“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbors and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?”
Matthew 5:43-46
We are really good at figuring out how to circumvent the plain teaching of Scripture. We tend to spiritualize, rationalize, or trivialize that which Jesus speaks with gracious clarity. What if Jesus really intends for his followers to love their enemies? What if he supplies enough grace for such a daunting task? And what if loving our enemies is actually good for us?
In life and ministry, I have found no more challenging yet no more liberating command.
The challenge is obvious. We don’t tend to love those who don’t love us. We don’t generally love those we deem unlovable. Enemies are enemies for a reason, and whatever such reason is rarely without merit. Here it’s worth observing that Christ’s command isn’t necessarily to make your enemies friends; it is to love even those who remain enemies. Because it’s here, in the act of enemy love, the gospel of grace shines most brightly.
If you say you love somebody but you do not like them, you cannot think of them without growing bitter, you wish ill upon them, and you have no sincere desire for their well-being, you do not love them. You have qualified the term love beyond recognition. You have sanctified your bitterness and developed a theology to justify it. Enemy love is hard, yes, but enemy love is good. And it’s good for us.
Jesus knows our proclivity for hatred. He also knows how heavy a burden it is to bear. So, as a gracious Lord whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light, he forbids us to carry it. He simply removes the option altogether. That person is your friend? Great! Love them. That person is your enemy? Okay. Love them. I think disobedience here causes problems everywhere. How many of my spiritual problems rise from an unwillingness to rest in God’s love and extend that love to all those around me? How might our cultural discourse look if the people of Jesus embraced the most counter-cultural way of Jesus? If love covers a multitude of sins, then surely lovelessness is the root of many more.
Not only is enemy love good, but enemy love is possible. Central to my task as a shepherd of God’s people is holding before all of us, week in and week out, both Christ’s commands and our ability to obey them. Jesus calls us to love our enemies, and he supplies the grace and strength to do it! You can do this. The spiritual life is for you, friend, because the Spirit of God dwells in you.
I’m often asked: What can I do for the church? I may say any number of things given our needs at that particular moment. One answer I give, however, is foundational:
First, you can love the Lord your God with all your heart & mind. Now, as you’re doing that, think of that person in church who bothers you the most – the one who is least like you and least compatible with you. Okay. You have that person in mind? Love them. That is how we can be the sort of church that God intends us to be.
Because if we don’t love each other, then what is the point?
MB
