How Do We Treat Our Enemies?

2 Kings 6:18–23 KJV 1900

18 And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. 19 And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria. 20 And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. 21 And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? 22 And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. 23 And he prepared great provision for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.

: 18-23

This is the second of a 4-week study of the cycle of spiritual warfare.

Last Week: Lord, Open Our Eyes

Today: How Do We Treat Our Enemies

Week #3: How To Think and Act When the Enemy Attacks Again

Week #4: See How God Delivers and Provides

When you come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, you are in a war whether you want to or not. That is very important for all of us to understand. Before you came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ , you were not in the war because your soul was already owned by hell. You were a POW, a prisoner or war. We are surrounded by POW’s.

The Raid at Cabananatuan, also known as The Great Raid was a rescue of Allied prisoners of war (POWs) and civilians from a Japanese camp near Cabanatuan City, in the Philippines. On January 30, 1945, during World War II, United States Army Rangers, Alamo Scouts and Filipino guerrillas liberated more than 500 from the POW camp.

Facing brutal conditions including disease, torture, and malnourishment, the prisoners feared they would be executed by their captors before the arrival of General Douglas MacArthur and his American forces returning to Luzon.

Do you know that staying in bondage, staying in prison is not necessary. When we choose to live under Satan’s domain, we experience disease of our spirit, torture our mind, and malnourishment of our spirit.

In late January 1945, a plan was developed by Sixth Army leaders and Filipino guerrillas to send a small force to rescue the prisoners. A group of over 100 Rangers and Scouts and 200 guerrillas traveled 30 miles (48 km) behind Japanese lines to reach the camp.

God has a plan. Over 2,000 years ago, He put into action a plan that would set the captives free. All captives.

Luke 4:18 ESV

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

All those POW’s do not need to live in those prison cells. The lock is off put they have to push the gate open. God still has a plan. We are His Army Rangers, scouts and guerrillas sent to show the POW’s how to open the gates. We do not go behind enemy lines. No, we push the enemy lines back.

All those POW’s do not need to live in those prison cells. The lock is off put they have to push the gate open. God still has a plan. We are His Army Rangers, scouts and guerrillas sent to show the POW’s how to open the gates. We do not go behind enemy lines. No, we push the enemy lines back.

Now we are faced with how do we treat our enemies. In the flesh, in the natural, we want to inflict the pain they inflicted on us. But that is not how God wants us to handle them.

It is very important, but certainly not easy, how we treat our enemies. It may seem that they are the focus of our problem but they are not.

Ephesians 6:12 ESV

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

ephesians 6:12

It is a battle. It shows a lot of the character of God in how we handle this. Jesus demonstrated this many times. The woman caught in adultery broke the law. Do you know, it was not just the woman but it was also the man involved broke the law also. Now in our day and time with so many people involved in adulterous relationships, and it is up in our face in television and the media, it is hard to imagine it a capitol offense. Do you know that the word of God does not change even though the norms of society do? The norms of society change because the church as a whole changed. But Jesus Christ does not change.

Hebrews 13:8 ESV

8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Hebrews 13:8

The state of Missouri allows for the death penalty for 1st degree murder involving certain aggravating factors, treason, and placing a bomb near a bus terminal. What is Jesus stepped in and saved the life of one of these situations? That would be harder to accept. But we can accept and rave over what He did for the woman caught in adultery because it is a socially acceptable sin?

What about the Roman centurion? He was not of the house of Isreal. He was a Roman. Who would of cared if he suffered loss because he loved this servant? The Romans were the enemy. They heavily taxed the people. The rulers that were backed by Romans, commited heinous acts against the people. Here comes a Roman Centurion. Someone could assume that he must of killed numerous innocent people including Jews to achieve his current rank. He could be easily judged because of his nationality. But if someone took the time to get to know this particular man. They would learn that he actually loved Israel and even paid out of his own money to build a synagogue.

Luke 7:5 ESV

5 for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.”

At some point he heard about Jesus and believed in Him. He would not allow Jesus to come to his house because he felt he was not worthy. He understood the chain of command and the power of Jesus Christ. He knew Jesus could speak the word from miles away and His word would be accomplished. Jesus marvelled at such faith.

Luke 7:9 ESV

9 When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”

Imagine that!! The perceived enemy had more faith than anyone else in Israel.

Conclusion:

It is very important on how we treat our perceived enemies. We need to lead them by the hand like Elisha did. Do you know he lead them 13.7 miles from Dothan to Samaria. The enemy trusted them because they were blind. There will be people God will put in our path who may have hurt us or seek to destroy us. There may be people who will walk through these doors who may not want to be here, but are desperate. They are blind by the things of this world but are desperate for something. Will we shun them? Will we take our opportunity to show them how wrong they were? No, not at all. At one time we were blind to the truth of the gospel until someone gave us the bread of life. That is what we will do. We will feed them spiritually and if need be, we will feed them physically. We will share the life-changing gospel and allow the Holy Spirit to open their eyes.