Matthew 5:43-48 (The Sermon on the Mount, Part VII)

Love for Enemies
Chapter 5 wraps up with Christ's message about loving one's enemies. Again, what good is being legally tied to the law, but not having it live in your heart? Christ says to not only love your friends and family, but to love your enemies. (v 44). The law says to Love your neighbor, but hate your enemy (v 43) but how easy is that? Loving those who love you is easy. (v 46-47) Praying and blessing those who hate you and persecute is far more difficult. However, we are not God. He sends the rain and sun on both good and evil. (v 45)God is the one who repays man’s evil and he is the judge. So all we are to do is pray and bless our enemy and let God judge and punish him. Looking at this passage, I think of who my enemies are. I am so fortunate to live in a land and society where I feel that all are my friends, all are my neighbors. Sure there are people whose personal habits (especially on the road) I find irksome. But do I hate them? Are they an enemy? Most definitely not! The only group I can remotely attribute being an enemy are the Islamic Fundamentalists. But here is why they hate us. We worship a God who says to pray for an enemy and to bless them. Their “god” says to kill and destroy to earn salvation. My God says to love because He loved me first. So, as weird as this may sound, I pray for and bless the terrorists. Not that they may succeed in their nefarious deeds, but that they may hear the call of a loving God through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. By doing this, by loving, praying and blessing those who would be last in our minds, we leave little room in our hearts for sin. I think praying for enemies ties directly to Christ’s command of being perfect, as God is perfect. (v 48) This is one of the hardest verses in the Bible for me. Here is my God, incarnate, he who died for me, commanding me to be perfect. I know that I am sinful however, and it hurts to know that I always fall short of this command. I am glad though, because of Christ’s perfect life and death on the cross that I too have the forgiveness of sins and His perfection given to me by grace.