“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those persecuting you, so that you may become children of your Father in the heavens. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those loving you, what reward do you have? Don't even the tax collectors do that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more abundantly than others? Don't even the foreigners do that? Therefore, you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. ~ JESUS (Matthew 5:43-48)
"Far from being the pious injunction of a utopian dreamer, this command is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. Yes, it is love that will save our world and our civilization, love even for enemies." ~ Martin Luther King Jr. (A Knock at Midnight)
[Before we begin, I want to stress again how grateful I am to those of you who have been walking with me through a difficult time in my life. Your kindness expressed in person and through notes of encouragement, along with financial aid, continue to be such a blessing. I am so glad we're family.]
SUMMARY: Read this and skip the rest (if you want)
In this final antitheses, Jesus lays down his overarching principle: we should freely give to others the love we have freely received from God.
This teaching on enemy-love is unique to Jesus in all ancient history.
Enemy-love is the Gospel: God has loved us even when we were his enemies, and he has made us his friends.
We should be God-like in loving but not in judging.
Judging others feels good, as though it brings us closer to God and God-likeness. This was the original sin of Adam and Eve.
We are called to be perfect in mercy, if not perfect in morality.
The world is waiting for a movement of people to love like God.
CORE
(The heart of the message)
God rains down his lavish love on all people indiscriminately and unconditionally. And God calls us to give what we receive.
CONTEXT
(What’s going on before and after this passage)
This is the last of the Six Antitheses and it sums up so much of Jesus' teaching and life.
Jesus has lifted up his hearers throughout the first chapter of this sermon. We began the Beatitudes as the "poor in spirit" and now we are invited to be perfectly God-like. We started in the valley, and now Jesus is taking us to the mountain top. We began with our deep need, and now Jesus is sending us out with a significant assignment.
As discussed in our last post, we are used to teachers today laying out a principle followed by examples. In this instance, Jesus reverses this order, giving some examples in our last antithesis and then laying out the overarching principle here in our final antithesis: indiscriminate lavish love.
God's love bestows a value that is unexpected, undeserved, indiscriminate, and unconditional, and we should be God-like in our love. (Every one of those descriptive adjectives is meaningful. Feel free to take time to ponder.)
Luke's parallel version of this teaching reverses the order, putting the principle of God-like love first, followed by examples:
But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. ~ JESUS (Luke 6:27-32)
Although the explicit teaching of enemy love is unique to Jesus, the idea of expressing care for enemies is not completely foreign to Judaism pre-Christ. Many Old Testament passages give us a glimpse of God's enemy-loving heart (e.g., Genesis 45; Exodus 22:21; 23:4-5, 9; Leviticus 19:10, 18, 33-34; Deuteronomy 1:16-17; 10:18-29; 27:19; 1 Samuel 24; 2 Kings 6:16-23; Job 31:29-30; Psalm 146:9; Proverbs 24:17-18, 29; 25:21-22; Jeremiah 29:7; 22:3; Ezekiel 47:22-23; Jonah 3:10-4:3; Zechariah 7:9-10; Malachi 3:5).
However the Hebrew Bible also has plenty of passages about God's retribution toward and desire to punish enemies (e.g., Exodus 12:29; Deuteronomy 7:2; 20:16; 23:3-7; 25:17-19; 30:7; Joshua 8; Judges 1; 21; Psalm 26:4-5; 137:7-9; 139:19-22), and instances of God or God's people engaging in enemy-hate as though it were a righteous act (Deuteronomy 23:3-6; 25:17-19; Psalm 26:5; 58; 109; 137:8-9; 139:21-22). In fact, the Hebrew Scriptures say plainly that God "hates" sinners (Psalm 5:4-6; 11:5-7; Proverbs 6:16-19).
The later mystical Jewish teacher Maimonides concluded that Jews should only love their good neighbours, but not bad neighbours because, as the Hebrew Scriptures teach: "To fear the Lord is to hate evil" (Proverbs 8:13). Maimonides even said that, while Jews should not actively try to kill Gentiles, it is forbidden to save a Gentile's life if that person is in danger, for instance, if they are being attacked or are drowning.
When the Lord your God has delivered the nations over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. ~ Moses (Deuteronomy 7:2)
All that to say, some misunderstanding on the topic of enemy love is understandable apart from Christ. The Old Testament is but a shadow of which Jesus is the substance (Colossians 2:16-17; Hebrews 10:1). For Jesus' Jewish audience, hating and not loving their enemies was how they hoped to be like God! But now Jesus, the reality that casts the shadow, is here to set the record straight. We are called to be God-like in our love, not in our judgement.
Later in Matthew's Gospel, a religious leader asks Jesus which of the 613 biblical commandments is the greatest (Matthew 22:34-40). Jesus responds by combining two commands: love God (the Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4-6) and love your neighbour as yourself (Leviticus 19:18). The early church picked up on this two-fold love command and, incorporating Jesus' "new command" to simply love others like Christ (John 13:34-35), they condensed it down to one - surprisingly, the second command only (Romans 13:8; 15:7; Galatians 5:14; James 2:8; 1 Peter 4:8; 1 John 3:16; 4:11, 19-21; etc).
"Shema" means to hear, to take to heart. The Shema of the Old Covenant is purely vertical: love God with your whole being. The Shema of the New Covenant is purely horizontal: love everyone around you unconditionally and indiscriminately. The Jesus faith is a religion tipped on its side. It is a horizontal faith. (For more on this, see our study on The Law of Love.)
The early church made loving all, including their enemies, the hallmark of Christian identity (Acts 7:60; Romans 12:14; 1 Corinthians 4:12-13; 1 Thessalonians 5:15; 1 Peter 3:9). Love is both the ethic and the ethos of the Jesus Society, the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
See our last study for a more fulsome discussion of context. In essence, the Gospel is the ultimate context for understanding enemy love (e.g, Romans 5:6-10; Colossians 1:21-22).
"When you confront your enemy think first of all about your own enmity with God and about God's compassion towards you." ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1938 Sermon)
CONSIDER
(Observations about the passage)
You have heard. Not "You have read". This reminds us that most of Jesus' audience were unable to read. And even if they were literate, they would not have had access to their own copy of the Scriptures, but heard them read at their local synagogue. Personal Bible study is a modern invention. Community learning is the historical norm. While this style of learning is more equitable for all people, rich and poor, literate and nonliterate, it has a weakness - leaders who are teaching the Scriptures can superimpose their own ideas over the text without people noticing. This is called eisegesis (reading into the text), as opposed to exegesis (getting truth out of the text) and it happens more often than we may realize. Jesus is here correcting an understandable misunderstanding of Torah that the people have heard.
