Love Your Enemies

The true test of genuine Christianity is how believers treat those whom they are naturally inclined to hate or who mistreat or persecute them.
- Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 114–115.

If you have been following my Join Me on the Mountainside series you have realized by now that Jesus calls His followers to a higher ethical standard than the average person (non-believer) lives by. Continuing on this theme Jesus adds a new dimension to how we ought to live our lives.

Love your enemies.

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?
- Matthew 5:43-47 NKJV

Hate your enemy?

“You shall love your neighbor” comes from Leviticus 19:18. However, nowhere can the phrase “hate your enemy” be found in the Old Testament. The sentiment is common enough that Jesus’ audience would have heard it. Another possibility is that the religious and ethnic community could narrowly define the commandment to love their neighbor (brother, friend, fellow believer) as permission and perhaps even encouragement to hate those who were not their neighbors, those who were different, who didn’t belong, those who were considered enemies. This line of reasoning is rational enough to convince those who want to be convinced and have their own racial/religious prejudice substantiated. But does God actually want us to hate our enemies? Did God tell His followers to hate their enemies in the Old Testament?

Context

To use Leviticus 19:18 as an excuse to hate your enemy is to embark on an ‘adventure in missing the point.’ Though Leviticus 19 is addressed to all the congregation of the people of Israel and gives Israelites instructions on their duties to their own parents, and more widely to their neighbor and their brother, it does not limit ethical behavior to only fellow believers.

As you read through the chapter you come to Leviticus 19:34, clearly telling the people to love the stranger who is among them as themselves. Not to mention other Old Testament verses such as Exodus 23:4,5 that deal with caring for the animal of “one who hates you.” Interestingly, Deuteronomy 22:1-4 has very similar instructions regarding your brother’s animals, which indicates that God required a loving and caring response regardless if the animal belonged to a “brother” or “enemy.”

The words ‘and hate your enemy’ were a ‘parasitical growth’ upon God’s law; they had no business there. God did not teach his people a double standard of morality, one for a neighbour and another for an enemy.
- John R. W. Stott and John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian Counter-Culture, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 117.

But I say to you…

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
- Matthew 5:44

Once again Jesus goes against the common teaching of His time, challenging His listeners to go against the prevalent culture of their time by pronouncing a more demanding ethic. Followers of Jesus should love their enemies. If we do not love our enemies then we are no different from those who do not follow Jesus. Jesus compares those who don’t love their enemies to tax collectors (and Gentiles in some translations) representing two groups of people that were despised by orthodox Jews.

The tax collectors were hated for working for Rome by collecting tribute from Israel. The Gentiles/pagans were loathed because of their false religion. Jesus tells those who considered themselves spiritually superior that if they do not love their enemies they are no better than those they consider the worst sinners.

Children of God

that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
- Matthew 5:45 NKJV

It is commonplace for us to look after our own people, those who belong to our group, those we like, our family, our friends, and those who have something in common with us. We naturally gravitate towards those people, we enjoy their company, we help them and they help us. Therefore the true test of being a child of God is how we treat those who we are naturally inclined to hate, mistreat, or even persecute. One of the reasons we ought to love our enemies is because God loves them and Jesus died for them.

God also gives us the example of showing kindness and mercy to all. The sun and rain benefit both the just and the wicked. God is not asking us to do something that goes against His principles but rather to join Him in His values and thus better understand who God is.

We know intellectually that God is love, but do we have any idea what that means?
Do we truly believe that God is love?

He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
- 1John 4:8 NKJV

What did Jesus mean by ‘love?’

Part of our struggle with loving our enemies comes from being unsure of what that would look like. From Jesus’ command for us to love our enemies, it becomes clear that what Jesus meant is not connected to feelings since we can’t experience feelings on demand. Love then must be connected to certain behaviors.

