Love your enemies

Introduction

This subject is always a difficult one is it not? It is always a lesson we learn and then quickly forget or make exceptions to. If I am not mistaken, this is also where people get the misunderstanding that Christians are to rollover and take everything that is thrown at them. How do we reconcile this passage and all the injustice in the world? How do we reconcile this passage and all the evil done in this world? This passage is a difficult one to accept and follow. However, we will do our best today to explore it and see how we can live by this.

Trouble

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth… we have heard that and like to quote it don’t we. In the Old Testament, in the law there is this passage that talks about justice being carried out and done. The Israelites were familiar with it I am sure the same as we are. In a cruel and harsh world, it only makes logical sense that we should get justice equal to the crime against us. However, when we draw that conclusion based on that passage, it it missing a key part of it.

If you read the whole section on this, it talks about punishment never going above what was done. What was easier to do was if you had friends in power or if you took it upon yourself, a small crime against you could result in an unbalanced punishment. What I mean is that if someone stole your cow, and you burned down their house, that is not an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth. The intention behind this law was to make sure the punishment did not exceed the crime. If someone out of anger struck another person and knocked out a tooth, a death sentence was not appropriate but in reality if you hit the wrong person that is easily what it could turn out to be.

Old Testament prescription for justice and punishment was not about revenge and only about limiting the punishment to fit the crime. Yet, in this first century setting when Jesus is teaching this love your enemies, it goes against the current culture’s standards based on who you are and who you know. In other words, who you were and who you knew had a lot to do with what justice was done for you and what justice was done to you.

What Jesus was suggesting here was to forgo the concept of getting even against your enemy who did you wrong. This goes against what we want to do as well. We want justice and punishment for those who have wronged us. We equate the justice and punishment with making things right again.

Yet perhaps Jesus was questioning that misconception about justice and punishment. Because these things do nothing to the past and are attempts to right the scales of justice so there is equality. Yet do we really feel any better about it afterwards? Does it undo the harm done to us? While I am not suggesting that all crime go unpunished, I believe Jesus was following an entirely different motivation when it came to loving your enemies.

Grace

When you look back in history, there are many instances where Christians have loved their enemies. While some periods persecution was trying to smother out Christianity, at the same time Christians were going into the plague areas were others would not risk their own health. In other words, these Christians cared and loved for others, even when they were trying to do away with them. There are many cases when Christians loved their enemies and this love moved their enemies to change. Instead of persecuting them, eventually they were recognized as a legitimate religion and its followers did good instead of harm.

It is not pleasant to think about but it is a reality, when the Christian church is being persecuted, it is also growing. When the Christian church is under threat, others take note of their reaction to this threat. Somehow God’s grace works even amongst the church’s enemies to dissuade them from evil by the Christian’s ability to love their enemies even in the face of persecution and threat of death.

Think to the story of even Jesus. Did he ever stop and demand justice for the insults where others accused him of doing the devil’s work? Did he stop and demand justice for the insults and attacks because of other religious leaders trying to kill him? Did he call down fire and hail from heaven when they arrested him? Did he curse those who hung him on the cross to die?

I think you get my point. In all he said and did, Jesus loved even his enemies. Jesus loved those who loved him but beyond that his love even for his enemies has moved kings and nations to believe in him.

But we are not facing angry mobs. We are not facing a government who thinks we should not exist. So we are not forced to love our enemies. Instead we demand justice against our enemies, sometimes in Jesus’ name. How do we move from our current culture of demanding justice for the wrongs done to us and instead learn how to love our enemies despite the wrong done to us?

While what I am about to suggest may seem insensitive, I mean it as taking a hard look at how we categorize people as enemies. I look at the first few verses we read and it is about those who insult or abuse you, and take from you. I don’t suggest staying in abusive relationships first of all. When you read this passage, it might be taken that way but, my personal belief is that it is not saying you have to keep putting yourself in harms way.

What I can equate this to is when you hear someone stating “Christians are such hypocrites.” They are insulting you because you are a Christian and therefore that person is calling you names. How do you react against this person? Jesus says to bless them instead of cursing them. We can recognize people who do harm, even as Christians, do harm and hide behind God. While the generalized statement of all Christians being hypocrites may not be true, we can recognize in our behavior and others that we can be hypocritical at times. In response to the insult, the blessing of “thank you for reminding me of the importance of living in a way that demonstrates that I follow the teachings of Jesus and not just say them and demand them of others who are not Christians.”

Another way is when someone says “Christians are demanding I live by their religion when I don’t follow it.” In other words, they are not Christians and they attack other Christians because they have been told or feel they have been told to live as Christianity demands, or some twisted version of it. Truth is, Christians are responsible for their behaviors and lifestyle and not people who are not Christians. This has been true for thousands of years as even the Jews did not enforce all their laws and practices on the gentiles they lived alongside. Again, while you may feel insulted and attacked because of this, another way to turn it into a blessing is, “yes Christians may demand each other uphold the lifestyle and practices of being disciples of Jesus, you are right that does not extend to people who do not follow Jesus.”

Here is another way to look at this. You can insert the word rich or poor, democrat or republican or any other way in which we divide ourselves up in this nation. The “other” says things about you and insults or attacks your character. Our natural reaction is to respond in kind with how they are what is wrong with the world today. How do we respond differently here? Notice in verses 27-31 that Jesus is saying to not judge and you won’t be judged. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you. In other words, the context of loving your enemies, don’t resort to trading insults or curses. This will not get you anywhere with them as nobody as ever changed themselves because someone insulted them. Instead, forgive them. You too have hurled insults at your enemies and need to be forgiven too but as verse 37 states, forgive and you will be forgiven. So first forgive your enemies and then you too can be forgiven. Anger and hatred have never turned anyone towards good so try something different.

These are oversimplified scenarios where someone may appear as our enemy and we may want to attack back as if they are our enemy. However, there is another way of loving them despite the insults or attacks. There is another way despite the wrong they have done to us and the wrong we have done to them. Love is the alternative to perpetuating the anger and hate. Let us be moved by the grace of God to turn from worldly ways and try living by Jesus’ way of loving our enemies. Begin by forgiving them. Then move forward into loving them.