Sister Sunny Sunday School 7/28/13

Sister Sunny Sunday School 7/28/13

Mat 5:43  Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

Mat 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

Mat 5:45  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

Mat 5:46  For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

Mat 5:47  And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

Mat 5:48  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

This is our challenge even if no one around us is following the same rule.  When they despise us and ignore us or insult us, the challenge to us, that Jesus was an example of, is that we love them and do what is right toward them anyway. 

Perfect - G5046 τέλειος teleios tel'-i-os

From G5056; complete (in various applications of labor, growth, mental and moral character, etc.); neuter (as noun, with G3588) completeness: - of full age, man, perfect.

In other words, grow up.  Be of full mental and moral character.

Rom 12:17  Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.

Rom 12:18  If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

Rom 12:19  Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

Rom 12:20  Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.

Rom 12:21  Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

We know that the Good Samaritan showed kindness to a complete stranger and by that was a neighbor to him.  We are to love and do good to, that is ‘be a neighbor to’, even our enemies.  “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”  Pr 25:22

Heaping coals of fire on lead ore is used to cause the pure silver to melt and run out below so that it can be collected. 

Matthew Henry - “Thou shalt either,” 1. “Melt him into repentance and friendship, and mollify his spirit towards thee” (alluding to those who melt metals; they not only put fire under them, but heap fire upon them; “thou wilt win a friend by it, and if thy kindness have not that effect then,” 2. “It will aggravate his condemnation, and make his malice against thee the more inexcusable.

(1.) “Be not overcome of evil. Let not the evil of any provocation that is given you have such a power over you, or make such an impression upon you, as to dispossess you of yourselves, to disturb your peace, to destroy your love, to ruffle and discompose your spirits, to transport you to any indecencies, or to bring you to study or attempt any revenge.” He that cannot quietly bear an injury is perfectly conquered by it. (2.) “But overcome evil with good, with the good of patience and forbearance, nay, and of kindness and beneficence to those that wrong you. Learn to defeat their ill designs against you, and either to change them, or at least to preserve your own peace.” He that hath this rule over his spirit is better than the mighty.

1Jn 3:18  My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

1Jn 3:19  And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.

Here it exhorts us to love not in word but in deed and in truth.  I am challenged to live by the principle of:  What would love do?  God helped me with this thought as I was in a battle in my mind. 

Our mind is often the battlefield.  The enemy will present a thought, or he will even present two thoughts and make us think that these are the only two choices.  This was the situation when God helped me.  I cried out to Him, “God, how should I think in this situation?  Are either of these thoughts the correct option?” 

It seemed that God then asked the question of me, “What would love think?” 

That broke the battle.  I now have a new tool to use when I am faced with a challenge.  I don’t know how many times since then I have asked myself the question, “What would love do?  What would love think?” 

Love doesn’t mean that we never take a stand against wrong, love means that we take the stand with the right attitude and for the right reason.  We speak the truth in love.  We have the other’s best interests at heart.  We want to see and bring out the best in that individual, because we love them. 

This is how God loves us.  He tells us when we are wrong.  He does this because He wants to save us from heartache and misery.  He knows that actions that go against Godly principles will hurt and destroy.  He helps us to know how to live. 

He is very clear in His Word, “Be ye holy for I am holy.”  He tells us the truth with our best interests at heart.  He wants to protect us and keep us as the apple of His eye. 

God is love.  When we ask, “What would love do?”  It is synonymous with asking, “What would God do?”

1Jn 4:7  Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

1Jn 4:8  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

1Jn 4:9  In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

1Jn 4:10  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1Jn 4:11  Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

1Jn 4:12  No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

1Jn 4:13  Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

1Jn 4:14  And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

1Jn 4:15  Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.

1Jn 4:16  And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

1Jn 4:18  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

1Jn 4:19  We love him, because he first loved us.

1Jn 4:20  If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

1Jn 4:21  And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

Here we see again, “Everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.”  “We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.”  (1Jn 3:14)  Love is a token of salvation.  If there is no love, then there is no salvation.  “Love is of God.  He that loveth not knoweth not God.”

He loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. 

Propitiation – atonement, expiator

Expiate - 1. To atone for; to make satisfaction for; to extinguish the guilt of a crime by subsequent acts of piety or worship, by which the obligation to punish the crime is canceled. To expiate guilt or a crime, is to perform some act which is supposed to purify the person guilty; or some act which is accepted by the offended party as satisfaction for the injury; that is, some act by which his wrath is appeased,and his forgiveness procured.

Matthew Henry - He loved us, when we had no love for him, when we lay in our guilt, misery, and blood, when we were undeserving, ill-deserving, polluted, and unclean, and wanted to be washed from our sins in sacred blood. 4. That he gave us his Son for such service and such an end. (1.) For such service, to be the propitiation for our sins; consequently to die for us, to die under the law and curse of God, to bear our sins in his own body, to be crucified, to be wounded in his soul, and pierced in his side, to be dead and buried for us (1Jo_4:10); and then, (2.) For such an end, for such a good and beneficial end to us - that we might live through him (1Jo_4:9), might live for ever through him, might live in heaven, live with God, and live in eternal glory and blessedness with him and through him: O what love is here!

What would love do:

1Co 13:4  Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

1Co 13:5  Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

1Co 13:6  Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

1Co 13:7  Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.