11/09/2021
One of the hardest commandments that Jesus spoke to us regarding love is for us to love our enemies, and pray for them. It seems unnatural to love someone who seeks your demise, or wants to harm you in some way. For an unbelieving man this is truly impossible. When we read these words we wonder if loving our enemy is a sacrifice we are asked to make in order to change this person in some way, but as we study these verses we come to understand that by obeying Jesus we are actually refining our own faith, because without knowing, and leaning heavily on the Lord, then loving someone who hates us would be impossible for us to accomplish.
““You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,”
Matthew 5:43-44 ESV
Jesus goes on in the next two verses to tell us that we receive a reward for loving in this manner, and yet there is no mention of any benefit for the enemy we are loving. In loving those who persecute us our reward is great, it is to become like our Heavenly Father… to be called sons of God.
“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 on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?”
Matthew 5:45-46 ESV
Finally, in the last two verses on this subject, it is implied that it is only natural for a man to hate his enemies (like the Gentiles do), and we are told that our natural inclination is to love our brothers. As a matter of fact we are told that we are specifically perfecting ourselves through loving our persecutors in this way. Jesus goes on to tell us that if we love our enemies as He has told us to do then we will have perfected ourselves in love… we will be like God is in this.
“And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Matthew 5:47-48 ESV
So how can we do what goes against our very nature? How can we love someone who is determined to harm us? Well we can’t be successful by pretending to subject ourselves to our adversary or by pretending to go along with the mistreatment we are enduring, when in fact we are filled with fear and hatred inside. Doing this is not love, no, it is a ruse… a deception.
I walked out on my front porch a few months ago to call the dog in for the night, and was greeted by a grisly scene. The dog was laying by the porch staring at a possum he had killed. He wasn’t continuing the attack, but seemed to be satisfied that he had finished off this possum. I was irritated with him because that docile animal does no harm, so I sternly ordered the dog into the house, checked to see if he had any wounds, and satisfied that he didn’t, I went back outside to dispose of the dead possum. To my surprise he was gone.
I thought back on the scene I had first encountered; the possum had been lying motionless on his back, there was no sign of blood, and the dog was simply watching him intently. It suddenly dawned on me that the possum had been doing what possums do best… he was pretending to be dead… he was playing possum, and waiting for an opportunity to escape. This slow and unassuming animal pretends to be dead as a defense.
Loving our enemy is not like this, it is actively showing love for them in a very real way. We aren’t being told to pretend to love our enemy, but to actually love them. Deception is not love… it is nothing more than a way of getting what we want, our safety, by pretending. Our goal is to love as God loves, and to perfect ourselves in this way. If we are simply going through the motions of love by pretending, by lying, then that is not love at all.
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 ESV
It is one thing to turn our other cheek in defiance, or to carry someone’s bag two miles when all that is asked of us is one mile. Behaving submissively in this manner is more akin to playing possum. This is nothing but tolerance, or resisting retaliation, and is only a weak first step towards learning to love our enemies. Love is much deeper than this, and flows from the innermost reaches of the heart and soul of a person.
““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16 ESV
What if God had merely acted outwardly in love when He sent His Son Jesus to redeem us? What if that wasn’t love for us at all, but simply His defense mechanism against our sin? Would the life, death, and resurrection of Christ have meant the same thing it does today? This deep self-sacrifice is the love of God, one that loves His enemies, those that were in denial of Him, killed His people, and even put His Son to a horrible death as he was in the process of loving, and forgiving, them. This is the perfect love we are asked to have for our enemies… is it what we show, or are seeking to perfect?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your perfect love for us that was at the heart of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Thank you for the way He taught us to be like you in our love, and gave us Jesus as a living example of how we are to love our enemies. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who loved us while we were yet sinners. Praised be your name for the faith you had in our ability to believe in you, and walk in love as you do. Merciful are you Lord in your patience, that waits, and instructs, as we learn first to turn our other cheek to our enemies, and then to love them despite their mistreatment. You are perfect in love Father, and we pray that you will help us to become perfect, just as you are. Your Word tells us to be perfect, but without you, Jesus, and your Holy Spirit, that perfection is unreachable for us. Only by leaning on you can we expect to succeed. So wash us in the blood of your Son to cleanse us, give us understanding through your Holy Spirit, and transform us into your perfect image of goodness, and love. Let no enemy tempt us into hatred, and no painful suffering cause our love for them to falter, let nothing deny us of love’s perfection, and our enemy of the hope of your forgiveness our love brings.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
1 John 4:7-11 ESV
Rich Forbes