Why Love Your Enemies?

Is It Obvious?

As we come off of a week where we discussed the different kinds of love and why these different types are important, it’s time to address one of the most known commands in scripture about love. This command of course comes from Jesus Himself in Matthew 5:43-45 “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 causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Now what exactly is the point of all of this? It seems pretty common that we love our enemies to show Christ to them but is that it? Is there more to loving our enemies that affects not just them but also us? What about others? This is where the power of love is really seen. As Dr. Steve Lawson tells us, “Subtract love from any spiritual pursuit, and it adds up to nothing. Multiply anything without love, and it equals nothing. Bottom line, giftedness without selfless love amounts to nothing.” To pursue any spiritual gift that our Father commands us to pursue, we must love as Christ has shown us. Not just our neighbors, not just our enemies, but everyone that God has placed around us. With that being said, let’s look at these impacts. 

Christ Revealed

To start, let’s see how loving your enemies affects them. I think it’s pretty clear that when we love those who don’t like us or get along with us, they definitely take notice. At first, many people whom we don’t get along with will think that this love will just be fake or a one-time thing, however, when we love our enemies consistently, this is when they start to realize that something is different about how we live our lives. Look at what Jesus tells Peter when he asks this crucial question. Matthew 18:21-22 “21 Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus *said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” If we are to forgive our brothers this often, how much of an impact would it have on our enemies if we forgave them and loved them this often? The answer to this is pretty self-explanatory. When we take the true definition of love and apply it to those who don’t respect and kindly treat us, wearing the label of ‘Christian’ gives Jesus all the glory. Not only does this show others the love of Christ, but it leads to great witnessing and evangelizing opportunities. Showing others the love and respect of Jesus, especially when they don’t follow Him, is a great way to teach the gospel to someone who has never responded to it. Never underestimate the power that loving an enemy can have in leading them to Christ! 

Effects On Us & Others

Furthermore, there’s the effect that loving our enemies has on us. When we love those who don’t love us in return, we show that glorifying God is our heart’s goal and priority. As Dr. John Piper says, “The hearts of Christians are satisfied with God and are not driven by the craving for revenge or self-exaltation or money or earthly security.” When we love our enemies, we show that the Holy Spirit is still active in us by changing our hearts to honor and glorify God rather than seeking revenge on someone and pursuing our own desires. This is why loving our enemies is not just evidence of Christ to an unbeliever, but it is an assurance of the Holy Spirit’s guiding of a current believer as well. This is why Paul tells us in Galatians 2:20 “20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” When we are truly crucified with Christ and it is Him that is alive in us, it is made evident by how we love our enemies. This love that we have does not just show us how we can witness to the lost and change their heart and minds, but it confirms that the power of God and His gospel is alive and active in our hearts. I think I speak for everyone when I say that the only reason we love our enemies, is because God has sofened our hearts to do so. All too often our human desire is to seek revenge and not care at all about who we offend or how loving we may seem. Thank God that when we love our enemies, we don’t just show them more of Christ, but we reveal the Spirit’s workings in our own lives. 

Furthermore, on top of all this is the amount of people who observe the love we show towards our enemies as well. This is something I like to call ‘second-hand witnessing’. I know it sounds cheesy, but just like second-hand smoking never requires the person to have smoked a cigarette, sometimes loving your enemies impacts those around us, even when they aren’t the ones that we are directly showing love to at that moment. This is what makes John 13:35 so powerful. Jesus says, “35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” When we love our enemies, it’s not just the person we’re loving that is affected, but ‘all men’. Loving those who don’t love us is bigger than we even realize most of the time. We have the amazing opportunity to show Christ to these people, we have the great privilege of seeing the Holy Spirit work through us, and we can live knowing that God can sovereignly use any situation of us loving others to impact those around us. I thank God that every day He surrounds me with people to whom I can reveal His love, and that He can receive all the glory in more ways than I can even count. And I hope and pray that this week, you can do the same. 

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Sources

[1] “Access Your Bible from Anywhere.” BibleGateway.Com: A Searchable Online Bible in over 150 Versions and 50 Languages., www.biblegateway.com/. Accessed 2023.

[2] Love’s Significance by Steven Lawson. (n.d.). Ligonier Ministries. https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/loves-significance

[3] Why we should love our enemies. (2023, October 31). Desiring God. https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/why-we-should-love-our-enemies