Love Your Enemies

In Matthew 5:44, Jesus issues a most ironic spiritual command.  “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute.”  What a challenge!  Automatically, you think it takes a lifetime of walking with the Lord to obtain this level of spiritual maturity.  How do you pray for the very people who are the source of your problems?  Is this possible?  Isn’t just simply foolish?  Can you do this without feeling your enemies of have gotten the best of you?  Interestingly, this spiritual directive offers more benefits to us than to our enemies.

Jesus delivers this command to reverse the tradition of revenge his listeners practiced.  For centuries, they believe an eye for eye and a tooth for a tooth is the best policy.  If someone wrongs you, then you have every right to rectify the situation by extracting revenge upon him.  When the score is even and your enemy’s suffering equals your own, then you let it go.  Additionally, you appeal to “righteous indignation” to justify your vengeful thoughts and deeds.  After all, the words and actions of your enemy offend God’s laws.  You merely anoint yourself as God’s chosen agent to punish the iniquity of your enemy.  However, through this new instruction, Jesus determines vengeance is a fruitless, counterproductive “dead end game.”  Like violence, it never ends and harms all persons involved, victimizer and victim alike.

Revenge poisons the mind and heart.  It requires constant thought about an offense.  As you daily nurse those memories, anger and resentment consume you.  Plotting vengeance also necessitates planning for the most effective strategy.  You search for any and all opportunities to satisfy this hunger for “justice.”  In time, revenge consumes the person who lives for its fulfillment. 

Jesus recommends we pray for our enemies as a way of liberating ourselves from the entanglement of bitterness and resentment.  More significantly, this commandment prevents us from falling prey to the hell of hatred.  You cannot possibly fulfill the two greatest commands (total love of God and a parallel love neighbor of and self) when you hate anyone.  Accordingly, it is difficult to harbor hatred for people for whom we pray even if we dislike them or consider them to be “enemies.”  Praying for these people actually empowers us to love them as broken and hurt children of God who they are.

Our “enemies” are just as much God’s children as we are.  God is not a respecter of persons.  He rewards those who believe in Him and earnestly seek His face (Hebrews 11:1-6).  In addition, He graciously hears the prayer of all people who reverence Him and “do what is right” in His sight (Acts 10:34-43).  As a result, no one has a monopoly on the goodness, faithfulness, righteousness and justice of God.  The “enemies” of God are those people who are friends with the world (James 4:4).  Offending our moral, ethical, and religious sensibilities does not necessarily make anyone an “enemy” of God.  Simply put, our judgment is not God’s.  We cannot push people out of the grace of God.

Praying for our “enemies” yields humility.  We accept we are also the “enemy” of someone else.  We, too, harm people by trampling upon their feelings and using them to satisfy our self-centered fear.  A few moments of recollection produces compassion and forgiveness.  When we pray for our enemies, the Lord reassures us of this promise in scripture.  “It is mine to avenge; I will repay, says the Lord.”  (Romans 12:19)  As we wait upon the Lord to adjudicate the offense, we acquire more of His character.  We learn to love people as He does.  God’s love is just as infinite as His nature.  Most assuredly, God’s love insists upon justice.  Yet, because of His infinite abilities, He best delivers justice in all human affairs. 

Jesus concludes this passage, Matthew 5:43-48, by reminding us God allows rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike.  He further challenges us to cease and desist with the hypocrisy of only loving those who love us.  If our love extends only to those who can reciprocate, we are no better than “tax collectors and pagans.”  God’s love challenges us to love those whom society considers undeserving.  It demands we see the hurt, brokenness and incomplete nature of our enemies.  Thereby, we love them, our “enemies,” although they are the least worthy of our affection and kindness.