43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 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. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." -Matthew 5:43-48 ESV
I've been staring at this verse all week, and not out of Christian piety, I'm supposed to teach a bunch of high schoolers today about the meaning behind this verse. So I've stared. And stared.
I get what Jesus is saying in theory, love your enemy. God loves people who are awful to Him. Jesus loved those, who sat in His face and beat Him and tied Him to a cross. It's the practical aspect that I have been pondering on all week.
Jesus didn't say this because He had to or because He's Jesus or because He's hoping we'll just finally figure it out. He gives us all of the answers to our questions about this challenging statement: "Love your enemies."
HOW do I love my enemies?
I wondered this just today. In my journal I asked God how I show love this person who is furious with me. I went back to the text.
"...and pray for those who persecute you."
So I prayed. And I tried not to pray the prayer that I taught my high schoolers one year at summer camp, that when they started complaining about someone that they should immediately pray for the situation because those prayers sometimes sounded like, "God, help that girl who is wearing too short of shorts because I'm not allowed to wear short shorts because I don't want to make it harder on the guys here so God help them to understand that!" Yeah...not the goal.
I did pray. I prayed for eyes to see that person like God sees them. For God to be in the midst of the situation. For my thoughts and words and actions to reflect love towards them.
But I see the question a lot of people would ask if they were honest with themselves and with God.
WHY love my enemies?
God has more time and patience than a busy mother who at times can and need only say, "Because I said so, now do it!" God answers our question in this text.
"...so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven."
It is not a condition to love your enemies in order to be a child of God. You ARE a child of God if you confess Jesus as Lord and believe He rose from the dead for your sins. That said, you are child of God whether you act like it or not. So are you? Are you going to act like a child of God? Because a child typically acts like their parent, and Jesus in the midst of being crucified, with men casting lots for his clothes PRAYED "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).
Loving our enemies is proof of our relationship with Him. Because guess what? You can't forgive your enemies without God, so you definitely can't love them without God's indwelling presence in you and influence on you!
So how does our Father act?
"...For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."
I always read this like sun was good and rain was bad. So I'd read it like, "God let's good things happen to the evil and the good and he let's bad things happen to the just and the unjust."
But I was reading an article about this passage and Matthew and it made the point that sun and rain were both necessary in biblical days in order to yield crops and to prosper. So here instead of saying God gives good to good and bad and bad to just and unjust I'm persuaded to think it's showing that God's love is unconditional. It's one-sided. It's non-reciprocal. He loves regardless. That is the model we are being created to replicate.
Can't I just love the people that love me?
"...And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?"
Did Jesus skip over people when He dealt with crowds? Did he ignore blind beggars or shoo away lame men that are dropped through the ceiling? No, He took time loving, teaching, healing, and correcting everyone because of his unconditional love.
It's not hard to greet someone who you know is going to greet you back, or at least return your smile or your gaze. What about the ones that you know will more than likely give you a harsh look? Are you called to ignore them? To endure them? No, you're called to love them.
Why?
"... You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
That's why.
Now realize that on your own you can't be perfect. This statement is supposed to freak you out. You're not supposed to look at your monitor say, "Eh! I can do that!" Because no, you can't.
This statement is supposed to make you realize your dependency on God. You can't attain perfection without Him.
Now with Him, as His children fighting to act like His children, to be like Him, you are that much closer to perfection. But it's a constant humbling, refining process. And we need it. Especially when we're called to love those who hate us or who we have hard feelings towards. But all the same the statement remains.
Love Your Enemies.
Prayer: Lord God it is only with you that we can even near perfection, that it is even a possibility to love those who oppose us. God it is not in our nature to love our enemies, you know that, so direct us on Your path Lord to first forgive and also love our enemies. God change the way we view people that we have stereotyped. Lord redeem the judgments we've made against people, even people we think deserve our judgment. Humble us Lord and continue to show us how we can love like You do.
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