Love your Enemies (1)

Love your Enemies is different from Loving One Another.

Love One Another is Jesus standard for those who choose to follow him. The One Another Stuff is to be worked out in a body of disciples who live in the same neighbourhood and are committed to loving and serving Jesus. This standard is demanding, but it is only expected of those who have had their minds renewed and been filled with the Holy Spirit. He is the one who makes it possible for people to live this way. See One Another Stuff for more on what Jesus requires.

Jesus also said that his followers should love their enemies.

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you (Luke 6:27).

Our enemy is anyone who does not belong to Jesus. The noun Jesus used is derived from a verb meaning hate. It refers to anyone who might hate us. Enemies is a broad category. It includes those of different races and religions.

Jesus is realistic. He understands that those who follow him will often have enemies. We will often be hated by those who have rejected the gospel. Sometimes they will persecute us and try to destroy us. This is what Paul experienced from his enemies, but he mostly responded with love for them. This is not easy, but the gift of the Holy Spirit makes it possible.

The following are guidelines for followers of Jesus who choose to love their enemies.

• The basic standard for the treatment of enemies is the so-called golden rule.
  

  Do to others as you would have them do to you (Luke 6:33).

  We do not treat people the way they treat us. As followers of Jesus, we should do better than that. We should treat all people the way that we would like them to treat us.

• We must pray for our enemies.
  

  Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven (Matt 5:44-45).

  Our prayers should not be limited to those who treat us well. We should pray for those who harm us. This shows us that we are children of God, worthy of his blessing.

• We must be careful about how we speak about our enemies.

Bless those who curse you (Luke 6:28).

• When we see people that are different, we should bless them. We should avoid put-downs of people we disagree with. We should bless those who curse us. We must not curse people because they are different. If we do that we give the spiritual powers of evil permission to attack them. The will usually make them worse.

• We should greet our enemies in a friendly way.
  

  And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that (Matt 5:47)?

  We must not approach people in a hostile way. We must greet pagans in a friendly way. Being friendly to those who are our own people is not sufficient for followers of Jesus.

• Followers of Jesus should do good to their enemies.
  

  And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that… But love your enemies, do good to them,and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great (Luke 6:33,35).

  We should do good to those who are different from us, even if they do harm to us. We should not expect anything back, but should count on the generous blessing of God.

More in my next post.