Discipleship Episode 3, Love Your Enemy Part 1

 

⁴⁴ “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you…” Matthew 5:44 King James Version

               “Well, I have real enemies, and they are real people,” said my angry co-worker. Rant completed, he wheeled around and stalked off, bringing our conversation to a quick close.

               At that time, I was teaching at a parochial school, and had been asked to give a devotional talk prior to the commencement of the day’s activities during professional development at the beginning of the school year. Choosing Ephesians 6:12, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places,” English Standard Version as my text, I had spoken about our enemies not being the rebellious students, unsupportive parents, or even political parties; but instead being unseen spiritual dark forces that sought to drag us down. My friend, and I still count them as my friend, had vehemently disagreed with me. He believed, and probably still does, that our enemies are indeed flesh and blood. His feelings are not unusual among American Christians.

               In the context of our current socio-political culture, we consider those who disagree with us as our enemies. We throw around words like, enemy, hatred, and civil war, with a recklessness that astonishes me. I even hear people on the right and left talking about a dissolution of our republic as if it were inevitable and even desirable. As a soldier, I fought in Iraq. I know what an enemy is. There have been numerous men and women who’ve sought to end my earthly existence many times. I know what an enemy looks like. I’ve seen them lying dead in the street and rejoiced that it was not me. Those in my country who disagree with me socially, politically, and religiously are not my enemy. They do not rise to that level. We may disagree, even deeply, about certain things; but, they do not rate the label enemy. But that is not really the point of this essay. Those who disagree with me are not my enemy. Those who seek to take my life are not my enemy. Scripture points me in a different direction.

               According to Paul, my enemy is not flesh and blood. For the most part in Iraq, my enemy did not know me, and I did not know them. We exchanged hostile fire anonymously. They rocketed, shot at, and IED’d me without seeing or knowing me. I returned fire sometimes without seeing them. Paul, on the other hand, faced men and women who knew him personally and sought to take his life through a variety of means. Yet despite that deep personal antagonism, he understood that they were not his enemy. His enemy, my enemy, our enemy is not flesh and blood. We fight against unseen forces. Forces arrayed in the spiritual realm. Our understanding and accepting of this reorients the dynamic of our relationship with the world around us.

               Our current culture embraces the shallow idea of viewing everything as a binary choice: A or B, black or white, enemy or friend. We like simple solutions. They make our lives easier. We do not have to think much. They enable us to consign wide swathes of our culture into the category of enemy or untouchable. When we label someone as an enemy, we shape, or limit, how we interact with them. An enemy is someone to be taken out or destroyed. We do not engage with or help our enemies. We do our best to remove them from our environment. Yet, God has some interesting things to say about how we view those we label our enemies.

¹⁷ Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, ¹⁸ lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him. Proverbs 24:17-18 English Standard Version

As I mentioned before, I have seen my enemy lying dead in the street and rejoiced; yet, in doing so, I displeased the Lord. Rejoicing when your opponent fails is a human reaction. God calls me to a different way of thinking.

³⁵ But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. ³⁶ Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Luke 6:35-36

Jesus recognizes the human struggle with passions; after all, He was a passionate man. We think of certain folks as our enemies. Understanding that, He calls us to love and care for our enemies, knowing that they will most likely respond with ill treatment towards us. In verse thirty-six Jesus reminds me that God loved me first. He loved me when I was His enemy. He cared for me when I despised Him. So, God calls us to remember our own spiritual poverty and treat others differently. Paul reminds us of this in this particularly pertinent passage.

¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Romans 5:10

When I was still and enemy, God reached out to me through Jesus. God does not paper over human relations fraught with anger, hurt, betrayal, and animosity. He fully understands that I struggle to get along with my fellow humans, even recognizing that I consider some of them enemies. But He reminds me that He took the first step. He reached out to save me even when my fist was raised in utter rebellion. If God could love me then, perhaps I can treat my “enemies” with a little more grace and patience, just maybe not count them as enemies. After all, the true enemies are the dark spiritual powers seeking to destroy us. When I stop thinking of people, groups or individuals, as my enemy doors, once slammed shut, start to open and constructive dialogue begins. When I try and do good to my “enemies” my witness becomes real and not mere platitudes. And while this goes against everything I feel and everything my culture teaches me, it is an integral part of the new man that God is constructing.

Thought Questions:

1.      Who would you say are your enemies?

2.     Why would you count them as your enemies?

3.     When was the last time you had any interaction with them and how did it go?

4.     What could you do to show them love?

5.     How do you think they would react to a display of love from you?