So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us. ~ The apostle Paul (2 Thessalonians 2:15)
Love your neighbour. Jesus is quoting Leviticus 19:18. The command seems to define "neighbour" as fellow Israelite and that is how people interpreted the verse in Jesus' day. (Later in the same chapter God commands loving foreigners too, but these are foreigners who live peacefully within Israel, not enemies.) Through this teaching, as well as stories like the Good Samaritan (Luke 10), Jesus will help his hearers redefine their idea of "neighbour" as anyone we have the opportunity to love, including hated enemies.
Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbour frankly so you will not share in their guilt. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am Yahweh. ~ Yahweh (Leviticus 19:17-18)
Hate your enemy. This statement is not found in the Hebrew Scriptures. The statement is also not found in ancient mainstream rabbinic interpretations of the Torah (though the Essenes, a breakaway sect living in the Qumran caves and whose writings have become known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, did teach enemy hate). So, if the Bible doesn't state this and the rabbis didn't teach this, where does the idea come from? Jesus seems to be summarizing what many Jews assumed. And their assumption isn't a stretch, since hating enemies is really just an emotional extension of the lex talionis (talked about in our last study) - eye for eye, tooth for tooth, and hate for hate. The statement "hate your enemies" may not be in the Hebrew Bible, but the idea seems to be there (see context above). That said, there may be more going on here: Jesus sometimes uses "hate" as a hyperbolic way of meaning, not personal hostility, but "not your first choice". For instance, later in the Sermon on the Mount when he says we can only serve one master, he also says we will "hate" and "despise" other masters (Matthew 6:24). And on another occasion Jesus says: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26; also see Romans 9:13). So Jesus uses "hate" to paint a vivid picture of anything or anyone who is not our one primary focus, which should be him. Taken this way, in this passage Jesus is saying something like: "You have heard that you should love your in-group - your ethnic, national, political, or religious in-group - and treat any out-group members as secondary." Jesus then tells his disciples that we must reject any teaching that suggests our "enemies" can be treated as any less precious than our friends and family. This reflects the love of God, who loves everyone equally.
I really am learning that God doesn’t show partiality to one group of people over another. ~ The apostle Peter (Acts 10:34)
But I say to you. The word order of the original is "I however say to you" which puts the emphasis on the "I" (Greek, egó) - the most important word in the paragraph. (More on this in a previous study.) Jesus is drawing a sharp "that was then, this is now" contrast based on no appeal to any authority except his own. Jesus does not exegete a different passage of Scripture to help his disciples have a balanced view of Christian ethics. No, he simply asserts his authority over the entire business. For a disciple of Jesus, he is our ultimate authority and interpreter. Jesus is King of his Kingdom and Lord of all, even over our own Scriptures.
With Jesus' Commands, Christians are given a new set of glasses, 'Jesus glasses,' for all future reading of Scripture or for reading anything else at all. Christians will never again be able to read vengeance texts as binding. Jesus' 'But I say to you' has become the disciples' major critical principle, and from now on the OT is a different book. ~ Frederick Dale Bruner (The Christbook)
Love your enemies. Jesus' teaching to love our enemies is absolutely unique in all antiquity. The command to "love" is a present imperative, which refers to a continuous habitual action. We could read it, "Keep on loving your enemies." But, in the words of the great philosopher Howard Jones: What is love anyway? The Greek word for "love" used here is the verb form of AGAPÉ, meaning the experience and expression of unconditional value; the choice to honour someone in attitude and action; the will to work for the good of someone we hold as precious. (Feel free to pause here to craft a definition in your own words. And let me know what you come up with!) Two distinguishing characteristics we should include in any definition of love:
1) Agapé is more than mere emotion. Love is not sentimental romantic feelings of connection, no matter how beautiful those emotions may be. Another Greek word captures that emotional experience of desire and delight: eros.
2) Agapé is also more than mere action. Agapé is never merely a stoic performance of obligatory service. Notice that in 1 Corinthians 13:1-4, Paul says it is possible to do loving actions and still not "have love"! So love is an action that arises out of an attitude which should give rise to positive emotions. Love is first an attitude of honour, leading to an action of service, hopefully leading to emotions of delight. First we view someone as valuable, and then we act accordingly, and finally feelings of gratitude for the opportunity to love well will follow. When we love unconditionally, we are not forcing performative morality; we are reshaping our souls to see the value in everyone. When we love unconditionally, we will feel our own souls expand and grow more healthy and whole. When we love unconditionally, we will sense ourselves moving toward our telos, our end goal, our full redeemed humanity.
Love is an act of whole persons reaching out to whole persons. Which is why Jesus immediately goes on to talk about praying for our enemies, for nothing is more soul-shaping than prayer.
[EXCURSUS - the Buddha and enemy love: The Buddha spoke of having a "limitless heart" toward all beings and wishing all to be "at ease". This is the closest any ancient teaching comes to Jesus' emphasis on enemy-love, though it still falls short of the direct call to love. In fact, the motive behind the Buddha's reasoning for letting go of hatred toward anyone is the negative effects of hatred on the one who hates. Holding on to hatred weighs down our soul and increases our dukkha, or suffering. There is no mention by the Buddha of the limitless value of the other. The negative effects of hatred, lack of forgiveness, and other hostile emotions is certainly true and Jesus would no doubt agree, but it isn't the motivation Jesus relies on for loving our enemies. Instead, Jesus says we should love our enemies because God loves his, and that is the Gospel. We love because of the value of all people, not just because we want to increase our own wellbeing. Jesus and Buddha agree on so much, but only Jesus teaches us the pathway of pure other-valuing love.]
