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October, 1944 -
the side of a mountain. .His friends gathered. abput Him to 'listen (5:1),. ’ And' H£ talked about this very, thing,, about people who hate others! ' ;. : He said something like this: “You ,may hear somebody tell you to love your friends who are good to you, and- to be mean to those who.are not good; to yôu; But I, your Lord Jesus, say that,- you should ‘love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you,’ or are mean-to you” .-- . v-Y-wit’;,-;; Perhaps, When He said that; It was. very quiet there on the mountainside.' The friends of Jesus were thinking of this hard lesson. Could they do what He asked? Could they love bad people, do good to them, and pray for them? Yes, Jesus’ friends could do' that, for thé love that they had in their hearts ;for Him would help to do, it. Love for •Jesus will help us, too. And when Jesus comes ,hack to be King over all the earth, everybody in His.-“king-^ dom” (vs. 19, 20, etc.) will d'o whhYH.è says. . , -, • Büt.rijpw theré are many péoplé Who. do not ïôve the Lord Jesus. Tliéy are- breaking God’s rules, and that means punishment—s om e t i m e s wars that, make* whole countries suffer. The; Bible says it is wrong to break God’s rules,'or to be impolite to the.men, who are here to help us do what God wants (Rom.113:1,7). We should -hate the wrong that people do.(Rom. 12:9),'• but feel sorry for the people them selves, and' pray that they may soon' learn about God’s love.
non. Thu? the artist had represented a most suggestive thing.5 I thought how the war between .God and the soul had ended, and instead of the announcement: “The wages of sin is death,” there •come the words, “My peace I give unto you,” and amid the batteries of the law that had once quaked with the fiery hail of death I beheld “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!” —Five Thousand Best Modern Illustra tions, by Hallock. Jesus' Way of Love M atthew 5:43-48; R omans 13:1-7 MEMORY VERSE:, “Let us love one another: for love is of God” (1 John 4:7), AIM: To show, that we must not hate people. APPROACH: “I 'just hate Johnnie Bennett. I wish he would never come
Points and Problems 1. "That ye may he the children of your Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 5:45). The thought is not that people become -, children of God by heeding the words of verse? 43 and 44. Our Lord was talking to those -who were already His children (cf. vs., i, 2). The meanihg is that His disciples should show themselves to be such by imitating the Father’s love for a God-hating humanity. 2. "For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye?" (5:46). By this question and those that fol low, it is forcefully suggested that there should be a distinct difference between the child of God and the peo ple .of the world. This difference is revealed in many ways in thé gospel story, but in none more emphatically than in the Christian’s attitude to ward those who possess a hateful spirit. The Christian shhuld have the light of love in his eyes. 3. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (5:48). The Revised Version is more accurate:, “Ye therefore shall be perfect.” Herein we have presented an ideal and a promise. There is a sense in which every Christian should, seek unceasingly to be perfect or fully matured in his love toward others even as the Father is perfect. There is also the other sense in which one day all of the disciples of Christ ■ will attain unto the standard here set forth. When God establishes His king dom upon earth, this promise will be literally fulfilled. 4. "The powers that be are ordained of God" (Rorn, 13:1), Verses 1-7 of this chapter present the Christian’s duty toward the state. It is that of subjec tion. Magistrates ;are established or ordained by God. It makes no differ ence whether these magistrates, are evil or not. Pilate and Nero of New Testament times were evil and yet the word of inspiration still stands:- “There is no, power-but of God.” Only when the decrees of magistrates would interfere with the Christian conscience has the believer the right to refuse obedience to rulers. The words of these verses' have tremendous mean ing for these lawless days. The Chris tian who treats lightly the laws of the land trifles with the teaching of the Word of God.
over h e r e again. He’s rough a n d ’ mean and he lies about me.’’ ■ Sometimes chil dren talk like that. And s o m e t i m e s even older people feel the same way. Hatred is like’ a black, ugly mon
ster that creeps into, hearts.. Today we shall find out what the Lord Jesus thinks about it LESSON STORY: Once, when Jesus was here on earth, He Was resting by
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Golden Text Illustration M atthew
I saw in Kensington Garden a pic ture of Waterloo a good while after the battle had passed, and the grass had grown all over the field. There was a dismounted cannon, and a lamb had come UP from the pasture and lay sleeping in the mouth of the can-
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