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!

On Loving and Hating

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love you 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). “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”-I John 4:20-21 (ESV). “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all ffenses.”-Proverbs 10:12 (ESV).

Some people are easy to love because they are loveable. Some people are not easy to love because, for reasons we have allowed to exist, they are unlovable, maybe even our enemies. Jesus was revolutionary in His teachings. He taught that we are to love even our enemies, those who persecute or do evil toward us. The context of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:43-45 was during His Sermon on the Mount. He quoted from Leviticus 19:18: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself; I am the Lord,” The Jews could well agree to love neighbors, if they were loveable but a commonly held belief was that no harm would be done spiritually if one hated his enemy. Not so; love your neighbor but also love your enemy. Does God make a distinction? No; He sends his rain and sunshine on both the just and unjust, those who love Him and those who don’t. No distinction or favoritism is shown. Neither should we profess to love God and hate our brother. The love for God and hatred for one’s fellowman cannot exist within the same heart. Then John adds a reasonable analysis. If you can’t love your brother whom you see, how can you love God whom you cannot see? John could be referring to the time when the lawyer from the Pharisees came asking Jesus: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” -Matthew 22:36-39 (ESV) [quoting Deuteronomy 6:5].

Following the signing of the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II, General Douglas MacArthur was made Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces and sent to Japan to supervise the occupation army. At his Tokyo headquarters in October, 1945, he met with four clergymen from America, the first plain-clothes US visitors to Japan since the war. The ministers had gone to check on Christians in Japan and how they fared after the war. General McArthur, seeming to realize that if any hope existed for rescuing the Japanese from choosing Communism, it would be through the strength and moral rectitude of Christianity. “Give me 1,000 missionaries as soon as possible, and Bibles, Bibles and more Bibles,” MacArthur requested. The General had been instructed by President Harry Truman to “use whatever actions necessary to control the vicious and cruel savages.” Churches did respond, and within the next five years, over 2,000 missionaries, teachers and social workers went to Japan. Much criticism evolved over MacArthur’s request and the consequent sending of missionaries. Many said it was “mixing politics and religion.”

Today the criticism would be for a “politically incorrect” action. Japan did not turn to Christ and Christianity in large numbers, as only one-half of one percent of the Japanese population have become Christians. However, General MacArthur’s consciousness of being called of God at a time when Japan was held to be the enemy, even if conquered, was a desire to love the enemy and provide a way for them to have a moral foundation for establishing a democracy. “Love your enemies” was at the heart of this call for missionaries. God expects and enables us to love friends and enemies because of the love of Christ in our hearts.