You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour 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.
Matthew 5:43-45
Do what?
No, these are the things we’re going to do to our enemies: Defeat them. Beat them. Conquer them. Roundly thrash them. Humiliate them. Pummel them into the dirt. Put them out of business. Decimate them. Embarrass them. They are the enemies for a reason. We don’t like each other for very good reason. We are right and they are wrong. We progress and they oppose. We look to succeed and they are an active barrier to that. Their victories are at our expense. They only do well if we don’t. We have one thing in common, we want to win and winning means getting an advantage over the other.
And you want us to love our enemies? You want us to love them?
Do you know what they call us? Do you know what they do to us whenever they see us? Have you seen the things they get up to deliberately to aggravate us and harden the barrier between us? Have you considered just what a dangerous, miserable and vile existence it would be if they got their own way?
And you want us to love our enemies? You want us to love them?
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He gave them a garden to cultivate. He provided fruit in abundance for them. They were without need in every sense of the word all because of His creative ability at their service. The relationship He established with them was strong and it was meant to last forever.
Then they rebelled and when they did so, they went in hardcore. Their very nature was now opposed to His. All they ever appeared to do was think of novel ways to express their rebellion against Him. They were going to do things their way and He was no longer a loving, creative provider – He was a hindrance, He was a nuisance, He was an irrelevance.
More than this, their very stance of rebellion turned them from those created to be in harmonious relationship to enemies. The act of rebellion also sealed their fate in terms of ever corrupting their ability to live and enjoy the world that they were given to steward. It would have been understandable for Him to turn and wipe them all out and utterly consign them to a hellish existence forever.
The divide was established and there was nothing from their side to bridge it. Yet He continued to express His love to His enemies. Sun shone on them and the rain fell on them. Seasons came and went. They had all the elements needed to cultivate harvests that would feed them. All of this despite their blatant disregard of Him.
Not only that, but He put in place the means by which the chasm between the two parties could be bridged. While they didn’t think of Him, He thought of them and connected and related with them over history. Taking the feeble and seemingly insignificant and giving them history-making prominence to put on display His ongoing efforts to connect with those who rebelled against Him.
This is all the more remarkable considering the sustained acts of rebellion towards Him. He gave examples over His course of efforts of what it was and what it took to love the enemy. It was not sentiment based, it was not done on a basis of only giving if something was returned. It was done out of the love that will act. The love that will act to redeem and restore. The love that will forgive and reconcile.
This is a hallmark of who He is and He went onto describe how this character would be the hallmark of all those who could say they were His offspring. Those born of Him by His Spirit could follow in the pattern of His Son and extend love even to their enemies.
It’s a truly amazing reality to consider in a world where it is very much the case to keep relations with the enemy purely adversarial and antagonistic.
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So what is being said is not an invitation or a suggestion. It’s not something offered to those who can ‘give it a go’ or ‘try it and see’. It is a command. It is a reflection of the character of the King. It is a command. It is a reflection of who rules in your life. It is a command.
But are we more likely to go for the preference to ‘tolerate’ your enemies. Pay lip service to the idea of co-existing with our enemies and saying we won’t do anything to heighten any tensions? Are we going to allow that animosity against them to remain as a stronghold of who we are and so continue the rebellion that brought about the death, decay, disease and destruction in the first place?
Or will we hear, obey and teach others to observe what King Jesus says?
(Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 