One of the most uncomfortable verses in the Bible is Matthew 5:44 where Jesus says “Love your enemies.” If we are totally honest, we either wish it didn’t exist or we work hard to convince ourselves that Jesus couldn’t really have meant what he very clearly said.
But there are no qualifications, and that’s why it is so uncomfortable. It doesn’t say “love your enemies once they stop acting stupid” or “love your enemies when they apologize.” It doesn’t offer gradations of enemy so we can love the lesser ones but still harbor bitterness toward the really bad ones. It just says “love your enemies,” period. And that is hard. To love our enemies is to go against our very nature. This command is about as possible as making yourself taller or changing your gene pool. So this is impossible . . . outside of God’s transforming work through Christ.
“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
God loved us to the degree that he sent his beloved Son to die for us even while we were yet sinners, or rather enemies. Christ called us friends even as he prepared to give his life. Because of this great love we are no longer enemies, but children of God. That is the power of his love for His enemies, and he has shared it with us.
We struggle to believe we could love our enemies at all, because we look into our own hearts for the capacity and desire. But when we look to Christ we see that He has given us enough to not only love them, but to love to such a degree that they too may become children of God. The love of God in Christ is not just for comfort and healing (though it is that). It is a miraculous, transforming power in us and through us.
I originally wrote this post for my church, Immanuel Nashville, in our Daily Pulse email. If you want encouragement from God’s word delivered Monday thru Friday to your inbox, I encourage you to subscribe.
