Love Your Enemies

“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, 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.” (Matthew 5:43-45 ESV)

It is easy to love those who love us, right? But it is harder to love those who hate us and who misuse us and who treat us with disdain. But, thanks be to God, Jesus loved us even when we were his enemies. He loved us enough to die on a cross so that we could be free from our slavery to sin and so that we will now walk in holiness and in righteousness and in obedience to our Lord in the power of God living within those of us who believe in Jesus as Lord and as Savior of our lives. 

And it is with this same kind of love that we who believe in Jesus are to love our enemies. For this is not human love that is based in our feelings or in the character of the one we are loving. This is agape love which comes from God and which prefers what God prefers, which is all that is holy, righteous, godly, morally pure, upright, honest, faithful, and obedient to our Lord. And for us who believe in Jesus this means that we prefer to live through Christ, to embrace God’s will, to choose his choices, and to obey them in his power.

So, we are to love our enemies in the same way that Jesus loves us and died on that cross for us to save us from our sins. And so this is not about just being “nicey-nice” to people to make them feel good. For if we love our enemies in the same way in which God loved and loves us, then we are going to say to them and do for them what is for their good (their benefit), as God defines “good.” We are going to care, not just for their physical needs, but also for their spiritual welfare.

Now, first of all we will refuse to hate them back, and we will refuse to wish them harm, and we will make no attempts at all to get even with them (Romans 12:19-21). And this doesn’t mean that they have to be our best buddies, for the Scriptures teach that we are not to be partners with those who do evil and that there is no fellowship between light and darkness (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). But we are to love them, do good to them, pray for them, and bless (in ways that are for their benefit) them (Luke 6:27-28).

Now love, as mentioned previously, prefers what God prefers, and it is represented to us by how God loved (and loves) us. And so another aspect of love is being willing to die for the salvation of other people’s lives. In other words, we will love them enough to speak the truth in love to them and not the lies that so many are telling them to make them feel good about themselves. For lies are not loving. And lies are never kind, no matter how you dress them up. Speaking God’s truths to people is loving, and it is kind, because we care about people’s souls and where they’ll spend eternity.

And then another way in which our Lord teaches us this love for our enemies is in how he gives rain and sunshine both to the evil and to the good. So we who love God are also to love both those who do good and those who do evil. But please be aware that some of what is being called good is not good, and some of which is being called bad is really good. So please define good and evil and bad and good by the Scriptures and what they teach and not by human thinking and reasoning.

Now, if we are to be God’s children, it is not by lip service only. We must die with Christ to sin, not just once, but daily, and we must walk in obedience to his commands, in practice, and we must love all people, including our enemies, with this agape love which prefers what God prefers. For if sin is what we practice, and not obedience, and if hate is what we practice, and not love, and if selfish indulgence is what we practice rather than godly and holy living, the Scriptures teach we will not inherit eternal life with God.

So please know what the Scriptures teach, and please follow what they teach and not the teachings of humans unless what they are teaching matches what the Scriptures are teaching in context. For just because it looks good or sounds good doesn’t mean it is good. For there are many liars and deceivers among us who are speaking lies disguised as truth, and they sound good on the surface, but they are not in line with what the Scriptures teach, in context. So please read the Scriptures in their appropriate context.

[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:15; Galatians 5:16-21; Galatians 6:7-8; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 10:23-31; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]   

Now, just one more thing here. For the past four years the Lord has been having me do video talks, mostly on passages of Scripture. And these are usually impromptu (non-scripted) talks. So this is like if we were sitting in a living room together looking at a passage of Scripture and just sharing what we were getting out of it at that moment. Rarely does the written part come first. Most always the written part comes after and it may not cover all the same material as the verbal part. So just letting you know that the video and the written part are separate from one another but on the same subject.

Video Talk

https://youtu.be/n650nDikMEU

Caution: This link may contain ads

As the Deer 

By Martin J. Nystrom

Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water

 So my soul longeth after You

 You alone are my heart's desire

 And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield

 To You alone may my spirit yield

 You alone are my heart's desire

 And I long to worship You

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZv3jzOTE70

Caution: This link may contain ads