Love Your Enemies and Do Good
Month 5: Kingdom Living (Part 2) · Loving Others
Today's Scripture
Read together: Luke 6:27-31
27 But to those of you who will listen, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone takes your cloak, do not withhold your tunic as well. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what is yours, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Memory Verse
“Do to others as you would have them do to you.”— Luke 6:31 (BSB)
📖 Bible-in-a-Year (optional)
Today's reading: Job 18-20
Reading the whole Bible in a year — do this when you have extra time. (Around Day 140 of 365 — in his suffering, Job says, "I know that my Redeemer lives.")The Heart of It
Loving people who love us back is easy. Anybody can do that. But Jesus asks for something shocking, something nobody else dared to teach. "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you" (). Read that again slowly. Not just put up with your enemies. Love them. Not just ignore the kid who's mean to you. Do good to them. Bless them. Pray for them. This is the steepest mountain in the whole Sermon. It runs against everything in us that wants to get even. And it's no accident that our memory verse sits right in the middle of it. "Do to others as you would have them do to you" (). The Golden Rule has teeth. It applies even to the people we'd least like to be kind to.
Why would Jesus ask something so hard? Because this is exactly what God did for us. The Bible says that while we were still sinners, while we were God's enemies, Christ died for us (). Jesus didn't wait for us to get nice before He loved us. He loved us all the way to the cross. He even prayed for the very soldiers nailing Him there: "Father, forgive them" (). So when we love an enemy, we're not just obeying a hard rule. We're acting like our Father. We let His love flow through us to someone who hasn't earned it, just as we never earned His. We can't do this on our own. It takes the Holy Spirit's love poured into our hearts (). But when a Christian blesses an enemy, the watching world sees something it can't explain. That's the family resemblance of the kingdom.
Around the Table
Jesus says to be kind even to people who are NOT kind to us. That's hard! But God will help us, because that's how much God loves us.
Let's do it: Think of someone who was unkind to you. Say a tiny prayer for them right now: "God, please bless them." (You can do it!)
Anyone can love a best friend. Jesus calls us higher — to do good to people who are mean, and even pray for them.
Let's talk: Is there someone who's been unkind to you lately? What's one kind thing you could do or pray for them this week?
Loving enemies isn't weakness, and it isn't pretending the wrong didn't happen. It means choosing their good and refusing revenge. It's the most God-like thing a person can do ().
Let's go deeper: How is "loving your enemy" different from just letting people walk all over you?
💬 Conversation Starter
What's the hardest part of being kind to someone who was unkind to you first? What might make it a little easier?
🛡️ Defending the Faith
Some claim Jesus' "love your enemies" is just an impossible dream nobody really lives. Yet history is full of Christians who forgave their persecutors and even cared for them. Many died praying for the very people who killed them. The command is hard, but the Spirit makes it real. And a watching world has never been able to ignore it ().
For Dad · Go Deeper
Tim Keller observed that loving your enemies is the most distinctive command in all of Jesus' teaching. It is also the most surprising. And he said it only lasts when it flows downhill from the gospel. We forgive because we have been forgiven at infinite cost. A father who tries to teach enemy-love as mere willpower, just "be the bigger person," will only produce resentment or hypocrisy in his kids. But there is a better way. A father who keeps pointing back to the cross, saying "this is exactly what God did for us while we were His enemies," gives them the only fuel that actually works. Watch your own life here. Children learn far more from how you talk about the difficult relative, the rude neighbor, or the coworker who wronged you than from any lesson at the table. Do you pray for them? Do you refuse to nurse grudges out loud? Picture the home where dad blesses people behind their backs instead of cutting them down. That's a home where enemy-love stops being a slogan and becomes a way of life.
Draws on: Timothy Keller, The Reason for God; .
Let's Pray Together
"Father, thank You for loving us even when we were Your enemies. Thank You for sending Jesus to die for us. By Your Holy Spirit, fill our hearts with Your love. Help us love even those who are unkind to us. We pray for them right now. In Jesus' name, amen."
God loved me while I was His enemy. So by His Spirit, I can bless mine.