“Here comes Jesus with this pesky admonition to love our enemies, but if you are a follower of Jesus you don’t have a choice. ”
Love my enemies?! Really, Jesus. Couldn’t you have left that one out? It’s hard enough to love the people I like — can I get an “Amen!” I’m not certain if I’ve experienced a year when the difficulty of loving others was more pronounced than in the pandemic- filled year of 2020 — how about you? 2020 was full of disagreements — stay-at-home orders, masks or no masks, a divisive political cycle, extreme civil and racial unrest, etc. — it was almost too much to handle, and those disagreements still exist. Maybe more so than ever it’s easy to identify those whom we consider to be our enemy.
With all that in mind, here comes Jesus with this pesky admonition to love our enemies. “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you. (Matthew 5:43-44 NLT).” This is a declaration of Jesus. Meaning, if you are a follower of Jesus you don’t have a choice but to try to love those you consider your enemies; no matter how you feel about them. Jesus goes on to say that loving only those who love you is common to all people, even the despised tax collector. But, we who follow Jesus are to be different as we live out the faith modeled by Jesus.
What Jesus is saying is that the love of neighbor and enemy alike should characterize the disciples of Christ. The reason God calls us to this kind of love is because of the way he has loved us. One author I read this week wrote, “We often forget what our lives were like before God saved us... Paul described our condition before Christ as outsiders.” In Ephesians 2 Paul wrote that we (gentiles) were separated from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, not part of the original covenant promise, we were without hope and without God (Ephesians 2:11-12).
Wow, that’s a fun description of our condition. In effect were enemies to God. Yet, God sought to welcome us back. His perfect love has cast out fear, turned strangers into sons, and the distanced into daughters through Jesus. “Wow, well, okay Pastor Kyle, when you put it like that.” Exactly. What Jesus did for us was incredible — and it calls us to a different way of living.
Jesus was able to model something our culture desperately needs — spaces of welcome where strangers, enemies, outsiders, and others can become our friends. Did you know we are part of one of those spaces? A ‘pocket of love’ in the midst of our neighborhood — it’s called the church. The church is to exist not as a haven from the world but as a place of hope for the world. Can we partner together to love those around us? Even the ones we consider our enemies? This week as you think about this, come up with a few different ways you can practice love especially to those around you who might be a bit difficult. The good news is that Jesus has already shown us the way.
Resources: