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{sermon on the mount}

 {sermon on the mount} 

HOW TO REALLY LOVE YOUR ENEMIES_ 

Matthew 5:38-48 

 
The real test of love does not come in how we relate to the kind and loveable... but in how we relate to the cruel and dispicable. 

 

[Group discussion starter] A friend keeps borrowing things from you but either fails to return them or returns them damaged. Do you (a) make the friend pay for anything lost or damaged, (b) refuse to loan anything else to your friend or (c) continue to loan anything he or she asks for? Explain. 

 

This passage brings us to the highest point of the Sermon on the Mount. 
Jesus’ words here are both most admired and most resented. 
He calls us to show our attitude of total love to an “evil person” (v39) and our “enemies” (v44). Nowhere is the challenge of this sermon greater. Nowhere is the distinctiveness of the Christian counterculture more obvious. Nowhere is our need of the power of the Holy Spirit (whose first fruit is love) more compelling... 

 

[Read Matthew 5:38-48] 

 

What do you find most difficult about Jesus’ instructions in these verses? 
 

 
Jesus’ quote of “Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth” comes from Exodus 21:24 
How would this original instruction to Israel’s Judges help clarify the meaning of justice? 

 

How would it also limit the extent of revenge? 
 

 
 
The Pharisees extended this original principle from the law courts (where it belonged) to personal relationships (where it didn’t belong). 
What consequences might have resulted? 
 

 
[Activity] Look again at verses 39-42, how would you contrast our natural responses in such situations with the responses that Jesus expects of us? 
 

 

 

 
What is accomplished by ‘turning the other cheek’ or ‘going the second mile’? 
 

 
In what situations might Jesus’ commands apply today? 
 

 
In verses 44-45, according to Jesus, how are we to treat our enemies and why? 
 

 
In what ways is Jesus’ command extraordinary (v46-48)? 
 

 
Does all of this mean that Christians are to be ‘doormats’ for the world to walk on? 
Explain. 
 

 
How was Jesus himself an example of the principles “Do not resist an evil person” and “Love your enemies”? 
 

 
How might you better reflect the character of God when you are mistreated?  

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