Saturday, March 5

Love your enemies

Scripture: Numbers 9-10, Matthew 5

Matthew 5:43–48  “You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Observation

Jesus’ words are so challenging!  He calls us to a higher standard.  It was said that you should love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but Jesus said that we should love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

It is important to remember that Jesus is commanding action not emotion.  He is not telling us to feel something good for our enemy, but to do something good.  Love is doing what is best for another no matter what it costs you.  And the cost is particularly high when it’s an enemy.  Love is doing—that is even more clear in Luke’s version of this saying.

Luke 6:27–28 “But I say to you who listen: Love your enemies, do what is good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

Love, do good, bless, pray.  These are the things we do for an enemy.

Application

This jumped out at me in light of the current events in the Ukraine.  What does it look like to love an enemy who is doing harm, killing innocents, and threatening the world with war—someone who needs to be stopped?  Do we stop them, as we did with Germany and Japan in WW2, and then do good (rebuild them)?

Do we apply this differently on a global scale than an individual one?  It seems to me that we do for this reason: the common good.  When one individual threatens many, the welfare of the many supersedes the one.  We must defend the innocent; we must work for justice and peace.

This is clear: we start (but don’t stop) with prayer.  

Prayer: Lord, please end the conflict the Ukraine now.  Please let peace and justice prevail—not peace without justice, or justice without peace—both.