Today we are looking at a brief review of some of the basics that we have looked at, some things I would leave with you as we finish up today. We have gone far and wide, but this will help bring things into focus as we end.
Our key text for this class has been Matthew 5:43-48 -
“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, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
1. Jesus teaches us to love our enemies
As I have tried to show in the lessons and handouts, I can find no exceptions to this. You know, that enemies in a certain context aren’t to be loved, or that certain kinds of enemies aren’t to be loved.
In Matthew 5, for instance, there is reference to both personal and national enemies. In fact, enemies are spoken of in the broadest possible way in this passage.
And the teaching in general is that we are to be like the Father, who loves “the evil and the good; the just and the unjust;” whose love is perfect or complete, that is, encompassing all people.
2. Love means doing good to someone
In Matthew 5 it means that we don’t return harm for harm, but we give good for evil. They do harm to us, but we pray for them, feed them, bless them.
Love – in the case of loving enemies – means the same thing that love means in the rest of the New Testament – kindness, forgiveness, longsuffering, sacrificing, etc.. Given this, I say that at a minimum, love means not killing someone; not killing our enemy. It means much more than this, of course, but this is a minimum.
I also showed you the testimony of the early church (the first 200 or 250 years) which is in agreement with this understanding of the meaning of love.
3. This teaching is found throughout the New Testament
It is not just in Matthew and not just the teaching of Jesus.
- There are many statements about not returning evil for evil, but returning good for evil in the New Testament.
- We have the example of Jesus going to the cross to die for us.
- And, of course, the love of the Father for us, his enemies, in sending Jesus to the cross.
So, loving enemies is not some isolated teaching or just a denominational distinctive – a Mennonite idea. It is at the core of our Christian faith. Without God loving us, his enemies, and without Jesus dying for us, his enemies, there would be no gospel. And this love of the Father and the Son, becomes the model for us as Christians to live out in our lives.
4. This teaching is the fulfillment of the ‘neighbor love’ command
Moses sought to increase the scope of those who are loved by teaching ‘neighbor love.’ Jesus takes things further in the same direction and teaches us to love all people – even our enemies.
Jesus fulfills or perfects the Old Testament teaching, as he does in so many other areas. This is a part of the progressive revelation of God through time, that has come to its climax in Jesus.
5. There is a distinction between loving enemies and nonresistance
This is my best understanding. Nonresistance tells us to yield to our enemy who is an authority over us. Enemy love does not tell us to yield. It simply tells us to love our enemy; to return good for evil. These are different.
If we are only called to love, we have some freedom to make choices about how we act, as long as we act within the bounds of love.
6. There is a distinction between ‘non-redemptive harm for harm’ and ‘redemptive harm’
Non-redemptive harm for harm has to do with revenge, retribution and pay back. It’s ‘non-redemptive’ because our action has no value for the person. It does the person no good. It seeks only to punish and destroy.
Redemptive harm has to do with causing harm to the person for their greater good, or at least with their best interests in mind. This is tough love.
So yes, there are times when we can harm someone. But we have to ask – ‘Why we are doing it? ‘Is it done with the person’s own good in mind?’ And – ‘How are we doing it?’ ‘Is it done in a way that is marked by love and concern?’
Another key text for our class has been Romans 12:19-21 -
“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.”
7. We are to overcome evil with good
When we are harmed we are to give our anger; our desire for justice into God’s hands. This sets us free from the cycle of harm for harm, where we respond in kind to the evil that is done to us. That is, we are not overcome by evil, but we overcome evil with good.
Having given our anger over to God, we are then free to be merciful and loving to our enemy, returning good for evil.
8. We are to overcome evildoers with good
We do this by loving our enemies and returning good for evil. Then they either see our love and repent of their evil, or they continue in their ways and God acts to judge them, for we have given the agenda of payback into God’s hands. This may happen on the final day, or it may happen before then.
We also saw that this not only happens on a personal level, but even on a national level – with countries and empires. By practicing suffering love, we can bring down dictators and nations. We saw that there are many examples of this in the Scriptures.
So we can fight evil, not with the weapons of the flesh, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:4, but with lowly, suffering love – which has, again in Paul’s words, “divine power to destroy strongholds.” Love is our weapon.
Love alone is what will truly overcome evil, as we learn from the cross of Jesus.
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I want to thank you for listening. I have been sharing with you what I believe, as a way of letting you see one way of talking about loving enemies and the issues that this topic raises. As I have said, others might spin things differently here and there. I understand that.
As always you will have to evaluate all this and discern what the Scriptures teach.
There hasn’t been a lot of time to discuss in class, but I certainly invite you to talk about this with me more if you have questions or want to talk through some part of it. I am always open to talk and learn more – so the invitation is out there.
