Tag: Matthew 6:10

The GOAT Part 6: Revenge and Enemies

You don’t have to search very hard to find songs, books, movies, and shows based on the theme of revenge. Plot lines about characters retaliating for wrongs committed against them are plentiful. Just do a quick internet search and you’ll find a variety of titles to entertain you and tutor you in the art of revenge.  It’s human nature to want to get even, but it’s not biblical. Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount makes that clear:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” (Matthew 5:38-42, NIV)

Jesus counters our natural desire to retaliate. This new interpretation of an Old Testament command separates the responsibility of the government to punish evildoers justly from our personal responsibility to love our enemies. We’re not called to seek retribution for personal slights and are told to ignore personal insults (that’s the meaning of “turn the other cheek”). One commentary explains, “Christians must be willing to give more of their material goods, time, and labor than required, even if the demands upon us are unjust. We should loan to those who want to borrow, love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us. Enforcing ‘an eye for an eye’ is the magistrate’s job; forgiving our enemies is ours.”1

The commentary continues: “Jesus’ limiting of the ‘eye for an eye’ principle doesn’t prohibit self-defense or the forceful protection of the innocent from harm. The actions of duly appointed agents of the government, such as police officers and the military, to protect citizens and preserve the peace are not in question. Jesus’ command to turn the other cheek applies to personal relationships, not judicial policy. The principle of ‘an eye for an eye’ is meant as a judicial policy, not as a rule for interpersonal relationships.”2

Turning the other cheek also doesn’t imply pacifism. It’s simply a command to refrain from retaliation for personal offenses. Jesus wasn’t setting government foreign policy, just calling His followers not to worry about defending their personal “rights” or avenging their honor.3

The next portion of Jesus’ teaching is equally challenging:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor: and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 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. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48, NIV)

When someone hurts us, our natural reaction is to protect ourselves and fight back, but Jesus calls us to a higher standard. He exemplified this by never retaliating when someone wronged Him, which happened many times. His own people rejected His message (John 1:11); religious leaders mocked and tried to trap Him (John 8:6); His family was ashamed of Him and tried to make Him stop preaching (Mark 3:21); His friends deserted Him when He needed them most (Mark 14:50); the city who had cried “Hosanna!” when He arrived on Palm Sunday shouted “Crucify Him!” a few days later (Mark 15:13). So, when Jesus said to pray for our enemies, He knew what He was talking about.

Jesus provided the perfect example when He was being nailed to a cross. In the middle of His agony, He cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34, ESV). Jesus had compassion on the people who believed they were doing the right thing by killing Him. By pointing out that they didn’t know what they were doing, He showed us several important factors that reveal how to pray for our enemies:

1. Opening Spiritual Eyes: We can pray that God will open the eyes of their hearts that they will be enlightened about truth (Ephesians 1:18). When enemies set themselves against us, they lack understanding. They are reacting from the flesh instead of responding from the Spirit. We can pray that God will open the eyes of their hearts to see us and others through the lens of the Lord’s love and wisdom.

2. Repenting of Sin: As we struggle with our enemies, we can pray for their repentance. When we pray for our enemies to repent, we know our prayers are aligned with God’s will because He also desires their repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

3. Keeping a Soft Heart: When we pray for our enemies, we can ask that our hearts will remain soft. Perhaps the Lord wants to use us to accomplish His plan in the lives of our enemies. “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15:1, ESV). When we return anger for anger, wrong for wrong, we put ourselves on the same level as our enemies. But when we respond with kindness, gentleness, and mercy, the situation is often diffused. Nothing is more convicting than a gentle response to a hateful, rude action. It’s what turning the other cheek is all about. Satan desires discord, so he tries to stir up our fury and goads us to respond in kind. We should pray that God keeps our hearts soft toward those who offend us so that His goodness will be revealed to them through us.

4. Aligning with God’s Will: Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10, ESV). It is always right to ask that God’s will be done in any situation. We should pray that He’ll enable us to want what He wants. If He desires to bless our enemies, we want that, too. If He wants us to serve our enemies in some way, then that’s what we desire. Prayer is the aligning of our wills with God’s; when we pray for our enemies, we need to wrestle through our emotions until we truly want God’s best in their lives.