"In its absoluteness and concreteness, this command is without parallel in paganism or Judaism." ~ M. Eugene Boring (The New INterpreter's Bible Commentary)
"Love is the mark which, above all else, should distinguish those who know themselves to have been found by a loving God." ~ Michael Green (The Message of Matthew)
Pray for those persecuting you. Most of Jesus' contemporaries prayed what are called "imprecatory prayers", meaning prayers that curse enemies (inspired by biblical prayers like those found in 2 Chronicles 24:22; Jeremiah 15:15; Psalm 71:13; 69:27-28; etc.). But Jesus says we should pray for our enemies, not against them. Here we see that Jesus has in mind actual enemies, those who are currently "persecuting" or mistreating his followers. The "persecuting" is ongoing present tense, just like the command to love. While our enemies go on persecuting, we go on loving. To Jesus' Jewish audience, this would primarily mean the occupying Romans. (How do we pray for our enemies? One idea here.) The idea of spending time in our daily lives praying (think of prayer as conversational meditation) is significant. Our goal as Jesus people is not to legalistically and begrudgingly obey the command to love enemies, but to spend time privately doing the kinds of things that shape our hearts to be more like Jesus. Then when unkind enemies come along, we will be more inclined to love them with genuine care. For instance, consider this: when Jesus prayed for his persecutors from the cross, was he gritting his teeth and forcing himself to do what he thought would make the Father happy? Or, more likely, was he simply continuing to love people the way he always had. Notice, Jesus doesn't pray "Father forgive them for you are gracious" (which he could have prayed because it is true) but "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 22:34). His focus is on the people, because he knows them and cares for them. Through daily prayer, including praying for our enemies, we will shape our hearts so that when real persecution comes our way, loving our enemies is not just a matter of us doing our duty but us innately expressing our desire. Our goal is not to force ourselves to obey the big and hard commands of the Sermon on the Mount, but to do the small and simple things that shape our hearts so that, when the time comes, we want to do the big and hard things.
"Jesus seems to have prayed for his tormentors actually while the iron spikes were being driven through his hands and feet.... If the cruel torture of crucifixion could not silence our Lord's prayer for his enemies, what pain, pride, prejudice, or sloth could justify the silencing of ours?" ~ John Stott (The Message of the Sermon on the Mount)
"If we prayed for our enemies, we would be less likely, internationally, to drop bombs or, locally, to spread gossip." ~ Amy-Jill Levine (Sermon on the Mount)
"Those who have attempted heartfelt prayer for enemies know that it is indeed a transformative practice."
~ David P. Gushee & Glen H. Stassen (Kingdom Ethics)
Become children of your Father. In the Old Testament, Israel is referred to as God's "son" or "sons" (Deuteronomy 14:1; 32:5, 19; Isaiah 43:6; 45:11; Hosea 1:10; 11:1). To talk to a group of Jews about becoming God's children (lit., "sons"), is to question their "saved by birth and bloodline" thinking. Jesus is inviting them to be the new Israel, God's true people, by choice. Holy smokes Jesus, this will rock the boat! Jesus has earlier said that peacemakers will be called "children of God" (Matthew 5:9) and how we respond to persecution is tied in to our role as peacemakers. Jesus has also said that when we are persecuted for righteousness sake, we are in good company because we are aligned with the prophets of old (5:12). But when we return persecution with love, well, we are in even better company, because we are aligned with the very heart of God. The idea of "becoming" God's children (Lit., "sons") through enemy love is interesting. In Christian circles, we often think in binary terms about salvation (e.g., "Am I saved or not? Am I going to heaven or hell when I die? etc.), and Jesus does teach this way sometimes (e.g., The Sheep and the Goats). But Jesus also often teaches in ways that present salvation as a journey, as an experience of not just being but becoming our true selves. Jesus calls himself the "way" or "road" we walk to move toward God (John 14:6) and he says his teaching is, likewise, the narrow "way" or "road" (same Greek word) that his followers walk along to become God-like (Matthew 7:14). And it seems that the early Jesus Movement was known simply as "the Way" (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23). So both are true: We are born again as God's children in one simple moment of faith (John 3:3-8; 5:24). But we also become fully who we are through walking the path laid out in the Sermon on the Mount. We are being and becoming Christians. Jesus stresses that enemy-love is at least one of the primary ways we become more and more of what we already are - "sons" of our Father in the heavens. Imitating God is one way his kids honour our heavenly Father (Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 15:49; Ephesians 4:32-5:2; 1 John 3:2-3). The masculine imagery (calling us all "sons" of God) is not sexist, but quite the opposite. In ancient Israel, only sons and not daughters could inherit their parents' wealth as well as make other autonomous decisions. To call men and women "sons" of God is to grant males and females equal status as inheritors of God's blessing and full participants in the Church. To be a "son" of something was also a Jewish idiom meaning to be like someone or something, as in Jesus calling James and John "Sons of Thunder" (Mark 3:17). Here is the nuanced thing about our imitation of the Almighty: we do not imitate him as Judge, but trust all retribution, retaliation, and punishment to God. However we do imitate God as loving Father and caregiver (e.g., Ephesians 4:31-5:2; 1 John 4:7-12). This has always been God's design for humankind since the Garden of Eden, where God instructed God-like humans to eat from the tree of life but not the tree of judgement (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil).
"There is no other ethical issue about which the New Testament says Jesus' disciples are like the heavenly Father when they act a certain way." ~ Ronald J. Sider (Speak Your Peace)
"Jesus makes love of enemies the preeminent evidence of one's filial relationship to the heavenly Father. Hating one's enemies is tantamount to paganism." ~ David L. Turner (Cornerstone Biblical Commentary)
Sun and rain. In an agricultural society like first-century Israel, both the sun and rain are blessings. Sunshine and rain form the basis of plant growth and therefore are the source of all life. Jesus says, just as the weather is experienced the same way by good and bad people (the "evil" and "unrighteous" people included), so God rains down his love (Note: "his" sun) on good and bad people equally. (Contrast this with some Old Testament passages like Zechariah 14:16-19, which says God will withhold rain from those who do not worship him.) Jesus says, even the weather should remind us of God's love and our calling to love like God (also see Psalm 19:1-6; Romans 1:19-20; Acts 14:16-17). This is the Gospel according to meteorology.
The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. ~ King David (Psalm 145:8-9)
In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy. ~ The apostle Paul, to the Pagan Greeks (Acts 14:16-17)
Reward. The idea of reward is present tense, not a future promise - something we either have or do not have, not something we may one day receive. For Jesus, the Kingdom of Heaven has come to Earth and we are invited to enter here and now. This line of thinking fits with Jesus' present tense promise of the Kingdom of Heaven in the Beatitudes and elsewhere. Our reward for loving our enemies is experiencing the fullness of God's will and way holding sway in our lives here and now.
