Reconciliation (Matthew 5:43-48)
Good morning, Chester road, Baptist church. My name is Dave Ellis. I'm a Regional Minister for the Heart of England Baptist Association. And it's my pleasure to bring you the Word during October, designated black history month. We're going to look at a passage of Scripture from Matthew chapter five, verses 43 to 48. 
Let me ask the question. Is it really possible for us to love our enemies? Like, humanly speaking? No, but Scripturally speaking, yes, because we're commanded to do it, even though it seems difficult. 
Now, part of the characteristic of being a Christian is that we are called children of God. And we are called children of God, especially when we exhibit love to the unlovable. According to Rev Dr. Martin Luther King, “love is the only force capable of changing our enemy into our friends.” 
So what does Jesus mean by loving our enemy? Well, Greek is one of those words that has many more meanings than English. And when it comes to the word ‘love’, there are four different words that Greek uses. For you Greek scholars out there, you know that there is a word called ‘Storge’, which means a kind of family affection. That kind of love a parent has for a child, a child has for a parent. 
You also know that there's another word, ‘Eros’ - from which we get the word erotic -  that talks about passionate love; passionate love people have for one another. It was a word that was used in Greek, and then it became associated with lust. And so that idea of lust is a word nowhere found in the New Testament at all. 
Then the third word is ‘Philia’. It’s a word that describes real love, real affection. It describes a man or woman's closest, dearest, truest friend. It's a warm and affectionate kind of love, the kind of highest love we can have for human beings.
But, fourthly, there's ‘Agape’ love. And this is an unbreakable, unshakable kind of love. And we use it in regard to loving people, no matter what they do, no matter what they say, no matter how they treat us, no matter if the insult us, injure us, or  grieve us, we won't allow any bitterness against them in our hearts. And we will regard them with that unbreakable, unshakable love, which seeks nothing but that person's highest good. 
Now, Jesus, didn't ask us to love our enemies with the same kind of love that we have for our nearest and dearest. There are four words, and you can see that the words are different for enemy. And so we are to love our enemy in a way that isn't just with our hearts, but it's also with our heads, with our minds. When we love our enemies, we have to decide to do it. It is something that we determine ourselves to do, in order to get a victory over hate. And it's only something Jesus can give us the strength to do.
But you asked me, how did you love people when they call you all manner of names or when the police stop your car, take you out. Search you, search the car, search your friends constantly, or when a person puts posters up in their windows, supporting the National Front or the BNP, or members of the Klu Klux Klan pick off your friends, or 200,000 people start chanting monkey chants at black sportsman, or a brick comes sailing through your front room window with a message on it saying, go home “n” word. How do you love people like that? Well that wasn't in the USA. That was my life growing up in Wolverhampton. What am I supposed to do? Hate all white people? My best friends are white, black, and Asian. I worked in a factory of over a thousand people when I was youngster, and I got racial taunts every day. How did I survive that? Fortunately for me at 18, I got saved. I gave my life to Jesus and that saved me from a life of responding to the hatred that I saw around me. 
We also went to a multicultural church, which wasn't perfect, but the love of Christ, shone through all the people within that church. I realized, not every person was the he same. So ‘Agape’ love has the power to enable us to love those we don't like, and those people who might not like us. But it's only when Jesus comes into our heart and conquers that anger and conquers that bitterness that we have this kind of ‘Agape’ love to all men. It's a commandment of which we should say, first and foremost, Lord, help me keep this command. 
It's an almost impossible thing to do by ourselves. It is impossible, but, with Jesus, we can do all things. We can move from hating people to loving people. We can move from bitterness to love, when we're tempted by hate. And why do we need to do this? Well, Jesus commands it. Yes, but he also says it's part of our spiritual development; it’s part of our spiritual growth. You know, when we grow up, sometimes you grow up to be like our parents. Sometimes that's good. Sometimes that's bad. But if we're going to grow up to be like our heavenly Father, then we must show some of His characteristics about us. Somehow, He still loves us. Even when we get it wrong. Even when we make mistakes, the scriptures tell us that, while we were still sinners, this is how we know he loves us, because He died for us. Jesus says, we must have this ‘Agape’ love inside our hearts because we are like our heavenly Father. And if He has the ability to forgive us, if He has the ability to love us, despite us breaking his heart, then we've got to exhibit that kind of love as well. 
But then this passage finishes off and it says, you must be perfect like your heavenly Father is perfect. Well, that really does sound like an impossible commandment, doesn't it? There's none of us who would say we were perfect, not even me!  But when we look at this word ‘perfect’, the Greek word ‘perfect’ is used in a very special way. And it has very little to do with the way we use the word ‘perfect’ in English. The Greek word for ‘perfection’ is functional. It does something that achieves a purpose. It does something that it is planned to do, designed to do, made to do. The word for ‘perfect’ can be translated as meaning ‘a means to an end’, a purpose, an aim, a goal. Therefore, a thing is perfect when it achieves what  it was planned and designed to do; a thing is perfect when it does what it was created and sent into the world to do. Man was created to be like God; the characteristic of God is love. And that is our highest goal, to love every man. If that's God's characteristic, it needs to be ours as well. So, to put it in a simple way, the person who cares most for people is the most perfect person. We enter into that perfection when we learn to forgive as God forgives. And when we learn to love, as God loves, that's why love is perfect and the most excellent way. 
So let me finish with a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. He said, “Truly speaking, loving your enemy is very, very difficult, almost impossible, but we can do it. So I have decided to stick to love. He says, I am concerned about a better world, and I am concerned about justice. I'm concerned about brotherhood and sisterhood. I am concerned about truth. And when one is concerned about that, he can never advocate violence.  And I say to you, I've also decided to stick with love, for it's love, ultimately, that is the answer. The only answer to mankind's problem. And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. 
I know it isn't popular to talk about it, said, Martin Luther King, but I'm going to talk about it; not the emotional part that people talk about, but I'm talking about a strong, demanding love. For I've seen too much hate. And I say to myself, that hate is too great a burden to bear. So I have decided to love. And if you are seeking the highest goal, I think you can find it through love. And the beautiful thing is that we're not even moving in the wrong direction when we do it because John was right, God is love. And he has that as the key to unlock the door to the ultimate reality. 
So, I say to you today, my friends, you may be able to speak with the tongues of men and angels. You may have the eloquence and the articulate speech. But if you have not love, it means nothing. Yes, you may have the gift of prophecy. You may have the gift of scientific prediction and understand the behaviour of molecules. You may break into the storehouses of nature and bring forth many new insights. Yes, you may ascend to the heights of academic achievement so that you have all knowledge, and you may boast of your great institutions of learning and the boundless extent of your degrees. But if you have not love, all of these mean absolutely nothing. You may give your goods to feed the poor. You may bestow great gifts to charities, and you may tower high in philanthropy, but if you have not love, your charity means nothing.  You might even give your body to be burned, and die a death of a martyr. And your blood may be spilt as a symbol of your honour for generations as yet unborn, and thousands may praise you as they look through history’s greatest heroes. But if you have not love, your blood was spilt in vain. 
What I'm trying to get you to see this morning is that man may be self-centred in his self-denial, and self-righteous in his self-sacrifice. His generosity may feed his ego, and his piety may feed his pride. So, without love this gift becomes egotism and martyrdom becomes spiritual pride. So, I choose love. What do you choose today? How do you choose to live?

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DE@Baptist-HeartOfEngland.org