1. Read Matthew 5.43-47 incarnatioanlly. Where do you find yourself in this text?
2. What’s the hardest part of what Jesus is saying?
3. How did Jesus define love? How are you growing into living in and living out His definition of love? Give examples.
4. In the text, Jesus quotes the Old Testament teaching. How does it encourage you to hear Jesus quote Scripture? How does it validate the Truth of the Old Testament?
5. Jesus makes six, “But I tell you” statements. Of the six, which one is most encouraging and which is most challenging?
6. Who was your first enemy? How did that relationship resolve? What if any scars are still lingering from that relationship.
7. In the original Greek Jesus defines an enemy this way, “An enemy; someone openly hostile (at enmity), animated by deep-seated hatred. Implies irreconcilable hostility, proceeding out of a “personal” hatred bent on inflicting harm, a person resolved to inflict harm.” In your own words and experience, define “enemy.”
8. Who is your enemy? Who is Jesus asking you to pray for?
9. Have you ever heard the term “frenemy”? It’s defined this way, “a person with whom one is friendly despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry.”
10. Who is your frenemy? How do you manage the tension in that relationship? What’s the level of deception in this kind of relationship? How dangerous and deceitful is this kind of relationship? How is God calling you to engage this tension, even now?
11. Give an everyday, ordinary example of this truth: “Love includes emotion as well as action.”
12. Eugene Peterson once wrote that before we can love our enemies, we have to pray our hatred. What’s at the root of your hatred?
13. How does Jesus pray for His enemies?
14. The text ends this way, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” What is Jesus calling us to here? Describe the temptation to strive for perfection. How does the invitation to transformation release all expectation and pressure for sinless perfection?
15. Read and reflect on Romans 5.9-11; Hebrews 12.1-3.
16. What is one way we can begin to love your enemies, and those who persecute you? Who will join you in that step?
17. Give God praise for His unfailing love.
