“Loving Our Enemies”

Rev. Philip Beisswenger

Thomas Jefferson, one of America’s founding fathers, was a genious in politics, but not so much in religion. Once he took a razor to the New Testament and removed all the miracles and supernatural references, including Christ’s resurrection. Jefferson kept the parts he liked, such as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which he called “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals that has ever been offered to humanity.” When Jefferson was done cutting out verses, he pasted together what was left, creating a “Bible” that was no more than Christ’s moral lessons.

The problem with “Jefferson’s Bible” is you can’t separate Christ’s morality from the rest of the Gospel. They go together intrinsically.

Take Christ’s teaching that we love our enemies, for example. Jesus, in Matthew 5:43-45 says: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”

From a human standpoint, this sounds unreasonable and impractical. Other religions teach about love, but I’m not aware of any, besides Christianity, that tell us to love our enemies.

Human logic tells us to punish and get rid of our enemies. God’s divine logic, however, would have us forgive our enemies and get rid of them by converting them into friends.

“Loving enemies” only makes sense when we recognize we’re guilty of sin, which means we’re God’s enemies. The Bible teaches: “If, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Romans 5:10)

According to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the reason Jesus tells us to love our enemies is that love holds within it a redemptive power that eventually transforms people.

Again, those who need to change include us. Author C.S. Lewis is credited with saying the following: “There is someone I love, even though I don’t approve of what he does. There is someone I accept, though some of his thoughts and actions revolt me. There is someone I forgive, though he hurts the people I love the most. That person is me. There are plenty of things I do that I don’t like, but if I can love myself without approving of all I do, I can also love others without approving of all they do. As that truth has been absorbed into my life, it has changed the way I view others.”

Jesus knew what it was like to have enemies. He was despised by the scribes and Pharisees, by Judas Iscariot, by the mob that demanded his crucifixion, by the soldiers that nailed him to a cross, and by Satan himself. They told lies about him, swore at him, whipped him, and humiliated him.

Did Jesus like these people? I doubt it. I doubt Jesus would’ve repeated Will Rogers’ boast , who that he never met a man he didn’t like. Even though he didn’t like his enemies, Jesus died for them, because he loved them.

Jesus doesn’t expect us to like our enemies. He commands us to do what he did and love them. Granted, loving enemies isn’t easy. It go against our feelings, our sense of justice, and our human instincts. Only with God’s power can we really do it. In Romans 5:5, we’re told, “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

God gives us more love than we need. He has an endless supply of it. “Let us love one another, for love comes from God,” says 1 John 4:7. God gives us so much of his love that we can love him back, and also love one another, and love our neighbors, and even love our enemies.