Do you remember that ‘friend’ who made fun of you the first day you wore your glasses in elementary school? How could you forget those who started those nasty rumors about you in high school? But those were nothing compared to the hurt you felt when your heart was crushed when you were betrayed by someone you loved.
These, and others, are all mean people. They don’t like us. And we don’t like them much either. But, as a Christian, we are supposed to have a better attitude toward them. Jesus tells us we are to love our enemies.
“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48)
If anybody knew about enemies, it was Jesus. He would one day be betrayed, beaten, crucified, and killed by His enemies. How does Jesus say we should treat our enemies?
Bless your Enemies. Often mean people are mean with their mouth. But as Christians we have to be conscious of what comes from ours. When a person insults us, we aren’t to insult them back; instead we are to respond by blessing them. In doing this, we also receive a blessing. How do we bless those who speak evil toward us? We must bless them by speaking well of them. Behind our backs, mean people tear us down. But behind their backs we should speak kind words about them. Kindness is the ability to love people more than they really deserve.
Do Good to your Enemies. Love is an action verb. Love and hate do not necessarily have to do with our emotions. Love’s question is never who to love, but how to love. This is the positive side of ‘turn the other cheek.’ We don’t retaliate, but we do show love.
Pray for your Enemies. It is hard to love our enemies. Praying for them helps. It not only helps them, but it helps us. It helps us not to have an angry, bitter spirit toward them. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, pastor killed in Nazi Germany, said, “This is the supreme demand. Through the medium of prayer we go to our enemy, stand by his side, and plead for him to God.”
Loving enemies doesn’t make us children of God, but proves we are children of God. One of the criticisms of Christianity is it doesn’t live up to its faith. People know enough about the Bible and Christ’s teaching to know that we don’t live as He lived. But even a person who has never heard of Christ would wonder at a person who loves his enemies because it is so uncharacteristic of human nature.
Those who claim to follow Christ are to have a higher standard of love than the rest of the world. But often we say, “You do me bad, I’ll do you bad. You do me good, then I’ll do you good. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. Then we’ll call it quits. We don’t owe anybody anything. We keep even with everybody.”
But loving others, especially when they don’t deserve it, is the kind of love that our Heavenly Father expresses. We are more like God when we forgive and love others than just about anything else we can do.
You can read my other Sermon on the Mount articles: Life Redefined: Sermons from The Sermon on the Mount.
You can also read some of my similar posts: Jesus Loves People More Than Anything, 7 Truths about Love, How to Respond to Evil with Love.
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