Love Your Enemies
Luke's gospel, Chapter 6, presents
what at first glance appears to be a shortened version of the Sermon on the
Mount. However there are a number of differences in content, not merely in the
length of the message. The Sermon on the Mount is so familiar to many people it
is easy to overlook the truly radical message of the original. * At any rate,
one of our recent Sunday morning Forum classes was extra lively when we got to
the part of Luke Chapter 6 where our Lord says,
"But I say to you who hear: Love
your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and
pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek,
offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold
your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes
away your goods do not ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you,
you also do to them likewise.
"But if you love those who love
you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And
if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For
even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to
receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to
receive as much back.
"But love your enemies, do good,
and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you
will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.
Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
"Judge not, and you shall not be
judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be
forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken
together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same
measure that you use, it will be measured back to you." (Luke 6:27-38)
"Everyone"
knows that Jesus advocated loving one's enemies. Putting this command into practice is, apparently, widely
passed over and quickly forgotten by many of us Christians. At least I am
speaking for myself.
Perhaps for the first
time in decades I realized in studying Luke Chapter 6 that I had never
seriously stopped to consider my responsibility to actually do something more
than ignore my
enemies.
There is more indictment
in the words of Jesus in his remarks about our enemies than I had
imagined. In Greek there are
several words for love. Storge is affection, which as C.S. Lewis points
out in The Four Loves, is something we might feel towards a favorite pair of old
slippers. Not very discriminating, not very demanding, just something that is
just there. Eros is romantic love, which shows up with or
without the strong sexual element we ordinarily associate with the word. Philia is friendship (brotherly affection). Philia involves loving and being loved as
brothers and sisters usually do, and it is a Biblical word for our "tender
love the brethren"--for our fellow believers.
But the word Jesus used
here in regard to loving one's enemies is agapao. This is a quality of love elevated well
above all the natural loves of this world.
Studying Luke this time
around, I stopped to think through a bit what Jesus is asking of us. My first
reaction is that the Lord's requirement of me to love my enemies is ridiculous.
I am not in the least interested in loving someone who dislikes or even hates
me. So, I'll ignore this part of the Bible altogether, as I have in fact been
doing a lot of the time. Perhaps His command will be rescinded in due time? Too
demanding, too unrealistic I thought.
There is more to this. In
meditating further on this passage, I first asked myself if I might be willing
to be made willing to
love an enemy solely on the basis of God's command that I do so? God often asks
us to do things we don't want to do! I decided I could work this out with the Lord in prayer in
a specific situation and come to the point where I might--with some
hesitancy--be willing to love a not-too-threatening enemy. Experience has
taught me that the tough choices of self-denial--dying to self--which Jesus
asks of each of us--always leave us in a better place in the long run.
Next, I decided the
second problem I have to face is that I am not equipped by birth, or
upbringing, or education, with a generous reservoir of agape love in my own heart. The love I need
with which to love an enemy--let alone a friend or fellow believer, originates
with God and is not native to my heart or emotions. If God wants to love one of
my enemies through me, that at least appears theoretically possible--as long as
the love needed comes from Him.
But what I know about God
for certain is that He only desires to have my permission so He can love and
help people through me. I don't have what it takes--that is not expected of me.
Instead, "Éwe have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing
greatness of the power might be of God and not from ourselves." (2 Corinthians 4:7)
My third problem is how
do I
express agape love to this enemy once I am at the point of being willing? Agape
is gift-love (again C.S. Lewis, see his excellent book The Four Loves). Agape seeks the best long-term
interests of the beloved regardless of the cost to the giver. Agape asks for
nothing in return. It is costly, self-sacrificing love which very often
requires a dying to self in the one who agrees to be the agent of Agape.
Where is the world does
one see Agape in today's neo-pagan culture? As far as I can tell Agape is
nearly extinct most everywhere I look.
Jesus immediately tells
us in Luke 6 why we
are to love our enemies. God is in the process of making us like himself
("conforming us to the image of His Son"). God loves His enemies! God
is kind to everyone. He is full of mercy.
"What is the reason for this Christian conduct?
