Love Your Enemies
But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. (Matthew 5:44–47)
Love has been called the most effective motivational force in all the world. When love is at work in us, it is remarkable how giving and forgiving, understanding and tolerant we can be. It is easy to assume that power is always at work within us, but it’s not. It is there, ready to be put to use, but it gets blocked.
Since this has always been true, the first-century scribes and Pharisees developed a “saying.” Sort of a slogan that was commonly repeated among the Jews. It sounded like one of Moses’ commandments, but it was a distortion instead. Jesus quoted it here: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy,’” (Matthew 5:43 NASB). The first half of that saying did appear in the Law (Leviticus 19:18), but the latter half was a pharisaical addendum. Now, those Pharisees knew better. They knew that Proverbs 25:21 (NASB) was in the Book:
If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;
And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
It may help to simplify Jesus’ revolutionary counsel by observing what He does not say. “Love the way your enemies live.” No, He does not say that. How about, “Love their methods . . . defend their ways”? Again, no. None of that appears in His statement. We are talking about people, eternal souls, spiritually blind men and women who know nothing of Christ’s power.
True love possesses the ability to see beyond. In that sense we might say that love has x-ray vision. It goes beyond mere words. It sees beneath the veneer. Love focuses on the soul. Love sees another’s soul in great need of help and sets compassion to work.
I think of the late Corrie ten Boom and her response to the Nazi guards who had brutalized her sister. She was able to forgive them. She refused to live the rest of her life brimming with resentment and bitterness. True love sees beyond the treatment that it endures. True love doesn’t need agreement to proceed. True love goes on against all odds. That is why Jesus simply says, “Love them.”
Taken from Simple Faith by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 1991, 2003 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com
