So far during
Spiritual Emphasis Week at Smithville Christian High School, students have
considered whether they merely believe in God, or if he is LORD God of their
lives. They have also been asked if they are travelling on the narrow road that
leads to life or the wide road that leads to destruction. On Wednesday, chapel
speaker Mike Gordon told students that if they want to be on the road that
leads to life, the Bible has lots of good advice on what following Jesus looks
like.
For example, in
Matthew 5: 43-48, Jesus says “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your
neighbour 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.”
Gordon told students
about a job he had as a summer day-camp counsellor when he was a teenager, and
the little girl named Haley whom he loved and a little boy named Daniel who
annoyed him. People who work with children “don’t usually say this out loud,
but we all have a favourite,” Gordon said. “Teachers, on the count of three,
say the name of your favourite student out loud.”
Gordon said it’s easy
to follow Jesus’ advice to love those people whom we like, who are our
favourites. But what about the people we don’t like?
“Here’s the thing.
Jesus is not making a suggestion. He’s giving us a command,” Gordon said.
It could be your
former friend who betrayed you. It could be an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend.
It could be the teacher who marks too hard. It could be the person who has
different theology, the person who picks on you, the coach who cut you from the
team.
“Jesus’ response is, I
want you to love them.”
Travellers on the wide
road might be tempted to “get revenge, get even, ignore them, cut them out of
your life,” Gordon said. But that approach only robs you of peace.
Gordon said there are
two steps to take in order to love your enemy: remember they are human, and
forgive them. He said the problem with forgiveness is that it seems like you
are condoning the bad things other people have done, that you are saying it’s
okay.
“But if you forgive
someone, you are not letting them off the hook, you are letting yourself off
the hook. If Jesus says everyone can be forgiven, who are you to say they can’t?”
Gordon said when he
was studying this passage as a student in Bible college, he made a list of all
his enemies, the people who had hurt him, and slowly worked his way through the
list – reaching out to each of them. Finally there were only two people left.
His mother, whose infidelity had destroyed their family, and his father, whose
anger and alcoholism had made him unwilling to care for his teenage son and who
was furious that Gordon had quit business school to go to Bible college.
Gordon didn’t want to love
them – his pain was too great. But finally he wrote a letter to each one.
From his mother, he
got a long missive in reply, saying it was Gordon’s own fault that she had
kicked him out of the house.
But from his father,
he got a two-line response: “Thank you. I’ve been holding on to this too long
myself.”
The experience made
Gordon realize “that how they respond does not matter. You have no control over
that. Is there a name that God has put on your heart? Put it into action. Stop
letting the sun go down on your anger.”
Loving your enemies is
not a suggestion, it’s Jesus’ command. And the best part is that both of you
will get to ”see the grace of God in action.”
* * *
Student praise team Kingdom
Worship led singing with “Holy (Wedding Day),” “Through It All,” and “This Is
Amazing Grace.”
* * *
During Spiritual
Emphasis Week chapel is every morning at 9 a.m. All are welcome.
* * *
Here is today’s
message in Mandarin, with many thanks to Yanyan Wu.
同学们好，以下是今天信息的主要内容。
讲员用他自己在夏令营工作时的例子说明我们每个人都有自已喜欢的人也有不喜欢甚至是恨恶的人。喜欢的人也许是因为他或她对我特别好，特別愿意花时间与我在一起而成为我喜欢的人，那些我所恨恶的人也许在言语上或态度上甚至是行为上在某种承度伤害了我而成为我所恨恶的人。
马太福音 5:43-48 「你们听见有话说：『当爱你的邻舍，恨你的仇敌。』 只是我告诉你们，要爱你们的仇敌，为那逼迫你们的祷告。 这样 就可以作你们天父的儿子；因为他叫日头照好人，也照歹人；降雨给义人，也给不义的人。 你们若 单 爱那爱你们的人，有什么赏赐呢？就是税吏不也是这样行吗？ 你们若单请你弟兄的安，比人有什么长处呢？就是外邦人不也是这样行吗？ 所以，你们要完全，像你们的天父完全一样。
圣经这里教导我们要爱我们的仇敌，神在这里不是一个建议乃是一个命令。也就是说既然是命令，我们就要有行动。当然不容易做到，正像昨天我们学的进窄门是小路，要付代价，但领我们到的是光明之处，对我们是有益处的。因此我们要学习如何爰仇敌:
1) 我们要知道每个人都不完美，都有说错话，做错事时候。
2) 原谅是对我们自己心灵的一个释放。 当我们想到以上两点时，爱仇敌就容易一些，我们也要多祷告，更加明白这是一个命令，不管要付多大的代价我们都要尽力去做，神会领我们到光明之处。
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