Love Your Enemies

I was preaching in the park after a beautiful rainstorm. I opened with, “He sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). I often preach from Matthew 5 as it delivers a clear expression of the juxtaposition between who we are, who Christ is, and who he can make us.

I love how the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) start out so general, and then how specific Jesus gets into hatred being equivalent to murder (Matthew 5:21-22), lust being equivalent to adultery (Matthew 5:27-28), and telling the truth simply (Matthew 5:37). That transition from general to specific is one of my favorite topics in the Bible.

As I preached Matthew 5:44-45 something jumped out at me that I’ve read dozens of times and yet never seen before, and I’ve seen more things since that I want to write down and has been exacerbated by a recent trend. That trend is that there is a resurgence of people who say yes and amen to verse 43, that you should “love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” They love those who love them and hate those who hate them; who wouldn’t love such a straight forward command that I want to do anyways? It’s easy, relatively safe (from a human perspective), and it’s human nature. But Jesus doesn’t love it, so he says exactly the opposite. Why? Because he doesn’t want you to be like your enemies; he wants you to be like God.

When we love our enemy, that looks exactly the opposite of hating them:

We stop trying to hurt them.

If we’ve hurt them, we seek to apologize.

If we can repair the hurt, we spend and be spent to make restitution.

We seek their highest and best usefulness.

We’re glad they exist.

Loving our enemy causes us to pray for them:

That they’ll love their enemies.

That they’ll know the peace that surpasses understanding.

That they’ll thrive in life and godliness.

That God will bless them and not curse them.

That God will treat them the way we want to be treated.

I’m sure there are many things I missed on those lists, but I think the foundation is laid. This is serving them, but it’s also for us: that we “may be sons of our Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:45). Earlier in his sermon Jesus had given a very general statement, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9). We have to wonder, “How many times do I have to love, forgive, turn the other cheek, or serve my enemy to be a peacemaker? After all, there was that one time I think I made peace…am I a peacemaker?” In verses 43-45 Jesus gets specific, that being a peacemaker and acting like your Father in heaven requires you to continually love your enemies and pray for those who are persecuting you. He gives the example that as long as the sun is still rising and rain is still falling, God is still loving his enemies. Therefore, beloved, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you as often as the sun comes up and then more fervently as you receive the desperately needed blessing of rain.

Man—despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments—owes his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains. ~ Paul Harvey

A woman new to following Jesus – after considering her upbringing in Islam and her later atheism – summed up her newborn faith with,

I find that Christianity is actually obsessed with love. ~ Ayaan Hirsi Ali (13:58 of her debate with Richard Dawkins)

Yet, somehow there is a whole sect of people calling themselves Christians who are obsessed with hurt, separation, comfort, and hating their enemies. Such things ought not to be! If Jesus is for us, desiring us to be sons of our Father, then we ought to pray fervently for those who are doing the opposite. We expect the world to hate their enemies, but how is it that we could have such malice in our hearts if we’ve been forgiven so much (Luke 7:47)?

Beloved reader, today I call you to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that he’ll call you a peacemaker and a son (or daughter) of God. It’s for the good of your enemies, oh yes, but it’s also good for you. I’m reminded of the United States (and others) helping to rebuild Germany and Japan after WWII; both of those countries are now counted as our friends. What a blessing for them, us, and the rest of the world.

Loving your enemy blesses you in at least these ways:

Rejoicing that God put them in your life is a cure for bitterness.

Forgiving them shows that you’ve been forgiven.

Praying for them reminds you that you’re in desperate need of God’s intercession in your life.

Loving them knits your heart to theirs and reminds you that we can all be one in Christ.

Sacrificing for them is reminiscent of when Jesus came to die for you.

Ultimately, we are doing this for Jesus’ sake, the one who loved his enemies, sought them and bought them, forgave them, cleaned them up, used them for his good purposes, and is preparing – even now – a place for them in heaven. You’re never more like Jesus than when you’re loving your enemies (Romans 5:8), praying for them (Luke 23:34), and forgiving them (Colossians 3:13).

Last, I want to consider for a moment how to love enemies of nations. Supposedly a call went out recently from the leadership of a nation asking how they could creatively punish their belligerent enemy. Beloved, that’s not how you win wars or act like Christ or earn friends. Our desire is that all people from every nation would be saved. That won’t be accomplished by sending bombs or bullets, it won’t even been accomplished by sending technology or nourishment, it will only be accomplished through the one who is able to give life and life abundantly (John 10:10); the one who is able to heal nations (Revelation 2:2).

He is the principal peacemaker, the hope of nations, the friend of sinners, and the only way to life and peace and reconciliation with God. He loved his enemies by dying to make peace by the blood of his cross. May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of his suffering!

If you don’t know where to start, maybe pray something like this, and test God to see if won't give you wisdom, love, forgiveness, and life freely and without criticizing:

Father God, please use me as a peacemaker, send enemies into my life so that your grace and mercy and love may be displayed in me. Show me where selfishness and hatred are reigning in my heart, let love and joy replace them. Let my repentance be true and reconciliation be perfect. Let no one stumble or fall because of my past or present sins in their lives. Conquer evil with love and darkness with light, let joy shrivel the roots of bitterness in my heart and theirs. Thank you for the love of your Son who has overcome the world through his faithfulness. May I look exactly like him, that he may be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. Bless my enemies more than you’ve blessed me, more than I can ask or imagine. Forgive me as I forgive them. In the name of my greatest enemy who through his love and sacrifice became my greatest and nearest friend, amen.