What does First B Jackson teach about loving your enemies?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on loving your enemies begins with a simple but uncomfortable observation: the commands are not hard to understand, they are hard to obey. Pastor Nate worked through Romans 12:9-21 and was plain about it. The list Paul gives, blessing those who persecute you, refusing to take revenge, living at peace with everyone, requires no explanation. Every person in the room already knows what it means. What it requires is something that does not come from self-effort, which is why Paul grounds all of it in what God has already done rather than in human willpower.
Pastor Nathan, preaching the same passage, pointed to the logic behind responding to an enemy with generosity rather than retaliation. Drawing on Romans 2:4, he showed that it is the kindness of God that leads people to repentance, and that when a believer returns good for harm, one of two things happens: the enemy is drawn closer to the gospel, or any excuse they had for rejecting it is removed. Loving an enemy is not weakness or naivety. It is participating in the same movement God uses to bring people to Himself.
Dave Hatfield brought that same truth out of seventeen years of life in a Kenyan dumpsite community. He pressed hard on Luke 6, the commands to do good to those who hate you and to lend without expecting anything back, and he was direct that the church has no business being the judge. The tongue lights fires, he said, and the first thing followers of Jesus can do is stop starting them. His story of sitting with Wesley, a former gang leader, and simply opening the Bible together showed what that kind of patient, non-argumentative love can look like over time. Dave's point was that he did not argue Wesley into anything. He loved him, opened the Book, and trusted the Holy Spirit to do the work that no amount of winning an argument ever could.
Taught from Romans 12:9-21 · Luke 6:27 · Luke 6:35 · Romans 2:4 · James 4:11
The passage taught · Isaiah 61
1 The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me; because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to those who are bound;
2 to proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;
3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, that he may be glorified.
4 They will rebuild the old ruins. They will raise up the places long devastated. They will repair the ruined cities, that have been devastated for many generations.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- September 8, 2024 Love People Into a Relationship With Christ A former stockbroker shares how God sent him to a Kenya dump site, where loving outcasts and preaching the Bible daily is changing lives one neighbor at a time.
- September 11, 2016 Love Must Be Sincere Romans 12 shows love without hypocrisy not as a checklist but as a Spirit-empowered way of life, overcoming evil with good even toward enemies.
- September 11, 2016 Love Without Hypocrisy Romans 12 shows love without hypocrisy through a string of direct commands. Pastor Nate walks through what they mean and why only Christ makes them possible.
Mentioned along the way
- March 27, 2022 The Book of Jonah - Sunday, March 27, 2022 - 11am Service The pastor walks through the entire book of Jonah, showing how God's mercy toward enemies challenges our own willingness to share the gospel with people we would rather see judged.
- March 27, 2022 Nobody Acts Like You Expect In This Story Jonah is more than a fish story. A Wyoming pastor walks through the whole book to ask: when God shows mercy to your enemies, how do you respond?
- January 9, 2022 But I Say to You Jesus intensifies the law's demands on murder, adultery, oaths, and retaliation, calling His followers to a righteousness rooted in the heart, not mere rule-keeping.
- November 30, 2021 To Love Is to Serve Pastor Kyle walks through John 13 on Jesus commanding his disciples to love one another the way He loved them, even while being betrayed.
- March 3, 2013 John 15, Traditions (3) Jesus traces the vine metaphor from Abraham through the prophets to John 15, showing how three relationships shape a believer's life: with Christ, with each other, and with the world.