Tax collectors. Tax collectors have never been popular in any culture, but in first-century Israel they were especially despised. Tax collectors were Jews who worked for the Romans - Israel's oppressors. They also often overcharged, keeping the extra for themselves. Ancient rabbis (as recorded in the Mishnah and the Babylonian Talmud) taught that if a tax collector entered your home, the entire home would be ceremonially unclean and anything they touched would become defiled. Tax collectors were expelled from synagogue worship and their testimony was invalid in court. Even Jewish beggars were instructed not to accept donations from tax collectors. Yet, notes Jesus, even these bad guys love their friends, so his followers should do better. Some critics fault Jesus for speaking poorly of tax collectors here. But Jesus is not despising tax collectors (just keep reading through Matthew the tax collector's Gospel!). Rather, Jesus is leveraging his audience's view of tax collectors, not his own view (as he does in Matthew 18:17), to call them to do better. Jesus is using the "Principle of Accommodation" in how he communicates.
Greet only your own people. Humans are prone to think well of themselves for acting with basic human decency. But being a polite person who greets others kindly is not extravagant love. It's basic common morality. The ethic of Jesus goes way beyond nice manners. In many cultures, greetings take the form of well-wishes, blessings, or even prayers. Even "Good-day" expresses a wish for someone to have a positive day and "Good-bye" means "God be with you". For Jews in Jesus' day, the most common greeting was "Shalom" (Peace), which was in fact a blessing, a well-wish, and a prayer. So most Jews would not even greet a Gentile, and would have expected God to be happy with their stubborness. Jesus is really pushing buttons here.
More abundantly. The same Greek word is used in John 10:10 where Jesus says he came to give us life that is abundant, excessive, or full. Jesus expects our expressions of love for strangers to be "more abundant" than cultural norms. We are not trying to fit in; we are trying to model an alternative society.
"To return evil for good is devilish; to return good for good is human; to return good for evil is divine. To love as God loves is moral perfection." ~ Alfred Plummer (An Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to S. Matthew, 1910)
Be perfect. The Greek word for "be perfect" is a form of telos, meaning to reach our end goal, to become complete, to be whole, to grow or mature into what we were meant to be. This is not a moral perfection, since the person who perfectly obeys the Sermon on the Mount will be someone who is merciful because they know they need mercy, hungers and thirsts for their own righteousness, asks for and offers forgiveness for sins on a daily basis, deals with the plank in their own eye before helping others with their splinters, and who refuses to judge others knowing that they will be judged in kind. Luke's parallel statement helps us understand Jesus' meaning: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:36). The perfection Jesus calls his disciples to is not moral perfection but mercy perfection. This is our end-goal. Which is why "Be perfect" is not a disjointed out-of-the-blue command tacked on at the end, but is attached to and summarizes the command to love our enemies. Perfect love is what is in view here. (We will devote our entire next study to this one verse.)
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! ~ The apostle Paul (Philippians 2:3-8)
CONFESSION
(Personal reflection)
I confess that I feel good when I condemn rather than love my enemies. I feel superior when I judge rather than when I serve. I feel - this is a head-scratcher, but it is true - I feel somehow closer to God when I sit in the seat of judgement over someone else. Hating, judging, and condemning enemies feels better, sometimes more God-like, than loving them. And I want to explore why this is.
I know enemy-love is the Gospel. I also know that I need constant reminding.
For years I have worn a dog tag to remind me of this truth and start conversations with others about God's Good News. On the front side my dog tag has the peace symbol. On the flip side it reads "LUKE 6:27-28 BECAUSE ROM 5:6-10", that is: Love your enemies because God has loved his, and that includes us.
If being a Christian means that I have been transformed from enemy to friend by God's unconditional love, then why is it not easier, more natural, for me to love my enemies? Why do I prefer to be God-like in enemy-judgement than in enemy-love?
I've asked around and I think I'm not the only one who struggles with this. So I'm asking on behalf of more than just me - Why does doing what Jesus says is right (enemy love) feel so hard, and why does doing what Jesus clearly says is wrong (judging others) feel so right? Why do we love to hate? (You don't think we do? Perhaps you haven't opened X/Twitter lately, or read the comments section on any social media.)
[Side Note: When we talk about the sin of judging we are referring to the act of condemning someone's heart, not identifying an action as right or wrong. In one sense, we make many "judgement calls" every day whenever we make a choice or decision. The sin of judgement is about condemning, not discerning.]
I think there are many reasons we love to hate and why judging others feels life-giving, but for now let's look at three:
Original sin
Religious ecstasy
Biological benefits
Original sin...
For starters, think back to the original sin - Adam and Eve eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (aka, The Tree of God-like Judgement). As the story goes, Eve was lured into disobedience because she was promised:
When you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. ~ The Serpent (Genesis 3:5)
Sadly, Adam and Eve seemed to have forgotten that they were already "like God" in the ways that count. God made humans in his image and likeness (Genesis 1:26-27) to be creative like God and caring like God (e.g., Genesis 2:15), but not to judge like God (Genesis 2:16-17). Finite creations can and should focus on loving well, but judging is best handled by an infinite Being. And yet, Adam and Eve wanted more. So they disobeyed, ate the fruit of judgement, and immediately began to doubt God's love and to judge one another through the blame and shame game. As the rest of Genesis chapters 3 and 4 unfold, we see a panoramic view of what will become human history reflected in Adam's and Eve's initial interactions with God and one another. They hide, they judge, they attempt to blame and shame each other, the serpent, and even God, and it only takes one generation more for the whole process to become murderously violent.
And ever since, humanity has continued to eat from the wrong tree.
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned. ~ The apostle Paul (Romans 5:12)
What is the state of humanity? We are all infinitely valued image-bearers of God (Genesis 1-2) who also carry a curse in our spiritual genes passed on from our ancestors, a kind of flaw in our code (Genesis 3).
Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. ~ King David (Psalm 51:5-6; also see Romans 5:12-21)
Notice that King David does not just define himself as a sinner from the start. He claims God has always valued him and been at work in his life to bring about a better version of him. David understood the full reality of his humanity, that each person is firstly an infinitely loved image-bearer of God, then secondly a flawed version of our glorious selves.