To ‘love’ them is ardently to desire that they will repent and believe, and so be saved.
[…]
The point he is making is that true love is not sentiment so much as service—practical, humble, sacrificial service.
—John R. W. Stott and John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian Counter-Culture, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 117-118.

It is a divine principle of thought and action that modifies the character, governs the impulses, controls the passions, and ennobles the affections. 
—Francis D. Nichol, ed., The Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 5 (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1980), 340.

Whatever emotions may be involved, “love” here refers to “generous, warm, costly self-sacrifice for another’s good.” “Greet” (v. 47) refers to more than a simple hello, namely, heartfelt “expressions of desire for the other person’s welfare.” People who so love and greet their enemies and pray for their persecutors thus prove themselves to be those, as in v. 9, who are growing in conformity to the likeness of their Heavenly Father (v. 45).
—Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 115.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, a Russian novelist, has an interesting insight into love which he shares in his book The Brothers Karamazov, “Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.” With this in mind, I would add, stop thinking about romantic love that exists in dreams and focus on the practical aspects of love.

I have quoted theologians and a novelist, but how does the Bible define love? A great number of books have been written on this topic and many verses help us better grasp what God means by love, but one of the best places to turn to is 1 Corinthians 13.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
— 1 Corinthians 14:4-7 NLT

The practical implication of Jesus’ words is that while our enemies are seeking our harm, we are called to seek their good because this is how God has treated us, while we were enemies Christ died to reconcile us to God. (Romans 5:10) But that is not all, our love should also be expressed through our words. We are called to bless those who curse us. This means that while they are calling down disaster and catastrophe upon us and expressing their wish for our downfall, we are to “retaliate” by calling heaven’s blessings upon them, declaring with our words and wishing with our thoughts nothing but good for them.

John Chrysostom was an early Church Father, biblical interpreter, and the archbishop of Constantinople. He interpreted Jesus’ words in the sermon on the mount as a sequence that escalated with each step.

First, we are not to take any evil initiative ourselves. Secondly, we are not to avenge another’s evil. Thirdly, we are to be quiet, and fourthly, to suffer wrongfully. Fifthly, we are to surrender to the evildoer even more than he demands. Sixthly, we are not to hate him, but (steps 7 and 8) to love him and do him good. As our ninth duty, we are ‘to entreat God Himself on his behalf’.
—John R. W. Stott and John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian Counter-Culture, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 118–119. (quoting from THE HOMILIES of S. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE, on the GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW, p276.)

In light of all of this, it would be fair to say that love for our enemies is evidence of our love for God.

Intercessory prayer and love

…and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
- Matthew 5:44b

Have you ever considered intercessory prayer as an expression of the love we have? Not only that, it is also a means of increasing our love. It is impossible to pray for someone without loving her, and impossible to go on praying for her without discovering that our love for her grows and matures. Knowing this, it would be foolish to wait before praying for an enemy until we feel some love for him in our hearts. We must begin to pray for him before we are conscious of loving him, and we will experience our love begin to grow.

Think of Jesus as our example. He seems to have prayed for His tormentors while the iron spikes were being driven through His hands and feet. Some point out that the imperfect tense suggests that Jesus kept praying, repeating His appeal ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do’. (Luke 23:34) If the cruel torture of crucifixion could not silence Jesus’ prayer for His enemies, what pain, pride, bigotry, or laziness could justify the silencing of ours? (John R. W. Stott, 119. (paraphrased)).

Some contrast the “realistic” ethics of Judaism with “Christian romanticism” and cite this as an example. However, the command is not to have good feelings about your enemies, but to want and do good for them, and, more specifically, to pray for those who persecute you. It is realistic enough to have been flattered by imitation in a well-known medieval Jewish work: “Pray for your enemy that he serve God.” (Orchot Tzaddikim15c) 
—David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary : A Companion Volume to the Jewish New Testament, electronic ed. (Clarksville: Jewish New Testament Publications, 1996), Mt 5:44.

