Love Your Enemy - Why? (2)

Why should we love our enemy?

Matt 5:44, Luke 6:27, 35

Everybody at some time or another runs into someone that doesn’t agree with them or just plain doesn’t like them. Being the sinful, depraved, selfish souls that we are, we will inevitably fall into the reach of conflict with others, sometimes even with those that we love or respect. Sometimes it results in the total breakdown of the relationship, never to be recovered. Of course, since we are the sinful, depraved, selfish souls that we are, the rift is so great that we find ourselves vowing revenge on those who wronged us for all eternity.

Sometimes the depth that someone can hate another can result in an enemy, whether they reciprocate these feelings or not. Also this antagonistic relationship can transcend just one individual into a family, clan, tribe or even a nation. Who has not heard about the Hatfield and McCoy feud? How about the antagonism between France and England lasting over a thousand years?

When we are born, we have a clean slate with no ties to prejudice or bias. Over time we will start to develop our attitudes with the help of our surroundings and those around us. If you look at kids younger than five, they don’t care who or what color skin the child standing in front of him, they only want to know if they want to play together. This innocence is what God wants from us. Only to love each other as ourselves (as noted in the video ‘Greatest Commandment’), but with sin loosed on the world, our corrupted beings fall short of this directive. Our sinful natures have turned us against each other and turned our love from others to ourselves. From that develops jealousy, anger, and coveting which turns our antagonist into our enemy.

God did not intend for us to be hateful and dismissive towards others. Naturally, this will result in a reciprocal response and now we have tension our relationship. God’s response to this is quite outside of our normal expectations as noted from Jesus on the Mount in Luke 6:27, 28 -

The Holman Christian Standard Bible Chapter 6

But I say to you who listen: Love your enemies, do what is good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

What is Jesus talking about here? What good does it do to be even civil to someone who has sworn to be your antagonist forever? First off, it responds to Jesus’ call to love your neighbor as yourself as noted in Matt 22:39 earlier, but it also comes into play that we are to mirror God’s actions. Throughout the Old Testament there are many examples of God’s love to those who oppose Him and his commands, repeatedly forgiving those who wrong him because he loved them. There are also examples of God-fearing men forgiving their enemies. For example -

Joseph - forgiving his brothers who sold him into slavery because of jealousy (Gen 50:20-21)

David - Forgiving all that sided with Absalom during his coup attempt (all quite contrary to the culture at the time. (2 Sam 19:1-23)

Elisha - Persuaded the king of Israel to forgive the army of the king of Aram who wanted to attack Israel, instead gave them a feast (2 Kings 6:8-23)

There are of course two prime examples in the New Testament where the protagonist pleaded with God to forgive those who persecuted them:

Jesus - Luke 23:34

The Holman Christian Standard Bible Chapter 23

Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.”

Stephen - Acts 7:60

The Holman Christian Standard Bible Chapter 7

Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin!” And saying this, he fell asleep.

Each of these examples shows that God wants us to forgive those that have wronged us just as God has forgiven us for our sins against him. The basis for this is that by forgiving those who sinned against us, we are more like Jesus, our ultimate goal.

To help us forgive, we should try to see why those against us want to see our downfall. If we take a moment and try to understand our enemies, we can see that they are people just like us - sinners. I recently read that 90% of all arguments are because of miscommunication that grew to an antagonistic relationship. Taking a moment to see what the other person is experiencing or believes will help breakdown the conflict into a fixable action. It will also show our enemy that we are are for fixing the situation and their heart will be softened. As Paul said in Rom 12:20-21 -

The Holman Christian Standard Bible Chapter 12

If your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

For in so doing

you will be heaping fiery coals on his head. w

21 Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.