"Humans are capable of both unspeakable cruelty and unfathomable kindness. I've seen hints of both in my own heart. We shouldn't deny any facet of our existence." ~ Brant Hansen (The Truth About Us)
"The depravity of man is at once the most empirically verifiable reality, but at the same time the most intellectually resisted fact." ~ Malcolm Muggeridge (British Journalist)
"It's as if there is a flaw in our code and it follows us around." ~ Jonathan Nolan (creator of Westworld)
This original sin virus, this flaw in our code, works by generating fear in our hearts, which leads to us hiding from God and then blaming and shaming others rather than focus on taking responsibility for our own sin. (One wonders how the story of Adam and Eve and the garden of Eden might have unfolded differently if they had just taken responsibility for their sin, repented, and asked for forgiveness rather than simply judged one another.)
Later in the Sermon on the Mount, after condemning judgementalism forthrightly, Jesus will counsel us to focus on the plank in our own eyes rather than just point out the splinters in the eyes of others (Matthew 7:1-5). But if we are not secure in God's unconditional love for us, getting drunk on judging others will be the handy defense mechanism many of us will choose. Denial through judging others is the distraction that keeps many of us from admitting our own failure and prevents us from receiving God's life-changing, soul-cleansing forgiveness.
Until we are secure in God's love, we will always want to blame and shame others out of fear, rather than accept God's love for us, no matter how flawed we are.
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. ~ The apostle John (1 John 4:18)
It takes courage, it takes faith in God's perfect love, to renounce our defense mechanisms of blaming others for our failure and condemning others in our attempt to feel morally superior. A fresh revelation of God's unconditional love for us, a theme of this study, can help.
In my last twitter post before I blew up my world a few years ago, November of 2021, I typed this (I haven't posted since, even though I've been hacked a couple of times and made to look like I was posting):
When tempted to judge, remember:
We are not omniscient, so we don't have all the information.
We are not objective, so self-interest infects us.
We are not perfect, so our judgement is hypocritical.
Let's stop playing God, because we are not good at it and the position is taken.
In the words of Jesus later in the Sermon on the Mount:
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s or sister's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ~ JESUS (Matthew 7:1-2)
Religious Ecstasy...
Why do humans love to judge rather than love our enemies? Why is condemnation so much more attractive than mercy? I'm on a quest to find out because the answers will help me make sense of a lot going on in my world. So far we've looked at the original sin of Adam and Eve and its effects in our lives ever since. That was a good start. Now let's learn more from the world of religion (the cheap substitute for a real trust relationship with God).
Some ancient religions practiced temple prostitution or sacred sex. (Hold on, this is relevant, stay with me.) Male worshippers would have sex with temple priestesses or sex workers as part of their worship to fully connect themselves with the divine. (Religion: made by men for men.) As male worshippers experienced orgasm with the god-proxy, they interpreted their ecstasy as some sort of spiritual connection, a momentary transcendence taking them outside of themselves and into another dimension. Sex, they felt, was a gateway to the gods.
As G.K. Chesterton is rumoured to have said:
“A man knocking on the door of a brothel is looking for God.”
And today, I wonder if anger and outrage orgies, online and in person, have become for some people a modern and more socially acceptable version of temple prostitution. Our contemporary temple prostitution liturgies do not revolve around sex, but judgement.
Today's religious judgement-fests begin with leaders who derive moral authority through confident condemnation of sinners. In some conservative circles, this unhealthy kind of leadership may come in the form of angry, condemnatory preaching that almost seems to delight in the humiliation of our enemies via a focus on the fires of hell. (Note: this is not to suggest that all preachers who emphasize hell do so in an angry or judgemental way. Many do so more appropriately, out of a heart of sorrow.) In other, more progressive circles, anger is often more latent, lurking beneath the surface, but still the driving force behind a kind of social program that is focussed on public exposure, humiliation, and condemnation. In these circles, sinful judgement is often called fighting for "justice" or bringing the "light". And who can argue against justice and light?
As we have covered in another study, for fellow Christians who sin, Jesus counselled private rebuke so as not to shame and possibly provoke defensive protectionistic reactions (Matthew 18). The early Church leaders continued to teach Jesus' way of confronting fellow believers, even though many believers today seem to miss the point:
Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. ~ The apostle Paul (Ephesians 5:11-13)
This is one of the most misunderstood and mishandled passages in the hands of judgemental Christians.
The Greek word translated as "expose" in some English versions is the same word for "rebuke" used by Jesus in Matthew 18, where personal and private exposing of sin is what Jesus has in mind. In other words, we are called to help expose someone's sin to themselves (not to the surrounding world). This is supported by the next sentence, that we should not talk publicly about the secret sins of the disobedient.
Now catch the powerful punchline in this passage: When we follow the way of Jesus, shining light on the sin of fallen sisters and brothers to help them see their failure and repent, that is, when we illuminate someone's sinful blindspot to them, even their failure can become a light to shine God's mercy and grace to the world! Everything illuminated by the in person, sin exposing, merciful light of love that Jesus teaches can be used by God to shine even more light into the world.
According to God's Good News, the Gospel, no matter what you have done, God can turn your worst failure into the brightest light.
But even this above passage of luminescent hope becomes weaponized in the hands of those who believe that judging is our gateway to Godlikeness.
Sitting in the seat of judgement becomes our subconscious reach to achieve ecstatic fusion with God. Through pile-on anger-fests, screaming screen-rants, condemnation rampages, and outrage orgies, people feel somehow connected with God, somehow God-like, somehow fused with Divinity itself. Condemning, especially in the name of positive things like justice and holiness, feels life-giving. (Remember from our study on anger that, in the Bible, anger/wrath is the emotion associated with judgement.)
It feels positively cozy to sit on the throne of judgement right next to our Heavenly Father. Because God is the Judge of the Universe, judging others makes us feel God-like. This has always been the temptation of the Serpent.
When we read some comment threads on twitter or watch videos of some protesters at rallies, for instance, we can see people worshipping through their almost orgasmic expressions of self-righteous outrage. It feels like their absolute vilifying of others is positively correlated to their sense of being most alive.
This is especially true when we hear the cheers of others in person or receive likes and thumbs up online, all providing the wind at our back. Many of us live within the algorithm enhanced echochamber of our fellow outragers. We know this because so many people seemed shocked when they encounter a genuinely alternative narrative. They have been living within their own self-verifying community and haven't taken time to pop their head out and listen charitably to any other view.
I sympathize for folks like this. Community feels good, even the community of death forged by those with condemning hearts. Their algorithmic echochamber is so thorough, so complete, they have lost the ability to think different thoughts. We should have compassion, speaking out against the bad ideas themselves, but never condemning the precious people who hold them (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).
