LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

Of all the ‘ye have heard that it hath been said ... But I say unto you’ statements in this section of scripture, this is probably the maxim that is most contrary to fallen human nature. An enemy is someone who is hostile towards us - an adversary. Should we love those who wish us ill? Yes, says the Lord Jesus. The com­mon human response is to loath, avoid, or retaliate against our enemy. Conversely, men love those who are loveable - or at least, those who love them in return. Defying all human philoso­phy, the Lord Jesus commands His disciples to love the unlovely, including those who oppose them.

Once again the Lord Himself is the greatest practitioner of His own teaching. Paul records His love for the ungodly: ‘But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us . .. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life’, Rom. 5. 8,10. He did not wait until men reformed. Rather, He came to earth when they were habitually wicked and suffered outrageous indigni­ties at the hands of His creatures. After they had done their worst to Him, the Lord Jesus ‘bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed’, 1 Pet. 2. 24.

The Lord’s instruction to love one’s enemies is entirely con­sistent with the Father’s everyday providential dealings with mankind - ‘for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust’, Matt. 5. 45. Irrespective of moral fitness, God cares for humans by means of the natural processes of the world. He is a God who loves man and cares for his needs. Furthermore, He specializes in changing His enemies into allies through the work of Christ. The conver­sion of the blaspheming, haughty Pharisee, Saul, into the grace-loving apostle to the gentiles, Paul, is perhaps the most notable example of this activity. As he put it, ‘for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting’, 1 Tim. 1. 16.