Be Perfect

Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
—Matthew 5:48 NKJV

I imagine some of you becoming very uncomfortable. Nobody is perfect, why ask us to be perfect? I’ll share what some theologians think about this then share my personal thoughts.

The word perfect in Matthew 5:48 does not imply sinlessly perfect, for that is impossible in this life (though it is a good goal to strive for). It suggests completeness, maturity, as the sons of God. The Father loves His enemies and seeks to make them His children, and we should assist Him!
—Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 24–25.

Jesus does not here deal with absolute sinlessness in this life (see SC 62; EGW RH March 18, 1890). Sanctification is a progressive work.

The Jews were toiling wearily to become righteous by their own efforts, to earn salvation by works. But in their scrupulous legalism they paid so much attention to the minute details of the letter of the law that they lost sight completely of its spirit (see Matthew 23:23). In the Sermon on the Mount Christ sought to turn their attention from the husks to the wheat. They had made the law an end in itself, something to be kept for its own sake, and had forgotten that its purpose was to lift their gaze to the high ideals of supreme love toward God and self-sacrificing love toward one’s fellow men (Matthew 22:34–40). The rabbis taught that righteousness consists in having an excess of good deeds over evil deeds credited to one’s account in heaven.

It is important to note the relationship between vs. 48 and 45 (ch. 5), for to be “children of your Father which is in heaven” (v. 45) is equivalent to being “perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (v. 48).
—Francis D. Nichol, ed., The Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 5 (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1980), 341.

“Perfect” here is better translated as “mature, whole,” i.e., loving without limits (probably reflecting an underlying Aramaic tamim). Jesus is not frustrating his hearers with an unachievable ideal but challenging them to grow in obedience to God’s will—to become more like him. J. Walvoord rightly observes, “While sinless perfection is impossible, godliness, in its biblical concept, is attainable.”
— Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 115.

My favorite interpretation is found in the book The Desire of Ages where the author points out that God’s ideal for us is higher than we can imagine or possibly achieve on our own, rather it looks forward to what God desires for us when His work in our hearts is completed and the works of the devil are completely destroyed.

God’s ideal for His children is higher than the highest human thought can reach. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” This command is a promise. The plan of redemption contemplates our complete recovery from the power of Satan. Christ always separates the contrite soul from sin. He came to destroy the works of the devil, and He has made provision that the Holy Spirit shall be imparted to every repentant soul, to keep him from sinning.
—The Desire of Ages, Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1898, 311.

Jesus calls us to be perfect and one day will make us completely perfect in every way when He comes again. (1 Corinthians 15:53) This does not mean that our salvation depends on us becoming sinless, but rather that we should not aim for anything lower than perfection. I am saved by grace and I have the assurance of my salvation because of what Jesus did for me. So I live my life aiming at perfection, and repenting as I fall short, but never being comfortable with any known amount of sin in my life.

Another way of saying this is, I will always strive to love my enemies and repent as I fall short and turn to God for help to love like He wants me to. I’ll never settle, making as excuse that I don’t have to love ‘that person,’ since I am not perfect and can’t be expected to actually do what Jesus asks of me.

I hope this makes sense. When I aim for anything less than perfection I create room for my favorite sins in my life, this is what I want to avoid. I aim at perfection and never settle for less. But I am aware that my salvation is not linked to my achievements but depends completely on what Jesus did for me. So I am sure of my salvation but I strive to perfectly follow my best understanding of God’s plan for my life.

Practical Application

Since love is such a difficult topic I decided to make the practical application a little more actionable. My challenge for you is to pray for those you consider to be your enemies, those who persecute you and go out of their way to make your life miserable. I am not asking for you to have them over for dinner or to become best friends forever. My challenge is for you to begin praying for them, every day, at least once a day.

Try it at least for one week and let me know how it goes.

God wants what’s best for you. I am curious how this simple habit will transform your life and your relationships.