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.  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?  Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?  Do not even the Gentiles do the same?  You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” –Matthew 5:43-48 (ESV).

“Thou shalt love thy neighbor” is found in Leviticus 19:18.  However, nowhere in the Pentateuch is found the teaching, “Thou shalt hate thine enemy.”  In the Psalms, a later sacred writing than the law, hatred for the enemy is expressed.  But Jesus is teaching a new and higher way.  “I say to you, love your enemies; pray for them who persecute you.”  God hates evil, but He still brings many blessings to both.the good and to the evil in what is termed “common grace.” The example used is that the sun shines on both the good and evil, lending necessary light, and the rain falls equally on the just and on the unjust.  These are examples of God’s “common grace” to all.  These represent God’s primary providential action toward mankind.

When I read these verses I am reminded of the statement President Abraham Lincoln made immediately after the Civil War when asked what he planned to do with all the enemies the United States made during the war.  His wise statement was, “We shall make them our friends.”  Unfortunately, because of the assassin’s bullet that killed that great president, he did not live to fulfill his aim in befriending the rebellious southerners.  But eventually his aim was carried out in successive administrations and America learned, in general, how to operate as one nation again.

What more detested class could Jesus have used than the tax collectors to tell his disciples that even those whom they despised loved those who loved them?  This was used for emphasis, for those in the Jewish community who “sold out” to the Romans to collect the dreaded taxes were despised; yet they loved those who loved them.  The transformed life of the believer should show significantly higher love than that of the publicans and sinners.  “”You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  Did Jesus possibly expect us to measure up to this high standard of love?  Why, then, did he end this section on loving both friend and foe by telling us we should love as our Father in heaven loves?  He is speaking of the perfection of love, and love is the supreme virtue of both God and man.  “And now abides faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love” (I Corinthians 13:13).  Scripture is a reflection of God Himself.  And as we follow God’s way, as revealed to us through His word and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we are growing in perfection.  Loving our enemies and praying for them is God’s-way.  The Father loves His enemies and seeks to make them His children.  And we, as His followers, have a definite part in this holy plan and mission for those who are outside the fold of God.  In loving them and being concerned about them, we are following the perfect will of God on their behalf.  Praise be to God!