The reason is that it makes us like God, for that is the way he acts. God sends
his rain on the just and the unjust. He is kind to the man who brings him joy
and equally kind to the man who grieves his heart. God's love embraces saint
and sinner alike. It is that love we must copy; if we, too, seek even our
enemy's highest good we will in truth be the children of God." (William
Barclay)
In reality Jesus is the
most hated and most-ignored man who ever lived. He still loves His enemies, He
forgave those who beat him to a pulp and nailed him to a cross where He died.
"For God so loved (agapao) the worldÉ"
God is also Just. When we
are wronged our immediate natural tendency is to lash out in retaliation, to
fix the wrong done to us, to get even (and then some). Jesus again asks the
impossible of us--He said that we are to leave all matters of judgment to Him
when we are wrong or right. We will usually wait a lot longer, but God will be
far more fair and even-handed than we ever could be.
Putting the pieces
together, it does make sense for us to dare to love our enemies and to leave
matters of interpersonal justice and vindication to Jesus. All of us were once
enemies of God! Where would we be if God treated us the way we treat
others?
"For
when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. For scarcely for a
righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare
to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were
still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by
His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were
enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more,
having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." (Romans 5:6-10)
There is a popular Sunday
school chorus that comes to mind,
We are one in the
Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the
Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that
our unity will one day be restored
And they'll know
we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yeah they'll know
we are Christians by our love
We will work with
each other, we will work side by side
We will work with
each other, we will work side by side
And we'll guard
each man's dignity and save each man's pride
And they'll know
we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yeah, they'll
know we are Christians by our love.
(http://my.homewithgod.com/heavenlymidis2/onespirit.html)
This chorus doesn't seem to make sense
to me anymore. Does it mean non-Christians will be impressed when they see the
followers of Jesus showing love for one another? Probably not. If there is any
truth to the words of the chorus what matters in our loveless world is more
likely to be the obedience of God's people to love those who are on the
outside: angry, bitter, cynical, raging against God, losers, drunks and
cheats.
Who are the enemies I am supposed to
love? I have personal enemies to be sure--they usually don't bother me often.
But in the broader sense I am in that tiny minority of followers of Jesus in
modern American society. I am surrounded by the enemies of Jesus--by those who quietly or openly oppose and resist
Him, who insult His name and reputation, who openly offend all the values He
represents.
I think we Christians have allowed
ourselves to be marginalized almost out of existence in recent decades. What we
stand for is considered by the immoral majority to be totally irrelevant. We
have been comfortable in our gated-community cultural ghettos quietly allowing
our enemies to go to hell--or even helping them on that chosen path. Do I want
any of them to be saved? Probably not. In our failure to vigorously engage our
culture in radical and confrontational ways--by seriously loving the enemies of
God around us on every side--are we not ignoring the commandment of Jesus to
love our enemies?
Reading a bit further along in Luke 6,
Jesus said,
"But
why do you call Me ÔLord, Lord,Õ and do not do the things which I say?"
(6:46)
Did Jesus have our
generation of Christians in mind I wonder? Probably He did.
* Don't miss the opening verses of
this same message by Jesus, Luke 6:20-26. They promise nothing short of a total
End of the World's Values
as William Barclay brings out in his commentary, (http://ldolphin.org/endvalues.html).
News:
I
appreciate the privilege and opportunity given me to teach through Luke's
gospel in the Forum Class at my home church, PBC of Palo Alto, through June. Weekly
Mp3 files are on my web site, and Podcast as well. [http://ldolphin.org/luke/]. Our Wednesday
Brothers of Thunder home group led by Anil Myline is moving through Jeremiah
two to three chapters per week. We are nearing the end of Jeremiah now and planning
next to study The Four Loves by CSL in some depth next, should the Lord
tarry. My Saturday class at San Jose State University is continuing in the Book
of the Revelation. I spend a lot of time one-on-one with friends who drop by
the house, a privilege I value at the top of the list.
Contributions: Friends who want to
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Living
in the San Francisco Bay Area is high-stressville for all of us these days.
Your prayers are greatly valued. In recent weeks most of my Christian friends tell
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Contacts: I answer my own email
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is a splendid team of men and women in the Paraclete Forum, http://paracleteforum.org. Feel free to write us
at inquiry @ paracl eteforum .org (remove spaces). The Paraclete Forum also
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studying the Bible I always recommend Blue Letter Bible, http://blueletterbible.org/
Lambert Dolphin
lambert@ldolphin.org
http://ldolphin.org/