“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor 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.” Matthew 5:43-48
As our Christian faith gets stronger, and makes more decisions in our lives, God will eventually bring up this issue; our enemies. I have recently struggled with the Matthew 5 passage above. It seems stupid to love your enemies. They’re your enemies for heaven’s sake. They want to do bad, nasty stuff to you. They want to trip you and laugh at you, make fun of who you are, where you’re from, and how funny you dress. You’re suppose to hate your enemies. But, it seems that God says we are suppose to love our enemies. If I am a Christian, and God says I am suppose to do this, I guess I can love them and say a prayer for them. At the very least I could think better of them. But, wait, it gets worse.
“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” Luke 6:27-35
Jesus said it’s not enough to just love and pray for our enemies from a distance. No, you have to get up close and personal. You have to really love them, do kind things for them, look out for their best interest, let them borrow your car, loan them money knowing you won’t get repaid (and not hold it against them), give them rides to places, pay for repairs, babysit their kids, make them a meal, fix something in their house, and on and on and on it goes. We are suppose to love, really, really love, those who are our enemies. Why would God ask us to do that? Because you and I were not always God’s friends.
“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” Romans 5:10
As Christians we were once God’s enemies. We were once engaged in hostile hatred with the God of the universe due to the sin we willingly held onto. It was only by Jesus’ sacrifice, dying for our sins, that allowed us to be God’s children. If God has forgiven so much offense against us who are we to hold someone’s offense against us. Why should we not begin to embrace those who have hurt us, mocked us, and hold us in contempt. If we have received forgiveness we should also extend it to others (this kind of reminds me about a story in Matthew 18:21-35. Check it out!) If we were to forgive the wrong things our enemies did to us, or even to those we love, would they still be our enemies? Maybe things would get better between us. Your enemy might even become a friend…or at least someone you could be around.
It feels “stupid” to love your enemies, but it’s not (like much of scripture there is truth that seems contrary to our feelings or logic). If we think we can be ok with God and consciously hold on to bad feelings toward someone else we are fooling ourselves. We have to surrender our enemies list to God to allow Him to remake it for us.