Praying for our enemies is not a natural response to their mistreatment of us. But remembering that we were once enemies of God ourselves, and that we are now His children should change our perspective. We can intercede for others who need the Lord’s help and guidance. Doing this keeps our own hearts free from bitterness (Hebrews 12:15). In praying for our enemies, we become more like Christ, and we keep ourselves aligned with God’s will, which is how we strive toward being perfect as He is perfect.4

Quotes and content of this post are a compilation of information from the following articles:

1. https://www.gotquestions.org/eye-for-an-eye.html

2. https://www.gotquestions.org/eye-for-an-eye.html

3. https://www.gotquestions.org/turn-other-cheek.html

4. https://www.gotquestions.org/pray-for-your-enemies.html

This post also complements the sermon by Ryan Suzuki at CPC Danville. Click here to watch.

Be Fruitful and Multiply

If my kids ever decide to map out their family tree, they’ll discover that the branches aren’t balanced or symmetrical. Some of their ancestors came from enormous families and produced limbs that were laden with bountiful fruit. Some stand alone, signifying the final offspring of a branch. Until recently, I never thought about why we use the symbol of a tree when we depict our ancestry visually. Maybe it has a connection to God’s language  when He delivers His plan for humanity in the opening pages of Genesis. Moments after creating man and woman in His image, God gives them some clear instructions, usually referred to as the Cultural Mandate:

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28, ESV).

At first glance, the mandate He gives seems straightforward and practical: they need to “be fruitful and multiply” by procreating to populate the earth. Their job is to bring order and structure to His creation and to oversee it according to His plan. However, I think there is also a deeper meaning to His words. Along with multiplying the number of people in the world, God was calling Adam and Eve to advance His kingdom on earth—to rule with, wisdom, love, and justice. He wanted them to carry out His will so that others on the planet could know and love Him as they did. Unfortunately, their choice to sin complicated this plan, but it didn’t thwart it entirely.

Throughout the Old Testament we see God’s people in a continual cycle. It would start when they rejected His way and sinned, which led to their decline as a people. This would be followed by consequences allowed by God’s hand. Eventually this would lead to them to repentance, renewed obedience, and restored relationship with Him. In between failures, the Israelites fitfully furthered His kingdom at different points in history. But it isn’t until Jesus arrives on the scene that we fully recognize the magnitude of God’s plan. “From the beginning, humanity was mandated to represent God, build culture and bring shalom to His world. Although compromised by the Fall, the mandate remains in place and is in fact fulfilled in Christ, the true God and true man who will ultimately restore His creation.” (“The Cultural Mandate: Living as Divine Image-Bearers” by Subby Szterszky. Click here for the full article.)

With Jesus’ birth, God renews His plan for His people to be fruitful and multiply to expand His kingdom—only this time it’s not so much about increasing the population as it is about changing the culture one heart at a time. His goal was for us to view ourselves and the world from His perspective instead of our own, which is why Jesus says: “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3, NIV). It is not until we are spiritually transformed that we can recognize God’s kingdom all around us and participate in advancing it further. Jesus explains, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst’” (Luke 17:20-21, NIV).

God’s kingdom has always been present in the world. And once we identify the places He’s moving and join Him in His work, He uses us to impact our surroundings. That’s what we’re inviting Him to do when we say: “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” in the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:10, NIV). Those words reveal our longing for God to carry out His will on earth so that His kingdom will continue to expand. This prayer acknowledges that we’re putting aside our wills and aligning ourselves with God’s agenda.

In the final days of His ministry, Jesus commissioned His followers to continue multiplying and bearing fruit when He said: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20, NIV).

He assured them of His constant presence with them, reminding them that multiplying and bearing fruit was only possible by staying closely connected with Him. Perhaps they recalled His earlier teaching:“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5. NIV).

Every follower of Jesus represents another branch on God’s family tree. And by abiding with Him, we’re equipped to share His love with others so that the branches will multiply and continue to bear more fruit in His ever-expanding kingdom.

When we walk consistently with Jesus and allow His love to flow through us, we’re doing the work of advancing God’s kingdom in a world that desperately needs Him. One of my favorite songs describing the impact we can have on our surroundings is “Build Your Kingdom Here” by Rend Collective.  Listen and make it your prayer today.

Jen Wilkin, God of Creation: A Study of Genesis 1-11, Week 4 Lifeway Press, 2017

Note: the cycle of God’s people described in paragraph four is a commonly held truth among Bible Scholars.  This particular statement is paraphrased from Gideon: Your Weakness. God’s Strength by Priscilla Shirer.

