“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 5:43-44).
Last month, we saw that the most important thing for us to do is to love God and our neighbor. We love, not just because the Lord commands us to, but because he loved us, despite our manifold offenses against his holy law.
By loving our enemies, we reflect God’s kindness to us, thus bringing glory to him and showing the world the heart of Jesus, who died for sinners like us.
What is “love”?
But what does it mean to “love” our enemies? Do we have to agree with them? Or like them? Or give in to their wicked schemes?
No! In these famous words, Jesus explains what loving our enemies looks like.
Who is my enemy?
First, who are these people? They are the ones who curse us, hate us, spitefully use us, and even persecute us.
These “enemies” could be, and often are, members of our family – spouse, parents, children, siblings, other relatives. Or you might have enemies at work, like a boss or co-worker. Classmates at school, teachers, and administrators can act like enemies to us.
In today’s toxic social climate, we can perceive as enemies those who differ with us politically, including government officials, media spokesmen, medical advisors, or those other disgusting people we see on the news.
For some, people who don’t practice social distancing or wear a mask seem to pose a dangerous threat to them. Others consider those who insist on wearing masks as enemies of their personal freedoms.
On a larger scale, leaders of institutions like the CDC or WHO have become the objects of our anger, even hatred.
More and more each day, it seems, nations are using rhetoric and taking actions that heighten existing tensions and even raise the terrible specter of war. I am especially fearful of the unravelling of Sino-American relations.
How can we show love to our enemies?
Jesus, always eminently practical, tells us exactly what to do:
When others hurl insults or even curses at us, either personally or as members of a group, we are to bless them. That is, we are to speak words of kindness to and about them, even as we must respectfully disagree with them.
That applies to how I respond to the news in the privacy of my home, as well as the way I react to people who speak harshly to me.
If someone treats me or my group with hatred, I must do good to them. Rather than returning evil with evil, I should seek to benefit them in some legitimate way. Someone like me needs to pray hard for wisdom here, since being good to someone who hates me is so hard!
Sadly, some folks will treat us spitefully – that is, with meanness and even malice. All too often, that happens even in the home. Some go so far as to persecute us. They actively seek our harm, even our death.
How should we meet this kind of evil? With prayer! “Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,” Jesus says.
Ask our Father to forgive them, as Jesus did on the cross (Luke 23:34). Beg the Lord to deliver them from the grip of hatred and Satan, and to restrain them from further evil. Beseech the Lord of mercy to grant them repentance.
Why? Because, unless they do turn from their wickedness and follow Christ, they will suffer the unending wrath of God (Romans 2:5-9).
“God, be merciful to me a sinner!” (Luke 18:13).
Our real enemies
We must resist the temptation to hate those we see as our human enemies. In particular, we must beg God to keep us from mistreating people of another race or nationality, including the Chinese who live in the West. They are not responsible for the actions of their leaders.
No, my real and very deadly enemies are the perverted world systems that seduce me; Satan, who ceaselessly tempts me; and my own sinful nature, that so easily rises up in anger.
Let us humbly and earnestly entreat our gracious Lord to fill us with the kind of love that caused him to reconcile us to himself through the death of Christ “while we were [his] enemies” (Romans 5:10).