits should carve out time each day for her passion.

"Here we are at the Quitters Club and we're all encouraging each other to keep going," one attendee mused. "I knew that was gonna happen," Cannon says. They will meet again the following month to continue in their quest to help people quit. Or, as it turns out, to keep on trying.

[David Finch, Elk Grove, California; source: Ellen McCarthy, "The Quitters Club: Let's Give Up On Our Dreams Together," The Washington Post (3-25-15)]

In love keep on trying for God has faith in you, so the question becomes: Do you have faith in yourself?

The Debt We Owe God

Psalm 97:10 (NIV)

10 Let those who love the Lord hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

The Lord despises the evil that fills the hearts of people. He therefore decrees that those who love Him should stay away from evil and God himself will deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

We often hear someone say: "Well, I'm not very religious, but I'm a good person and that is what is most important." But is that true? Imagine a woman, a poor widow with an only son. She teaches him how she wants him to live, to always tell the truth, to work hard and to help the poor.

She makes very little money, but with her meager savings she is able to put him through college. Imagine that when he graduates, he hardly even speaks to her again. He occasionally sends a Christmas card, but he doesn't visit her, he won't even answer her phone calls or letters; he doesn't speak to her. But he lives just like she taught him—honestly, industriously, and charitably.

Would you say this was acceptable? Of course not. Wouldn't we say by living a "good life" but neglecting a relationship with the one to whom he owed everything he was doing something commendable?

In the same way, God created us and we owe him everything and we do not live for him but we "live a good life" it is not enough. We all owe a debt that must be paid.

[Timothy Keller, Shaped by the Gospel: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City (Zondervan, 2016), page 3; Submitted by Van Morris, Mt. Washington, Kentucky]

God's Great Love

1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV)

9 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—

God loves each and every one of us. Some know of God’s love, some think of God as loving, while others may question His love for us. The truth is NO ONE fully understands the greatness of God’s love.

Theologian Michael Reeves notes that many people in our culture who have rejected God may be reacting against a certain sort of God—what he calls "a loveless dictator in the sky." Reeves writes:

In my own experience, when I ask atheist or agnostic students to describe the God they don't believe in, I am usually treated to what sounds like a good description of Satan: a self-obsessed, merciless bully. And if God is not an ever-loving Father, eternally pouring out his Spirit of life and blessing on his Son, then their descriptions are probably pretty accurate. If God is not Father, Son, and Spirit, then he must be an eternally solitary being who has managed to get through eternity without love.

[Adapted from Michael Reeves, "Three Is the Loveliest Number," Christianity Today (December 2012)]

However, Our God is not without love. 1 John 3:1 tells us, “See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.”

Do not be deceived by those who don’t know God; for God loves all His children. We all should learn to know how wide, how long, how high, and how deep is His love for us.

The Lord is Forgiving

Psalm 86:5 (NIV)

5 You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you.

The goodness of God's nature is a great encouragement to us in all our addresses to him. His goodness appears in two things, giving and forgiving. He is a sin-pardoning God; not only he can forgive, but he is ready to forgive, more ready to forgive than we are to repent. He is a prayer-hearing God; he is plenteous in mercy, very full, and very free, both rich and liberal unto all those that call upon him; he has wherewithal to supply all their needs and is openhanded in granting that supply. [Matthew Henry]

NPR ran a heartbreaking interview with Robert Ebeling, an engineer who worked on the 1986 Challenger launch that resulted in the death of all seven occupants. In January 1986, Ebeling and four other engineers pleaded for the launch to be delayed; they anticipated the precise failure that would destroy the shuttle. That night, Ebeling even told his wife, Darlene, "It's going to blow up." The engineers' pleas were refused. Three weeks after the explosion, he and another engineer, since deceased, spoke to NPR. Ebeling was not identified by name until this past week. The NPR article continued:

Ebeling retired soon after Challenger. He suffered deep depression and has never been able to lift the burden of guilt. In 1986, as he watched that haunting image again on a television screen, he said, "I could have done more. I should have done more." He says the same thing today, sitting in a big easy chair in the same living room, his eyes watery and his face grave. The data he and his fellow engineers presented, and their persistent and sometimes angry arguments, weren't enough to sway Thiokol managers and NASA officials. Ebeling concludes he was inadequate. He didn't argue the data well enough. A religious man, this is something he has prayed about for the past 30 years. "I think that was one of the mistakes that God made," Ebeling says softly. "He shouldn't have picked me for the job. But next time I talk to him, I'm gonna ask him, 'Why me. You picked a loser.'"