For people caught up in an angry judge-fest, harming feels healing. Breathing out words of death feels life-giving. And the most base emotions can somehow feel spiritually elevating.
Yes, it is a kind of worship alright. Except for one thing: Angry judgmentalism worships the wrong god. The word "Satan" means the Accuser, the Condemner, the Prosecutor. To get caught up in the ecstasy of condemning others is, in a word, satanic. But the way of the Spirit, whom Jesus calls the Advocate or Defender, is the way of grace, mercy, and peace. This is the straight and narrow way of Jesus.
Remember that the Sermon on the Mount is themed around teaching us how to move beyond the everpresent counterfeit righteousness of religion and into a more relational righteousness of grace, mercy, and reconciliation.
For I tell you that unless your righteousness goes above and beyond that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of the heavens. ~ JESUS (Matthew 5:20)
The version of ourselves imbued with the divine right to judge others does not exist. It is a false idol. Performative moral outrage is ecstatic worship of this idol of judgement. It feels life-giving - the original sin in all its glory.
Meanwhile, we may not only take what belongs to God, but we displace the real issues and drown out voices of actual suffering people.
Also worth noting - and this is important - often those people who are the most judgemental will rise as leaders within our ranks. Confidence is attractive, and judging others projects confidence. Many people respond reflexively to a leader's judgemental confidence without taking time to assess the legitimacy of their position or the fruit of the Spirit in their lives (Galatians 5:21-22; 1 Corinthians 13:1-4; James 3:17; etc). And so condemning and critical leaders rise to the top, in religion as in politics. Our leaders may project their confident judgmentalism in the name of justice or God (or both), which will get quick buy-in from many Christians who want to make a difference.
Whether in Christian or secular circles, money can be raised and empires built when sinners are turned into enemies, fear and anger are the emotional fuel, and judgement is promoted as doing God's work. All the community's gold is melted down for our golden calf of self-righteousness, in the name of caring for the poor, the victimized, and the voiceless.
And in the words of the prophet Jonah:
Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. ~ The prophet Jonah (Jonah 2:8)
Biological benefits...
So far we have looked at two reasons why we love to judge: our tendency to believe Satan's lie that we need to judge others to become God-like and our religious propensity toward idolatry . Now let me offer one other reason that turns from theology and religion to science for an answer.
When we think about what hormone mostly fuels our angry and aggressive judgementalism, testosterone is likely what comes to mind. And while this is part of the story, another surprising hormone can be hijacked to fuel our outrage.
Oxytocin is a hormone that is typically known for its positive effect on human bonding. Along with dopamine and serotonin, oxytocin is part of the "happy hormone" family. We experience its presence during sex, birth, breastfeeding, or even when looking for an extended time into the eyes of our dog. Because of its role in romantic and family bonding, oxytocin has been called the "mothering hormone," the "love drug," and the "cuddle chemical."
Research has shown how the prosocial aspects of oxytocin can play a significant role in in-group bonding. Oxytocin can help us feel attached and in unity with our "tribe", whatever that group is. We understandably feel closer to people who look like us (ethnic bonding), present like us (gender and age relatability), or who believe like us (political, religious, and activist affiliation). This is a largely positive effect. When administered by nasal spray in experiments, subjects experience enhanced generosity, trust, empathy, helping behaviour, and positive communication. Yay oxytocin!
And yet, as you may suspect, a big "but" is coming. Oxytocin (in cooperation with other brain mechanisms), can have a downside, sometimes called the "oxytocin paradox"...
THE OXYTOCIN PARADOX:
While oxytocin enhances our ingroup bonding, it can simultaneously elevate our outgroup cynicism, suspicion, and even aggression.
In some studies, subjects given heightened levels of oxytocin (usually administered as a nasal spray) were more likely to lie, for instance, to advance their group's cause. In other studies, subjects given oxytocin displayed more Schadenfreude (delighting in another's misfortune) toward their competitors accompanied by more gloating when winning an interpersonal competition. (If you're feeling like a science nerd, see these academic articles with information about oxytocin here and here and here for starters.)
Like mama bears, oxytocin motivates us to protect our young. But when our "baby" is our philosophy, our theology, our political position, our organization or institution, or our social justice activism, oxytocin will motivate us to fight more aggressively to advance our narrative and disparage any alternative or competing narrative. In other words, oxytocin can make us more amazing to our friends and more of a jerk to anyone we perceive as our enemy.
The "mothering hormone," it turns out, is also the "othering hormone."
In our fallen world, the price of in-group bonding can be the increase of inter-group conflict. Whether it is a financial competitor, a sports team rival, political opponent, or what is perceived as an ethnic, cultural, or religious threat, oxytocin is there to keep us spicy. Social media and internet algorithms magnify the effect exponentially, cranking up perceived threat levels to our in-group.
All of this makes Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount so important. Jesus is training us how to go beyond our idolatry, our insecurity, and our flesh, that is, beyond our biochemical reflexes, in order to walk in step with the Spirit.
I remember when I first started reading and listening to atheist intellectuals. I felt personally attacked, like they were trying to remove a part of me. Similar to someone trying to forcibly cut out an organ from my body, I saw them as trying to forcibly remove my faith (a belief-ectomy?). I perceived those nasty atheists all as horrible people bent on destruction.
But Jesus' counter-cultural and even counter-intuitive teaching on enemy love helped me and is still helping me reframe how I view all people, including people I perceive as my enemy. I learned and I am still learning to see everyone as fellow image-bearers of God's infinite loveliness. And a beautiful benefit is, when we stop seeing people who are different to us as a threat, we can learn so much that we might otherwise have missed.
For me, a key test of enemy-love, to help me distinguish if I am just going through the motions or really do honour the other, is whether or not I am willing to be in a learning posture toward that person. Am I willing to really listen to them, to try to understand them, and to find some good and affirming truth within their worldview - all without doing so just to use it against them in a debate. I am learning how to learn from everyone, and few things are more world-expanding.
"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." ~ Winston Churchill (attributed)
We know this from biology, behaviour, and our own experience: A shared enemy draws us closer. Hating the "other" feels like loving our brother. Like some twisted version game of Red Rover, we will link arms and draw closer to win a fight against whoever we perceive as "other". Identifying and vilifying enemies (or creating them if we have none) is good for group unity (and good for business if you're a religious leader), but it comes at a terrible cost.
