Love Your Enemies

In Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus starts off by reminding people what they have been taught and heard about Scripture (i.e. "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy"). Leviticus 19:18 tells us to love our neighbor. (In its entirety, it tells us "‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.") The second half of that saying was added on to the actual Scripture. Nowhere in the Old Testament are we told to hate our enemies. The only instance where "hate your enemy" appears in Scripture is Jesus quoting that saying. 

Jesus goes on to command us to A) "love [our] enemies" and B) "pray for those who persecuted [us]" SO THAT we "may be children of [our] Father in heaven". Many times, I have heard that we should love our enemies and pray for our persecutors, but we end the sentence there and do not continue into verse 45 to finish the sentence in the NIV translation. Our love for our enemies and our prayers for our persecutors is a key part of our identity as children of God. Jesus notes that both the good and the bad get sunshine from God. Both saints and sinners receive the blessing of rain. 

Jesus questions what reward will we get if we just love those who love us. He notes that even tax collections do that. He questions what extra behavior are we displaying if we only greet our own people, since even pagans do that. Our love for our enemies is a key distinguishing feature of our faith lived out in our deeds. This passage ends with a call, a command really, to be perfect as God is perfect. 

While this passage in Luke 6:27-36 is similar to the Matthew 5 passage, it was different enough that I wanted us to look at it as well. Jesus starts by telling us to "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." (The next 3 verses will be covered in a future post in this series.) 

Jesus questions what credit is it to us, if we just love those who love us. He points out that even sinners  love those who love them. He again asks what credit is it to us if we just do good to those who are good to us. Once again, even sinners do that. Furthermore, what credit is it to us, if we lend to people we expect to repay us. Jesus points out that even sinners lend to other sinners and expect to be fully repaid.

After telling us how we should NOT be acting, Jesus gets into His commands: A) love our enemies, B) do good to our enemies, C) lend to our enemies without expecting to be repaid, even in part.  

When we do this, our reward will be great and we will be children of the Most High God. Why does this identify us as God's children? God is kind to the ungrateful and wicked and we are called to follow His lead. This passage ends with a call, a command really, to be merciful as God is merciful. 

This is a lot to unpack in these passages. As Christians, we are called to live differently than non-believers. Most people in the world will love those who love them, be kind to those who are kind to them, and lend to people they expect to repay them. Yet, as Christians, we are called to love those who dislike and even hate us. We are called to do good to those who wish us ill. We are called to lend and give to those who can't repay us. Our obedience in love our enemies identifies us as Christians. 

It's easy to love those who agree with us, who treat us well, who we like, etc.

It's obedience to love those who disagree with us, who treat us poorly, who we dislike, etc. 

Based on how you treat enemies, opponents, and those who mistreat you, can you be identified as a child of God?