Love Your Enemies, Part 2
(Matthew 5:44 APE) “But I say to you, love your enemies and bless the one who curses you, and do what is beautiful to the one who hates you, and pray over those who take you by force and persecute you.”
(See: yesterday's post for part 1. This is a continuation.)
Now that we know we can obey Jesus’s list of very challenging instructions about practical love through the power of God’s amazing grace, we can go back to it—confident that by faith in his grace, we can obey all of his directives:
? Love your enemies
? Bless those who curse you
? Do good to those who hate you
? Pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you etc.
For our topic here of practicing love, let’s think of the first item in this list as a heading, and those that follow as the sub-points.
Does Jesus really expect us to obey these commands? To us, this looks impossible. So let’s begin by thinking about why he wants us to follow these instructions, and then we will think about how to do them.
First, we freshly renew our minds to the truth that our Lord said in the conclusion of his teaching in Matthew 5-7: those who obey him will be like the wise man who built his house on the rock; it was crash-proofed against all that the enemy could throw at it in the way of natural disasters (See: Mat. 7:24-27). The Holy Spirit added that obeying Jesus in his directives will be our protection in this life and on into eternity (See: Heb. 5:9).
Being God, Jesus knows how the whole system is designed and how it works. Being Love, he always and only ever chooses for us what is for our good. We would be well advised simply to obey him, even though we don’t fully understand why he instructs us to do these things or how the system works. In other words, we obey because we love and trust him who is our Shepherd:
(John 14:15 CEV) Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will do as I command.”
Second, we must realize that Jesus is our Master and divine coach; he knows the stakes and how to win in life. Uppermost in his mind for us is the irrefutable and irresistible law of sowing and reaping. It controls everything God created … yes, absolutely everything! It was so prevalent in Jesus’s thinking during his whole teaching in Mat. 5-7 that he puts it into the conclusion as the reason for his teaching, and as the objective of the whole of the law and the prophets:
(Matthew 7:12 DKJV) “Therefore, in everything, whatever you want others to do to you, you do the same to them: for this is the objective of the law and the prophets.”
(Galatians 6:7 NKJV) “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
Every action we take will be multiplied back to us in our future, with great increase. That’s why Jesus continually tells us to sow only good things; because what we sow today is creating the atmosphere and conditions in which we will live tomorrow and on into eternity. So, when about to react or respond to any situation, ask yourself: “Is what I am about to say or do what I want multiplied back into my eternal future?”
This is when Jesus’s exigent instructions about loving our enemies begin to make sense. He is showing us the way to reap what we want. To reap love in the future, he says to sow love perfectly now … even to the extent of loving our enemies. To ensure that we eternally reap generosity and blessing etc., Jesus says to give, do good, and to bless etc. “Thank you Jesus; you are truly good to me, and you are a complete genius.” Remember, he set the example in this by doing good and by loving his enemies perfectly—to the extent of dying for them, even for those who mocked, whipped, and crucified him.
But how do we actually do this? How do we obey these seemingly impossible directives from Jesus? We look at this in the next chapter, but for today …
Do you have an enemy or someone who hates you? Is someone trying to curse you, mistreat you, or persecute you? If so, you now know what to do: love them, bless them, do good to them, and pray for them. If you do, think of what you will reap later in this life and on into the eternal future: love, blessing, good, and lots of prayer covering. Not only that, but you will be releasing the Holy Spirit to operate in the situations into which you sow the perfect love of God from your hearts. He alone has the power to convict, transform, and regenerate. He will work on the people you are blessing, loving, doing good for, and praying over. What’s more, he is the ultimate mastermind who really can work all things for good (See: Rom. 8:28).
You may not be able to do all of these instructions perfectly today, but you can make a start. At least you can begin by praying for your enemies and for those who have mistreated you. I have found that the more I pray for them, asking God to bless them, the more his love for them begins to grow in my heart. After that, the “do them good” and “love them” etc. becomes easier.
Begin where you can today—with prayer—then you can ask the Holy Spirit to guide you into the next step. But please don’t pray, “God get ‘em!” Our job is to do them good and to bless them; leave the judging and all the vengeance to God:
(Romans 12:19-21 NLT) Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, "I will take revenge; I will pay them back," says the LORD. (20) Instead, "If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads." (21) Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.