[Howard Berkes, "30 Years After Explosion, Challenger Engineer Still Blames Himself," NPR The Two-Way blog (1-28-16)]

If someone would have just said, “The Lord is forgiving and good,” maybe Ebeling could have forgiven himself. He held onto a burden of guilt that he could have let go of so easily by turning it over to God. He believed he was a loser because of what happened, but I see him as a hero for standing up and raising a voice even though it wasn’t fully heard.

Staying Humble

James 4:10 (NIV)

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Those that draw nigh to God in a way of duty shall find God drawing nigh to them in a way of mercy. Draw nigh to him in faith, and trust, and obedience, and he will draw nigh to you for your deliverance. If there be not a close communion between God and us, it is our fault, and not his. He shall lift up the humble. [Matthew Henry]

In the 1840s a court case based in Chicago captured the attention of the entire nation. Labeled "The Reaper Case," it centered on the patenting of farm equipment invented by Cyrus McCormick. At the time the case had such high-stakes that legal rock stars from the East Coast trekked to the Midwest to take on the case. But since the judge was from Illinois, these Ivy League trained lawyers decided to add a local lawyer to their legal team. So after working their networks, they found an obscure, small town lawyer to join their high-powered team.

When the high-powered, sophisticated Ivy League lawyers met their new teammate, they were stunned. He was poorly dressed and disheveled. He spoke with a strong small town accent and used folksy vernacular phrases. In short, he was a country bumpkin. One of the team's leading lawyers, a man named Edwin Stanton, said in this small town lawyer's presence, "Let's do away with this ape." Then they did what any immature men would do. They ditched him. They would have meals without him. They would tell him different times for the court case to be tried, and then they would get there earlier and the court case would be going on. They viewed him as someone of very significant insignificance.

Stanton won the case. He went on to become one of the leading lights in the American legal profession and politics. As a matter of fact, he became the Secretary of War during the Civil War. But much to his shock he went to work for the one he called "ape." It was Abraham Lincoln, whose incredible significance was not known until the very last years of his life.

[Stewart Ruch III, Sermon "When Small Is Great," PreachingToday.com]

Empathy in restoration

Galatians 6:1 (NIV)

6 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.

These words are an encouragement to us to help those who are struggling in life. We are to help restore them to a place away from sin while showing them grace and mercy. As we do this we should watch ourselves that we don’t get overly involved and fall into the same trap they did.

Lt. Jack Cambria has spent more than a decade talking people down from the ledge. Until his retirement in 2015, he was the commanding officer of the NYPD's hostage negotiation team for over 33 years. During his career he became an expert at saving fellow cops from gun-wielding maniacs or dissuading people to not jump off New York City's skyscrapers or bridges.

What's the secret to success as a hostage negotiator? Cambria says, "The very good negotiators, I think, are the ones with the life stories"—particularly, he would add, life stories of pain that have produced compassion for others. Cambria claims, "[Good negotiators must] experience the emotion of love at one point in their life, to know what it means to have been hurt in love at one point in their life, to know success and perhaps, most important, to know what it means to know failure."

He learned this lesson during his first day as a police officer. Cambria admitted that he had his "own baggage about the homeless, they were violent, they were dirty, they were mentally ill." Then one day, he had to confront a homeless fare beater and searched his satchel. Inside wasn't a weapon but a manuscript of a play titled "Crabs in a Basket," a metaphor for the man, of his struggle to crawl out of the hole he was in.

"In that two-minute space of time, he had transposed himself from a homeless guy—my baggage—to a playwright," he recalled. That compassion has led colleagues to refer to him as "Gentleman Jack," whose guiding principle is to just get the suspects talking.

[Pervaiz Shallwani, "Life Lessons From the NYPD's Top Hostage Negotiator," The Wall Street Journal (8-28-15)]