Love Your Enemies

Today’s topic is one of Jesus’ toughest commands, yet He gave us the greatest example of how to emulate it in our own lives. We are going to look at loving your neighbor. Before we get started, would you pray with me?

Thank You, God, for being the greatest example to us on how to live out the commands that You have given us. I pray that You help me to have an open heart and an open mind to understand what You are asking us to do and how to live it out in our everyday lives. You are good and we thank You for that. Amen.

Matthew 5:43-45 (NLT)
43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.”

If I’m being honest, this is one of the hardest topics to reflect on. We have talked before about how loving someone who loves you back is easy. Yet to love someone who has hurt us enough to be called “our enemy” seems impossible. Our humanity tells us that they aren’t deserving of our love and kindness because of what they have done to us, or what they continue to do to us. Yet as we have learned through our current sermon series, we were once enemies of God and yet He showed the greatest example of loving your enemy. Practically speaking, what does loving your enemy look like to you?

Loving our enemy means praying for them. It means to understand that they are human and they are going to make mistakes. It is realizing that everyone has a story, and we most likely do not know their full story. We don’t know what has happened to them to make them act the way that they do, or make the decisions that they make. We don’t know their heart, and we don’t know their true intentions. So what DO we know about someone who is considered our enemy?

We know that they were created by God and for a purpose, that they were not an accident. We know that Jesus died for them just like He died for us. He offers them the same grace and mercy that he has given to us. We know that He takes care of everyone, good or evil, just and unjust (verse 45). We should also know that He still has the power to work in their lives through us in how we treat them. Think about someone who you consider an “enemy”. How can you change the way you interact with them?

Loving your enemy means extending grace to them that they do not deserve simply because we received grace from Jesus that we did not deserve. As many things are in being a true disciple of Jesus, loving your enemies is easier said than done. Yet we have the Holy Spirit to help us navigate through this. Take some time to pray about those who you feel have hurt you enough to be called your enemy. Ask God to change your heart towards them so that you can show them the same grace that He has given us. Below are a few prompts to get you started if you need them.

God, this person really hurt me. Help me to start by forgiving them…

Jesus, thank You for loving me even when I was your enemy. Please help me to change my heart towards this person…

God, I don’t know how to love my enemy. Please help me…

I pray that today you are able to cling to Jesus and the love and grace that He has given you, so that you are able to give those same things to your enemies as you encounter them in your everyday life.