Who is the hardest person to love? Or perhaps we could turn this around and ask – Who is the easiest to hate? That person or group is the very one Jesus is asking you to love. We concluded our last entry in this series with a statement about love’s unbalanced nature. See https://lambchow.com/2023/02/the-jesus-way-unbalanced-scales/. It wasn’t by accident. Jesus’ next (and final) “you heard it said…” declaration expands on love even more.
Jesus taught, “You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same?” (Matthew 5:43–47, CSB)
Our natural inclination is to love those who are on our side. Whatever side we happen to think is most important. For some, that side is family, race, lineage, or tribe. For others, it is whether someone agrees with our political and/or religious convictions. It could even be what sports team we root for. Increasingly in our world, folks see those others as enemies. And some are, but many are not. But in walking The Jesus Way those divides shouldn’t matter.
Sure, we have enemies. People are working for our harm instead of our good. We are not putting on rose-colored glasses and pretending everyone is our friend. They’re not. But! Whether enemy or friend, the Jesus Way is to love them with God’s kind of love. More than that, we are to pray for them.
Some may think, “Sure, I’ll pray that God curses them until they turn from their (insert offense).” But that is not what Jesus intended. He instead pointed out that God sends His general graces of sunshine and rain on the just and the unjust. The implication is that we are to also pray for God’s grace on them. Blessings instead of curses. In a parallel passage, Jesus taught, “But I say to you who listen: Love your enemies, do what is good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27–28, CSB)
Love is hard sometimes.
As I look across the landscape of this moment in time, it is evident that some Christians have forgotten this mandate from Jesus. I hear the words of war and divorce from certain circles far more than prayers for our enemies. A desire to win far greater than compassion for the blind, broken, and enslaved. Selah (rest here and meditate on that).
And yet, love empowers us in ways we don’t fully understand. Love removes our fear. “There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love.” (1 John 4:18, CSB) Love encourages action, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.” (2 Timothy 1:7, CSB) By loving our enemy, we are released from the chains of victimhood. Those chains could be forced on us by our enemies or willingly adopted for various reasons. Giving and receiving love in Jesus Christ breaks the chains of fear and victimhood.
Seem impossible? Sure, it is hard to love those that wish us harm. We can only love others by knowing Christ’s love for us. Paul prayed this prayer for the Ephesian believers. “I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:16–19, CSB) That is my prayer today for you. By knowing His love, you will be empowered to love your enemy.
- Corinthian Controversies: Hair, Respect, and Value - April 24, 2024
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- The Legacy - April 15, 2024