Any group steeped in a mama-bear mentality that does not actively supplement it with radical other-centred, enemy-surprising, learning-love will be tempted to be less committed to truth than they are to themselves and their own agenda.
God knew this was a weakness of ours. So he warned us. And he still warns us today. Will we listen?
COMMENTARY
(Thoughts about meaning and application)
Enemy-love is the hallmark of Jesus' teaching, and the centrepiece of the Gospel. We cannot find a similar emphasis on enemy love in any other religion, philosophy, or society. And the early Christians held up this teaching as their defining "brand". Anabaptist theologian Ron Sider estimates that, on the topic of violence, Jesus' teaching on enemy love in the Sermon on the Mount is the most quoted Bible passage by early Christian writers pre-Constantine.
"There is no higher apex of virtue than this command." ~ Jonathan T. Pennington (The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing)
"In the discipleship of Jesus we are experiencing the liberating power of love, love that is quite literally disarming. Mutual love is nothing special. It only means repaying good with good. But love of our enemy is not love as repayment; it is prevenient and creative love. Anyone who repays evil with good is truly free. He no longer reacts. He creates something new." ~ Jurgen Moltmann (The Power of the Powerless)
To practice the disarming love of Christ, a disciple of Jesus will need two things:
A clear view of how much God loves us. If we are going to practice the potentially misunderstood actions of cheek-turning and second-mile-walking enemy love, we must be secure in our status as dearly loved children of the King. May we all cultivate a quiet confidence in our own value to God.
A clear view of how much God loves others. If we are to intervene in situations of potential or actual aggression in ways that de-escalate violence and honour everyone involved, we need to learn to view our enemies as equally valuable to God. The most important thought we can hold about anyone we meet, know, or know about, is that they are someone for whom Christ lived, died, and rose again. God loves them, values them, wants to forgive them, and desires to pour out his mercy to them - and he wants to use us to show and tell them this message.
Think of it this way: If your son or brother or parent or close friend whom you love was, lets say, off his meds and having a hallucinogenic episode that led him to do something unkind or even violent toward you or someone else, what would you do? How would the fact that in this instance the attacker is dear to you affect your response?
Most likely you would instinctively try hard to do two things at the same time:
1) Care for the one being attacked by trying to stop the violence.
2) Care for the attacker by using every precaution possible to stop them in a way that does not cause more harm.
We don't have to lay out a specific technique or plan of action, since every situation is different. But if we fully embrace this attitude of deeply valuing all people, our instincts will guide us in the moment to intervene in loving ways.
This is the mentality Jesus calls us into: see every enemy, every aggressor, every sinner as someone the Father dearly loves and whom we should love also. Then act accordingly.
"Disciples are above revenge. There are too many other important matters in life - Christian mission most of all. It appears that disciples have their centre of gravity outside themselves, in Jesus. They are so concerned to do his mission in the world that insults are taken as invitations to creative mission, and threats of lawsuits as opportunities to prove oneself a follower of Jesus." ~ Frederick Dale Bruner (The Christbook)
This isn't easy. And it isn't meant to be done without support. Without exception, every Greek verb in this enemy-love passage is plural. There is zero intention in the teaching of Jesus that any of us should be able to accomplish loving our enemies by ourselves. We will do this together, or we will not do this. (See the conclusion of our last study for more about coming together to live out the Sermon on the Mount, and also check out our "Small Church" page on this site.)
We need each other for training, support, rebuke, correction, assurance, and inspiration. This includes friendship with current Jesus-followers and learning from the lives of past saints.
The picture at the top of this page captures the story of Dirk Willems, who was a 16th century Anabaptist martyr. In 1569, Dirk escaped from prison and while running across a frozen pond, looked back to notice that the guard who was chasing him had fallen through. Willems chose to love his enemy and turned back to rescue the man and get him to safety. This allowed Willems to be recaptured and, even though the guard was filled with gratitude and asked for Willems to be released, Dirk Willems was reimprisoned, tortured, and eventually burned at the stake in 1569.
Willems was considered a theological heretic by the "orthodox" Protestant Christians who imprisoned, tortured, and burned him alive for his faith. One wonders who the real heretics are in that scenario. Perhaps Christians should think about things like orthodoxy and heresy in terms of ethics as much as theology. Perhaps the "Statement of Faith" that churches and denominations identify with should include as much about how we live and love as they do about what we believe.
"It is hard to exaggerate either the originality or the importance of Jesus' direct command to love our enemies. ... In every single instance in which pre-Constantinian Christian writers mention the topic of killing, they say that Christians do not do that, whether in abortion, capital punishment, or war."
~ Ronald J. Sider (Speak Your Peace)
If we want to follow Jesus, this topic deserves extra attention, engagement, and expression.
The reciprocal principle that runs through most societies of treating well those people who treat us well is purely secular. There is nothing special about returning kindness for kindness. It is sub-Christian. Enemy love is what makes Christ-followers "salt"-y, what makes us a city on a hill, what makes us fully become the image and likeness of God in this world.
When we wonder if a new church or Christian leader or teacher is "orthodox" and able to be trusted in the process of discipleship, looking for signs of their commitment to humle, difficult, enemy-love is a good place to start. Enemy-love is, after all, the Gospel.
We exist as a species because God has loved us into existence. And we continue to exist, even when we act like God's enemies, for one reason: God loves his enemies. There is nothing we can do or fail to do to put ourselves into a non-loved category! The apostle Paul had a lot to say about this...
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ... For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. ~ The apostle Paul (Romans 5:8-11)
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation — if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. ~ The apostle Paul (Colossians 1:21-23)
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ~The apostle Paul (Romans 8:33-39)
As Christ-followers, we not only receive this truth of God's relentless love; we are called to embody and demonstrate this truth of God's relentless love to one another and beyond. How are we doing with that?
Notice how the self-righteous Pharisee in one of Jesus' parables not only lifts himself up, he simultaneously judges and separates himself from another:
Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. ~ JESUS (Luke 18:10-13)
The Scripture says Jesus told this parable "to some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else" (Luke 18:9). We can't be self-confident in our righteousness without looking down on and "othering" others.
Jesus, on the other hand, lived a life of inclusive love. Although his mission was initially focused on proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of Heaven to Jews, he took time to help his Roman enemies (Matthew 8:5-13), and even called a tax collector (a Jewish traitor in league with Rome) to be one of his disciples (Matthew 9:9-13). One of the women who accompanied Jesus was Joanna, wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod's household (Luke 8:1-4). Jesus healed Canaanites (Matthew 15:21-28), revealed his heart to Samaritans (John 4), and regularly hung out with sinners (Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:34-35; 19:1-10; etc).
