Articles
Righteously Loving Our Enemies
In Jesus’ sermon on the mount, amongst many other things, He told His listeners, “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” (Matthew 5:43-44). Hearing this from anyone would have baffled the Jewish audience of the day. The Israelites grew up listening to stories of mighty men like Samson, David, and Gideon, who slaughtered Israel’s enemies. Hearing these words come from their Messiah, however, the man whom they expected would rebuild their temple, and rule as their king above all nations would have been unimaginable. They are being told by God to love and pray for them, and as His children in modern times, so are we.
Looking at the Old Testament, the prophet Daniel is an example we don’t often think of when it comes to righteously loving our enemies. Daniel 1:1-7 explains that Daniel and three of his fellow Israelites were taken from their homes in Judah to serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. As captives, they had their names changed and were forced to assimilate into this foreign and unrighteous culture. Satan would have tried to convince Daniel and his brethren that the way to survive captivity would be to fight back by taking up arms or to just give up his faith and conform. Instead, Daniel chose to love his enemies by shining His light and focusing on God’s will.
When Daniel was told to eat meat and wine sacrificed to other gods, he asked the eunuch in charge of his food to let him eat vegetables. The eunuch was scared to make this request to the king, so Daniel had compassion and said to have his health be tested for ten days on the vegetables to please the king (Daniel 1:8-16). Later on, Daniel had to interpret King Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams and the vision he had. Daniel used this opportunity, not to seek his own retribution and justice on the king of his captors but to do God’s work (Daniel 2,4). King Nebuchadnezzar chose to be prideful and ignore God’s greatness in his life. As a result, God turned him into a grass-eating animal, but that does not reflect poorly on Daniel because it was the king’s personal choice. (Daniel 4:28-37)
Darius eventually became king of Babylon and during his reign, Daniel’s unrighteous peers manipulated a situation to have Daniel thrown in the lion’s den. Daniel might have been annoyed or even scared to have to face such a trial. He could have reacted with unrighteous anger toward his enemies. Yet, he spent his time praying to God before he spent his night with the lions. The Bible could have told us that Daniel demanded retribution on his enemies after leaving the den. Instead, Daniel’s continuous actions led another unrighteous king of Babylon to praise God (Daniel 6:25-27).
Jesus is the perfect example of righteously loving your enemies. We should all be trying to conduct ourselves in a manner like His. In Matthew 21:12-17, Jesus loves His enemies through righteous discipline and anger by cleansing the temple. In a last attempt to wake up the Pharisees to their sins, Jesus calls them out on their self-made religion in Matthew 23. Even when dying on the cross, Jesus never stopped to love the enemies who put them there: us. Luke 23:34 says, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He died a horrible death so that we could be redeemed of our sins and live an eternally blessed life with God. Romans 12:17-21 reads, “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ To the contrary, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” As children of God, we should act according to these verses because this is exactly what Christ did for us.
