Will I Pass the Test of Loving My Enemies?

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:43-48

Mahatma Gandhi studied Christianity in England but never became a Christian because he claimed Christianity didn’t seem to work for Christians. Although he wasn’t impressed by the Christians he met, he was very impressed with Jesus, especially His teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. Gandhi tried to incorporate Jesus’ wisdom into his own life. At one point in the movie Gandhi (1982), civil war breaks out between Pakistan and India. The war stems from divisions between the Muslims of Pakistan and the Hindus of India. Gandhi lies on a cot after weeks of fasting in protest to this war. A distraught Hindu man approaches him. His only son, still a little boy, has been shot and killed in the conflict. His heart is full of sadness, bitterness, and revenge. Gandhi can barely speak, but tells the man how to heal his own heart. “Find a little Muslim boy whose father has been killed. Take that boy as your son, and raise him as a Muslim.” The distraught man walks away completely confused and disappointed. Apparently he thought the weeks of fasting had weakened Gandhi’s ability to reason. It made no sense to him whatsoever.

The Jews were dead wrong in Jesus’ day. And Jesus is presenting to them a new teaching. He presents them the truth about love.

What Jesus was telling to the Pharisees is very much applicable to us today. Jesus was saying something that they didn’t do. All those who have injured us physically or emotionally or mentally we hang a token of that injury around us wearing it around our neck so that we will remember every time we have been wronged, and none is ever removed until full retaliation is gained. That was the Pharisees way. And that sure is our way. But that’s not God’s way. 

One of the most common obstacles the devil uses to block the pathway of love is the hurt that comes when other people mistreat us. He’ll tempt us to keep an account of those suffered wrongs. He’ll pressure us to become bitter, resentful and unforgiving. But when he does, we must tell him no. We must choose to drop our offenses, forgive everyone who has harmed us and let bitterness go.

Jesus tells us that the test of Christian character is not how we treat our friends but on the contrary how we treat our enemies. Today we don’t even love our neighbours. Just like the Pharisees we too don’t know who our neighbours are.

Jesus turned the tables. Through the story of the Good Samaritan Jesus asked the Pharisees and is asking us, “Are you a neighbor?” Because if you are a neighbor, then anybody in your path is going to get your neighbourly love.

What Jesus is saying is that love is an act of service to one in need and not necessarily an emotion. And so he says, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you and do good to them that hate you. That’s the practical outworking of it. It is not so much the feeling.

It’s quite natural for us to say, “the people who mistreated me did something very wrong. I’ve been miserable for years because of them. Why should I just drop my resentment and let them go free?”

We should do it, first of all because Jesus did that for us. Even before we repented and asked Him to be our Savior, Jesus went to the cross and shed His own blood, so we wouldn’t have to pay the penalty for our own sin. Even though we were guilty, He dropped the charges against us so we could go free. That alone is reason enough for us to forgive others.

You may have an enemy and in your heart, you know there is no great human affection. You know there will be never a great friendship and you will never accept him as a person in your family. To such a person Jesus says with your mouth you will have to bless him with what you say and with your life, bless him in what you do. This is love of action and not love of emotion. Paul too when he tells about love in 1 Corinthians 13 he says that love has only qualities of action. Love is not emotions as it is seen today but love is action.

If Gandhi could seek to live out the Sermon on the Mount the way he did, how much more should we as a believer in Jesus Christ?

This Lenten season can we through prayer and forgiveness in our hearts repay injury with blessing and hate with love?