I originally posted this on June 20th 2008. I reread it recently and felt that I should post it here on the new blog. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Matthew 5:43-48

What a tall order the Lord Jesus is asking of us. It is kind of difficult to love my enemy when I am pretty certain that my enemy does not love me and in fact my enemy would probably would find extreme pleasure in cutting my head off and posting the video on YouTube. To show love and kindness to someone who does not wish to return the favor runs counter to human nature. Movies, books and philosophies teach us to seek retribution for the wrongs (trespasses) committed against us. Even the Old Testament spoke to us of retribution,

“Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.”

(Deuteronomy 19:21).

If one were to take that passage as it stands then the assumption could be made that we are to repay evil with evil. We are to do unto others as they have done unto us, but when placed in context this verse does not say what we think it says. In full context:

“One witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime or offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

“If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse a man of a crime, the two men involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and the judges who are in office at the time. The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against his brother, then do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from among you. The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing be done among you. Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot”

(Deuteronomy 19:15-21).

This verse applies to a legal proceeding in which one of the accusers is giving false testimony against his neighbor and this is a direct violation of the ninth commandment in the Decalogue. Also this passage speaks not to retaliation by an individual but to the application of justice by a court of law. In short because you killed my son I can not in turn kill you or your son. You have to be tried by a legal proceeding, found guilty and then suffer the punishment declared by those sitting in judgment. I, as the accuser, must find a way to be satisfied with whatever penance the judges have decided upon. I can not take the law in to my own hands and give additional punishment. If the perpetrator is not being punished to my satisfaction then I must accept it. In normal circumstances this is not an easy teaching to follow.

What if the perpetrator is found not guilty despite what I know to be true? Again I must accept the verdict of the court and find a way to live with it. The urge to strike back and the action of retaliation are at odds with how Christ Jesus has told us to behave. We have been told to

“love our enemies and pray for them .”

To do less is to be disobedient to our Lord and Creator. Christ told us that,

“If you love me, you will obey what I command”

(John 14:15).
Jesus did not ask us to simply pay lip service to this teaching. He did not say that it was okay to love them with our words but it is fine to harbor hatred in our hearts. He said to love them and pray for them and that we should do this with as much sincerity as we would if were praying for ourselves. I have heard it said that “well He’s God and that’s His job.” Guess what? When we accepted Christ as our savior and repented of our sinful nature then we took that same job upon ourselves.

Why would he ask us to do something this difficult? Why would he expect us to show the slightest kindness to someone who would never return the favor if the shoe was on the other foot? In my mind there are several reasons, but the first and foremost being that this is exactly what He has done for us. We are sinners and enemies of God. We bring pain to the Lord every day with our sinful behavior. Can you image what it must feel like to maintain all of existence and have elements of that existence defy your every wish every hour of the day? God created a world for us and a universe for that world to exist in and He by His own will and nothing else holds that existence together for us and mankind proverbially spits in His face daily.

Do you think I am exaggerating? God says to have no other gods and we worship things that are made with our own hands or imaginary beings and forces that have no life and can give us nothing. He asks us not to make idols but we idolatrize things like money, drugs, sex and fame. Profanely using the Lord’s name is now so common that television does not even sensor it from dialogues of entertainment programs. We are a people who find entertainment in our disobedience. We no longer keep any day sacred to the Lord and the day of honoring our parents has long since passed. We murder, we steal, we commit adultery, we bear false witness and covet everything we see with such impunity that it is a wonder that God the Almighty Lord and Creator does not just let go and let creation slip down the tubes in to the infinite bit bucket.

Despite all that, despite all that we as a people do to defy our Lord and Savior, He still loves us with an infinite and relentless love. He loves us so much that He became incarnate, accepted the punishment that was due us and died a horrible and shameful death nailed to a tree for the entire world to see and mock. Then He triumphed over death and returned to us so that we could have hope of a new tomorrow and an eternity spent in the presence of our Creator as His adopted children. He did this when we were still his enemies. He did this for those who knew about him from the time of Abraham and for those who had never known him and worshipped pagan idols and false gods. In short, He loved His enemies and prayed for them. He saw the enemy and it was us and by the redeeming blood of His only begotten son he forgave us and blessed us with the twin gifts of grace and salvation.

With all that considered, is He really asking so much to expect us to do the same for our enemies? Is it really so much of a burden that we, His adopted children, should treat with dignity and respect the other products of His creation? He created us all and before we were given the blessed gift of His loving grace we, in the eyes of God, were no different than those we now call our enemies. We were unforgiving, unloving, ungodly and ungrateful products of a generous and loving God and we did not have the sense that God gave a rock to obey our Creator and to do the things He asks. He forgave us regardless of our sinful behavior against him and he expects us to forgive those who trespass against us. Is this reason so difficult for us to understand?

Another reason that Christ told us to love our enemies relates back to the concept of personal retribution. If the trespasser has not been punished to the degree to which we believe he should have been then the temptation to wield the iron glove us justice may be too great to resist. However this would not be justice, it would in fact be revenge and Paul tells us to refrain from vengeance

“Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord”

(Romans 12:19).
But Paul does not let it rest there. He goes on to elaborate on what Christ told us when Paul says in Romans 12:20-21,

“On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Christ redeemed us and rescued us from the evil, sinful nature that dwelt within and now as believers we should let the good that is in us out. Once it was constrained by the evil of our sinfulness but now the Christ-like nature that the Holy Spirit is building within us must be allowed to room to grow.

If we carefully consider the teachings of Christ, take them to heart and do our best to live them out on a daily basis then Spirit of Truth that the Father sent us will fill us and grow us in ways that are hard to imagine. The good qualities of Christ will become our qualities and as our old nature subsides the new nature of Christ Jesus will grow to fill the void left behind. As we become more Christ-like, doing what is right will become easier and easier and instinctively knowing the will of the Father will become more natural. We shall never be perfect in this world but that is no reason not to strive for it and with the Holy Spirit instructing us as we follow Christ down the narrow path we shall one day be with God and as with His Son we can hope to hear that “He is well pleased” with us. We would do well to consider that the first steps down the path are called love and forgiveness and when we feel the hatred of an enemy rising in our hearts would should ask ourselves a question,

“If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?”

As Christ gave us the gift of forgiveness we, as His followers and disciples, must now give the gift to those who need forgiveness from us. God forgave us and we, in our gratitude, endeavor to obey the commands of Christ Jesus. Now much more will God do for us if we unselfishly forgive those who us wrong and what greater reward could there be if the person whom we forgive also turned to the Lord and accepted Christ as his savior. He will have gone from our enemy to our spiritual brother in Christ and we will have assisted the Lord in bringing another soul to the gates of salvation. Is not that what Jesus really wants us to do? When your enemy stumbles reach out a hand and help him up. You may find that what was an enemy is now a friend and your kind actions may turn that friend in to a spiritual sibling and adopted son of the Lord God Almighty.

Another Pilgrim