Do Good to Those Who Hate You

Luke 6:27-28 ESV

“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”

Jesus taught us that we are to love our enemies. And this love is agape love which comes from God and it prefers what God prefers, for God is love. And what God prefers is that we die with him to sin and we live to him and to his righteousness and that we no longer walk in sin. For he prefers all that is holy, righteous, godly, upright, morally pure, honest, and faithful. So if we are loving others with this love we will not do evil to them but only good.

Now an enemy is someone who is openly hostile, animated by deep-seated hatred bent on inflicting harm on the one he/she hates. An enemy is someone who is an adversary, an opponent, someone who willfully sins against us intending to do us harm; someone who is wicked, evil, manipulative, deceptive, conniving, dishonest, not trustworthy, fake, meanspirited, spiteful, nasty, and cruel, who persecutes the beloved of God for their walks of faith and for their obedience to God.

But we are to do good to our enemies. So to love our enemies is to treat them as God would have us treat them, to not sin against them, to not retaliate, to not do evil back to them, but to be kind to them and to do good to them. And “good” is defined by God and not by us humans. For good is what is noble, honorable, righteous and advantageous in a spiritual and godly sense. And this is how we are to treat those who hate us, i.e. who detest, despise, and treat us as though we have no value to them.

And to bless our enemies is to speak reason to them which confers benefit, i.e. what is helpful, useful, and valuable, in the way that God blesses people. So, this does not involve lying to them to make them feel good about themselves in their sins, and it isn’t about just saying “nice” things to them in a superficial way which is not sincere, nor is it about compromise of truth or righteousness, but it is to speak the reasoning of God to them which will confer spiritual benefit for them, so it is speaking the truth in love.

And to speak the truth in love to them is to confront them with their sins against us and to call them to repentance and to have changed hearts and minds of the Spirit of God. So it is to share the gospel of our salvation with them and to let them know that Jesus died on that cross that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. He died, not just to forgive us our sins, and not just so we can go to heaven when we die, by faith in him, but to deliver us from our slavery (addiction) to sin so that we can now walk in obedience to his commands in holy living.

Especially if our enemies are those who profess faith in Jesus Christ, and if they are our family members, and our spouses, and our pastors, and those in our church fellowships, then we should be speaking the truth in love to them and we should be calling them to repentance and to changed hearts and lives. We should be speaking the truth in love to them even if the truth hurts, and even if they get angry with us, for they need to hear the truth. That is how we love them and do good to them and bless them.

And then we are to pray for those who hate and curse and mistreat us. And prayer is open communication between us and the Lord, which is two-way. We listen to him as he speaks, and we share with him what is on our minds and our hearts, and we give him praise and thanksgiving, and we repent of our sins, and we make our requests known to him, but then we submit to his will and purpose for our lives. And we should pray for the salvation of our enemies, that they would repent of their sins and come to know Jesus Christ, too, as Lord (Owner-Master) and Savior (from slavery to sin).

Video Talk

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Pray, Pray, Pray  

An Original Work / September 6, 2012

Based off Various Scriptures

Pray that eyes may enlightened be,

So they may know Christ.

Pray that they may Him better know,

Strengthened by His pow’r. 

Pray that they may grasp 

How wide and long

And high and deep

Is Christ’s love.

Pray that they may be filled

To the fullness of God’s love.

Pray with thanksgiving.

Pray for an open door for me,

So I may share Christ.

Pray when the gospel is proclaimed –

Shared with clarity.

Pray words are given me so

I declare the gospel fearlessly.

I pray for you to be active

Sharing your faith, too.

Pray continually.

We oft not know for what to pray,

So we ask for help.

The Spirit intercedes for us – 

Words cannot express.

Just keep on praying for the saints

With all kinds of requests to God.

Pray they may have faith to 

Please their God in ev’ry way.

Pray with joyfulness. 

https://vimeo.com/119259373