But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…
The words of Jesus serve as a continual challenge to our beliefs and compulsions. The instruction to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us draws us out of the commonplace. It is common to hate enemies and to curse persecutors. To be silent about the hate in our hearts and the curses in our minds may require some level of maturity and character, but Jesus, always caring more about the heart at the root of action, commands something more in loving and praying for those against us.
The difficulty of loving enemies and praying for persecutors seems to stem in part from the injustice it seems to allow. It’s common to have this thought of rebuttal: “but what they are doing is wrong! Who will stand up for me if I do not stand up for myself?!”
The difficulty of loving enemies and praying for persecutors may also stem from the potential of this command. Often times loving those who hate you and praying for those who persecute you is so against the flow of the prevailing culture that it may itself incite further persecution and hatred.*
Jesus, like many of His followers over the generations, lived this way, and it ended in death. God does not provide us all the opportunity to die a martyr’s death, but living for Him as He prescribes does require things inside of us to die.
Our drive to protect ourselves must die. Our demand for our own view of justice must die. Our natural response to those who treat us wrongly must die.
This posture does not accept or condone abuse, injustice, and evil, but it does extend love first and foremost in a way that gives God opportunity to lead our response to our enemies and our persecutors.*
This command might be too much for us to walk out. God knows this. He calls us to a place that we cannot get to or achieve on our own. It requires that we lean on Him and allow His Spirit to empower us to do the things that He calls us to do but that we cannot do on our own.
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to trust Him for justice. Perhaps God wants you to release your enemies and persecutors to Him so that He can have His way in their lives and in your life as well. Maybe God wants you to stop trying to obey His commands long enough for Him to give you the strength to actually do them. Perhaps God wants something inside of you to die so that He can bring resurrecting life into your soul.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.
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*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 129-134, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 5:43-48) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).