Before We Get Started

For our discussion today, we will be using the sermon series discussion guides. If you would like to follow along you can access this discussion guide on the website at mosaicchurchaustin.com and then select “community group resources” in the menu options.

Prayer

Because the primary goal of our time together is to establish relationships and learn how to walk with one another in all that God has called us to be and do, we’d like to begin by praying for one another. So, does anyone have anything you’d like us to pray for or anything to share regarding how you’ve seen God moving in your life that we can celebrate together?

This Week’s Topic

The Gospel of the Kingdom

Jesus’s Kingdom, as He himself taught, is not of this world. While His Kingdom influences and transforms people and structures, fundamentally, it does not belong to an individual or ideology. His is the kingdom and the power and the glory, as he taught us to remember in prayer.

Today’s Topic

Love Your Enemies

Discussion Questions

Matthew 5:43-48

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.

Who Are Our Enemies?

Matt 5:43

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

Scot McKight, The Story of God

There is only one approach to living the words of this text, it begins when we confess who our enemy is and ends when we learn to love them as our neighbor. Until we name our enemies we can’t live these words of Jesus. Until we invite them into our home, or treat them as our neighbor or love them as we love ourselves we do not live these words. Until we regard them, dwell with them, and embrace them as God regards , dwells with, and embraces them, we cannot live these words of Jesus”

 

What would the Jewish people of Jesus’s day have expected the Messiah to say or do about their enemies?

What makes someone an enemy in your life?

How can identifying someone as an enemy be a first step toward redemption?

How Do We Love Our Enemies?

Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

Jesus tells us exactly where to start when he says

“Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you”

The difficulties of life do not have to be unbearable. It is the way we look at them – through faith or unbelief – that makes them seem so. We must be convinced that our Father is full of love for us and that He only permits trials to come our way for our own good.

Let us occupy ourselves entirely in knowing God. The more we know Him, the more we will desire to know Him. As love increases with knowledge, the more we know God, the more we will truly love Him. We will learn to love Him equally in times of distress or in times of great joy.

 

Anne Lamott

Loving your enemies is nonnegotiable. It means trying to respect them, identifying with their humanity and weaknesses. It doesn’t mean unconditional acceptance of their crazy behavior.

How does our culture say we should treat people who mean us harm?

How is praying for our enemies an invitation to know God more deeply?

What part does humility play in loving our enemies, and how can that humility be leveraged for the greater good in the world?

Why Do We Love Our Enemies?

Matthew 5:38-42

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.

N.T. Wright

The whole point of the kingdom of God is Jesus has come to bear witness to the true truth, which is nonviolent. When God wants to take charge of the world, he doesn’t send in the tanks. He sends in the poor and the meek.

Ruth Haley Barton

The Gospel is not about our striving to reach God, but about God’s relentless pursuit of us.

 

How would you explain the gospel in your own words?

What did the nonviolence Jesus promoted in Matthew 5 require of his listeners in their time?

What does the nonviolence Jesus promoted in Matthew 5 require of us in our current era of time?

Closing Thought

Martin Luther King, Jr.  

There may come a time when it will be possible for you to humiliate your worst enemy or even to defeat him, but in order to love the enemy you must not do it… The Greek language has another word [for love]. It calls it agape. Agape is more than romantic love. Agape is more than friendship. Agape is understanding, redemptive goodwill for all men. Agape is an overflowing love, a spontaneous love, which seeks nothing in return. And theologians would say that it is the love of God operating in the human heart. When you rise to love on this level you love all men, not because you like them, not because their ways appeal to you, not because they are worthful to you, but you love all men because God loves them. And you rise to the noble heights of loving the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does. And I think this is what Jesus means when he says, “Love your enemies.”

 

Take time to pray for your enemies, asking God to bless them with his goodness. Pray also for the courage to love everyone as abundantly and graciously as God has loved you.