Jesus taught enemy love, lived enemy love, and even loved his enemies to his death. He died on the cross forgiving his enemy-persecutors (Luke 23:34), as did Stephen (Acts 7:60). And other apostles reinforce this subversive teaching (Romans 12:14; 1 Corinthians 4:12-13; 1 Thessalonians 5:15; 1 Peter 3:9; 1 John 4:7-12).
One of the surprising, unexpected, countercultural aspects of Jesus' teaching on failure and justice is his equal loving concern for victims AND victimizers, those sinned against and those who sin. He cares, not just about punishing the guilty, but about redeeming rather than rejecting all that they are, have, and have done.
This focus on redemption of the guilty is only offensive to those who do not believe in the power of the Gospel. It's either true, or it's not, folks! There's no secret other ingredient that overrules the gospel under certain circumstances when powerful (or noisy) religious people tell you they know best and that Jesus wants you to trust them. It is also not a permissive, easy way out to enable sinners to get away with something. On the contrary, it is an excruciating, time-consuming, humbling, fearless-moral-inventory-ing, relationship-building, soul-and-world transforming, and ultimately miraculous, process.
CONCLUSION
(One last thought)
It bears repeating: Enemy love is the Gospel. Reconciliation between warring parties is the Gospel. Unconditional grace, mercy, and peace offered to all is the Gospel.
Now take a moment to imagine the implications if enemy-love became the centrepiece of all Christian theology and Christian ethics. Imagine if we became the world leaders in helping people forgive those who hurt them, become free of their carefully nurtured revenge impulse, and actually worked with the accused and the accuser, abused and abuser, victim and victimizer, to bring healing and wholeness. What if the Church lived out this one teaching of Jesus to the full? We could bring something into this world that is unique, beautiful, and desperately needed.
[Heart check: Does the above thought inspire us? Or are we so distracted by all the "but what abouts" that we paralyze ourselves into non-action? If the primary place our minds go when thinking about Jesus' enemy-love teaching (or even just reading the above paragraph) is to focus on the potential pitfalls, hurdles, and objections, then we should pause to notice what is going on here. Jesus is giving us clear direction and our primary thought is not "Yes Lord!" but "That won't work Lord." Oh we of little faith! Yes, caution is understandable, advisable even, but it is no excuse to not move forward with Jesus. Christ's vision of enemy love (including rebuke, repentance, reconciliation, and restoration) should inspire us first, not raise our suspicion and objections first. If we love and trust Jesus, there must be a wise and loving way forward. There must be, and we should be excited to find it. Of course we all know that, say, an abused person may not in a position to immediately confront, rebuke, then forgive his or her abuser directly and personally. A person subject to racism should not have to fix the racists. We do not send a child to go forgive their abuser in Jesus' name ("Off you go honey, Jesus says you should"). But can we all agree that actual forgiveness, over time, is the goal? Can we not surround both parties in truth and love, use proxies for communication as needed, provide education, accountability, and healing therapy that moves toward genuine rebuke, repentance, and reconciliation, and all the while be determined to keep taking countless baby steps toward the application of Jesus' teaching, no matter how long it takes to get there? Should not everything we do as a church gently, wisely, faithfully move us toward a lived example of the Jesus Way rather than claim it is too hard, too unreasonable, too potentially misused and therefore turn away from it? Dear Church, how can we give up on Jesus?]
Moving forward: Even if we agree on forgiveness, how can we love our enemy? Really love our enemy? I don't mean just in theory, from far away, nor do I mean legalistically, stoically, begrudgingly, robotically, stiff-upper-lip-ally doing some kindness for them or saying a kind word to them. How can we go beyond a "fake-it-till-you-make-it" approach to enemy love? How can we avoid religious legalism while we live out the revolutionary spirit of the teaching?
As mentioned above, we can follow Jesus' instruction to begin with prayer. When we pray for an enemy, we are inviting our heavenly Father and our enemy into a shared mental space. Our heavenly Father and our enemy are together in one conversation, and God will help us love like God loves. We pray for their growth and their good. And this act of prayer becomes a kind of conversational meditation.
We want to meditate on what is good about our enemy. So don't just pray that God corrects or changes them to be nicer or to use the words you need to hear. Instead, pray that God continues to strengthen and bless the good you see in them. Pray they find healing, experience being known and loved, and that they are restored to Him and to others.
Pay attention to the ways your enemy may have been influenced by their upbringing, or brainwashed by the lies of the system that surrounds them, and/or trapped in the echo chamber of one-sided voices. Take pity. Have mercy.
Pray like Jesus. Jesus prayed to the Father to forgive his executioners and the people who cheered them on, saying:
Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. ~ JESUS (Luke 22:34)
He could have prayed, "Father forgive them because you are gracious." True. But Jesus didn't just exalt God, he lifted up his enemies. Jesus saw something different inside the sadistic mob who wanted him dead. Jesus seems to believe the best in even the worst people.
Who in your life can you pray for, believing that they have listened to the wrong voices, believed the wrong things, and been influenced by the wrong people, so that "they do not know what they are doing"?
Our world is waiting. Waiting for this kind of love to work its way through everything. Waiting for you and I to show them something different. Waiting for the children of God to season everything with grace and shine the light of God's love on everything and everyone.
For all creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ~ The apostle Paul (Romans 8:19)
All systems of human functioning - from politics to economics to ecology to entertainment to social justice - are waiting for this kind of love to be modelled for them. The world is waiting for us.
"Disciples of Jesus have experienced the surprise of unexpected grace, so they act in a similar manner toward the undeserving among them." ~ Grant R. Osborne (Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament)
You have it in you to give. You have already received it from Jesus.
Freely you have received; freely give. ~ JESUS (Matthew 10:8)
CONTEMPLATE
(Scripture passages that relate to and deepen our understanding of this topic)
Luke 6:27-36; Romans 12:14-21
RECOMMENDED READING:
Speak Your Peace, by Ronald J. Sider
CONVERSATION
(Talk together, learn together, grow together)
What is God revealing to you about himself through this passage?
What is God showing you about yourself through this passage?
Who are your "enemies"?
What is one thing you can think, believe, or do differently in light of what you are learning?
What questions are you still processing about this topic?