Eliminate Idols; Build God’s Kingdom- Final Thoughts on No Other Gods

Moving the colorful troops around on the game board seems fairly simple. But if you‘ve ever played the game of “Risk,” you know it’s actually quite complicated. Dubbed “The Game of Global Domination,” the rules written by Parker Brothers explain: “Play the commander of vast armies, a general of superior strategy and a tactician unlike any mankind has ever seen. Your goal is simple: to take over the world.”

Each player claims a portion of a large fictionalized world map and challenges opponents to battles. Using a combination of rolling dice and drawing cards that determine a player’s advantages and limitations, players must calculate attack and defense strategies. The game can last for hours. I pictured the large world map and the tiny game pieces as I thought about what happens when we leave idols behind to focus fully on God.

Why, you may ask, would a board game prompt such thoughts? The answer is simple: some of us are so consumed with our own circumstances that we don’t realize we have the opportunity to expand God’s kingdom on earth, like spreading more of His troops across the map on the game board. Once we’re ready to leave our personal agendas behind and trust His will above our own, we discover what the abundant life God promises is really all about.

In the book of Joshua, the Israelites expanded God’s physical kingdom on earth when they entered the Promised Land and began taking possession of it. We have the opportunity to do something similar on a spiritual level every day. It’s all part of living out the phrase in the Lord’s Prayer that says “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10) Yet sometimes we focus so much on our personal relationship with God that we overlook the fact that we’re called to look beyond ourselves. Claiming Jesus as Savior should go hand in hand with increasing His rule and reign on earth.

Back in Genesis, God’s original plan was to use Adam and Eve to spread His kingdom. He made them in His image, gave them authority over the earth and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” (Genesis 1:28, NIV) Sadly, when Satan succeeded in tempting them in the Garden of Eden, their choice to disobey God brought sin into the world. This caused the authority originally given to them to be passed to the devil. Although God had ultimate sovereignty, the enemy was (and still is) temporarily granted authority because of Adam and Eve’s choice to sin.

The good news is God’s kingdom still exists in its fullness in heaven. By doing His will, we increase His kingdom on earth. Author, Bible scholar, and Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright explains: “God intends his wise, creative, loving presence and power to be reflected…into his world through his human creatures. He has enlisted us to act as his stewards in the project of creation. And, following the disaster of rebellion and corruption [that took place in the Garden of Eden], he has built into the gospel message the fact that through the work of Jesus and the power of the Spirit, he equips humans to help in the work of getting the project back on track.”

Imagine the example of the game I described. Although God ultimately owns the “game board” (the world) and all of the pieces, the enemy has been given a temporary seat at the table. For a time, he has the opportunity to strategize about how he can thwart God’s kingdom from spreading on earth. Still, many people who love the Lord remain passive as events unfold, not understanding they’re meant to play a part in His ongoing plan to expand His kingdom on earth. Those who realize it help to reclaim the world for good instead of letting it languish in evil.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, followers of Jesus reflect creation as God intended it to be. Once we eliminate the idols that hinder us and make room for God, we’re ready to change the atmosphere in our world. Engaging in the adventure of building God’s kingdom on earth brings joy, hope and fulfillment in a way that idols never will. Understanding this makes the hollow things we used to cherish seem flimsy, insignificant and useless by comparison. Loving God with all of our hearts, souls, minds and strength enables Him to do amazing things through us. The ripple effects cause His kingdom to spread throughout the earth, preparing it for the day when John’s prophecy about heaven and earth merging will become a reality:

“Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:3b-4, NIV)

There are two songs that have impacted me deeply as I’ve considered the part we play in furthering God’s kingdom on earth: “With Every Act of Love” by Jason Gray and “Build Your Kingdom Here” by Rend Collective. Both provide tangible examples and inspiring perspectives about this topic. Rend Collective’s song also prompted me to write a prayer about this compelling subject. Would you consider praying it with me?

God, unleash your kingdom’s power, reaching near and far. We know no force of hell can stop your beauty from changing hearts. You made us for much more than the comfort and security we seek from idols. Awake the kingdom seed in us. Fill us with the strength and love of Christ. We are your church; let us always be reminded that we are the hope on earth! Build your kingdom here; let the darkness fear. Show your mighty hand; heal our streets and land. Set your church on fire, win this nation back; change the atmosphere. Build your kingdom here, we pray.

v=3q7xnR9E3gohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q7xnR9E3go

Kelly Minter, No Other Gods: Confronting Our Modern Day Idols, Lifeway Press, 2007, 2012.

N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church, HarperOne, 2008, p. 207.