Love Your Enemies

“We have to reduce ourselves from every race to one race – and that is the human race.”

 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies. Pray for those who treat you badly.  If you do this, you will be children who are truly like your Father in heaven. He lets the sun rise for all people, whether they are good or bad. He sends rain to those who do right and to those who do wrong.  If you love only those who love you, why should you get a reward for that? Even the tax collectors do that. And if you are nice only to your friends, you are no better than anyone else. Even the people who don’t know God are nice to their friends.  What I am saying is that you must be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”(Matthew 5:43-48)

First of all, let’s talk about this concept of ‘love.’ There are four different Greek words for love:

1) storge – family love; love between parent and child
2) eros – physical love; love between a man and woman; passion; sexual love
3) philia – brotherly love; relationship between closest, nearest, & truest friends
4) agape – unconquerable benevolence, invincible goodwill. This kind of love seeks nothing but another person’s highest good.

The writer of this Gospel didn’t use the first three Greek words for love here. This love Christ was talking about for an enemy wasn’t like the love between a parent and child, nor was it an erotic romantic love, and nor was it like the love of close friends or brothers. The love he was referring to is the fourth one, agape. This love far surpasses the others. It’s not dependent on being loved back either. It is a selfless love. One of the best examples of this kind of love is found in the story commonly referred to as the Good Samaritan.

One day Jesus was asked to define who a “neighbor” was. Jesus responded with the parable of the Good Samaritan. According to the story a man was robbed and beaten by thieves and left dying in the road.  Two religious people passed by and did not help.  A Samaritan, a half-breed Jew, hated by the Jews, came by and nursed the man, took him to a local inn and paid to have him cared for. Luke 10:33 says that a Samaritan “took pity” or “felt compassion” for a Jewish man that was wounded on the road to Jericho.  Jews hated Samaritans and vice versa. This mean the Samaritan had no obligation with his people to help the Jewish man, and two Jewish religious leaders had already passed him up anyway! Yet, he put true love into action and reached out to a man in need. If a Jew sees that a Gentile has fallen into the sea, let him by no means lift him out. Of course it is written; ‘Do not rise up against your neighbor’s life.’, but this man is not your neighbor.” That’s what the Jews in Jesus’ day thought about the others who lived in their world. According to this story, our neighbor is anyone who is in need that we have the ability to help. Jesus gives an honest appraisal of the teaching of his day. They were taught to love their neighbors and hate their enemies.  But now Jesus gives A HIGHER STANDARD – Matthew 5:44

The word enemy means an unfriendly opponent. An enemy can be somebody who hates us and seeks to harm us or cause us trouble. An enemy can be someone who has wronged us. Or an enemy can just be somebody on the opposing side, an “unfriendly” in the sense that they are hostile to the values or beliefs that are important to us. Instead of asking, “Who is not worthy of your love?” God asks, “Who do you love who’s not worthy?” An enemy does not deserve your love, but God says “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies. Pray for those who treat you badly.”

 God’s standard is different from human standards. Man’s Love is based on Merit. The human tendency is to base love on the desirability of the object of our love. We love people who are attractive; we love hobbies that are enjoyable, a house or a car because it looks nice. The love, of which Jesus speaks here, is agape.  That love seeks and works to meet another’s highest welfare. What Jesus asked his disciples to do is equally binding on us. This kind of agape love is the love that God is, that God shows us, and therefore expects of us. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us“(Rom. 5:5, 8).

God’s love sees all the hatefulness and all the wickedness of the enemy yet desires to free him from his hate, to do him the highest good, to rescue him from his sin, and save his soul.   Our “enemies,” of course, do not always come in life–threatening forms. Often they are people who are simply mean, impatient, judgmental, self–righteous, spiteful—or just happen to disagree with us.  In all our personal relationships, God commands us to love them. Whether a conflict is with our spouse, our children or parents, our friends our fellow citizen, a devious business opponent, spiteful neighbor, political foe, our attitude toward them must be one of love. The world says retaliate. Jesus says reconcile. Jesus commands us to love our enemies. How can we do that when we don’t want to?

In Jesus’ day, a tax collector was a low-life, despised human being. For one thing, nobody likes to pay taxes. And these tax collectors were considered traitors: Jewish agents of the occupying Roman government. That also meant they spent time with Romans which made them “unclean”.  In addition to all that, these tax collectors routinely overcharged people for their taxes and kept the margin for themselves. They were crooks! So nobody else liked them, but they liked each other!

We have to reduce ourselves from every race to one race – and that is the human race. As long as we consider race beyond human race there will be racism. We need to get a revelation of what it means to be human. Racism, intolerance, narrow-mindedness and prejudice are not only related to discrimination of caste, creed and religion. It can also be related to differences of opinions or differences of ways. We can be a racist between values and belief systems.

The source of racism is low self-esteem, low self-worth and a poor self-concept. Once you realize how valuable you are as a human and recognize that everybody else is also made in the same image as you are, then equality is an automatic result. The greatest command in the law is the secret to destroying racism and that is to love God with all your heart, your soul, and your strength. Then love yourself and love your neighbor to the same degree that you love yourself. Until you love God with all your heart, racism will always be present.  Racism is a sign of fragile ego and self-hatred. I don’t care who you are and what position you have. I don’t care how many degrees you hold and how powerful you are. If you have problems with people who are different from you, then you are still suffering from self-hatred. If you discover and really understand God and love what God is and who God is, then you’ll naturally love yourself because you are made in His image. It’s impossible for you to love God and hate your brother.

Throughout Matthew 5th chapter, Jesus has been expounding on what true righteousness, the righteousness that He fulfills, truly is. Jesus is revealing to us the righteousness that flows from God's heart, His character. In the last secession Jesus tells His listeners that true righteousness involves a freedom to love and serve others regardless of their words or actions towards us. Jesus indicates that we are living as God's own children, mirroring the life and character of our heavenly Father. We share the family resemblance when we love in this way. At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declares that the peacemakers are blessed because they shall be called the children of God. Peacemakers are those who offer God's shalom in the midst of conflict. God is the Peacemaker. He is the One, through and in His Son, who makes peace where there is no possibility of peace, provides forgiveness and healing in the face of evil and brokenness.

Furthermore, peace becomes possible when we love our enemies. Jesus goes on to point out that God "makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." God pours out blessing on all, regardless of their present state of goodness or evil. God does not look to us to decide how to behave towards us. His love is not dependent on our behavior or our attitude towards him. He acts first, moving to love us, to bless us. There is nothing surprising or unusual about loving those that treat you well and opposing those who don't. It is not a sign of anything extraordinary. We can do this without help. Jesus points out that even those who do not know or trust in God can manage this much.

God’s will is nothing less than that we become like him. That which God commands, He provides. Our own self-righteousness is possible, but is so imperfect that it is worthless; God’s righteousness is humanly impossible because it is perfect. But the impossible righteousness becomes possible when we consciously, daily, willingly, lay aside our reputation, lay aside our rights, lay aside our self-righteousness, lay aside our pride, and trust Jesus Christ to give us His love for all, friend, neighbor, enemy. And that is precisely our Lord’s point here – The sum of all that Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount—in fact, the sum of all He teaches in Scripture—is contained in these words. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48).