Grace Giving and Truth Telling - Pt. 4

 

[Jesus said] “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor 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. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-47 ESV).

 

This is the hardest command I know: Love my enemies (v. 44). Yet this truly is Jesus’ command for His followers. It gets to the heart of the gospel of Jesus. It shows that God’s love in Christ counters our naturally sinful and broken way of life. I must confess that there are some people I had trouble loving. Often I’ve justified that error by quipping, “Well, I love ‘em, but I don’t like ‘em.” Yea… Jesus makes no such distinction. Enemies are enemies and we are still called on to express our love and concern for them with the thought of God’s grace effecting a transformation between us.

 

After all, an enemy is, by definition, someone we hate. Christ overthrows this by replacing our natural hatred with his supernatural love. We cannot possess such love without Christ. I can’t; you can’t. On my own, I will keep on hating people who have hurt me, or whom I think are despicable. I do not have the capacity to love my enemies, but Christ does.

 

In Romans, Paul writes that “while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10). This verse is a short summary of salvation in Christ. We were once the ene­mies of God, but Christ reconciled us to God so that now we are friends. Christ reconciled an entire world-full of enemies to God. So he can surely handle the reconciliation needed between me and my enemies. But I will have to ask him for that super­natural love. Perhaps this might help you as you make it a part of your daily prayer:

 

O God, in my own strength I cannot forgive or love my enemies. Give me the love that Jesus showed by dying to pay for my sin when I was your enemy, and help me to reconcile with my enemies for Jesus’ sake. Amen.