Today we want to look more closely at these two items in Matthew 5:43-48.

What does it mean to love?

This is not a call to nonresistance. Enemy love and nonresistance are not the same, as I tried to show in our second class. 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. So then, lets look at what love means.

Love for enemies in Matthew 5:43-48. As we have seen, the broader point Jesus is making is that we are to return good for evil. There are several examples of this in our text:

1)   We pray for our persecutors. Jesus said, “pray for those who persecute you” – v. 44. They may harm us through persecution, but we give them something good as we pray from them.

2)   The Father gives food to his enemies – v. 45. “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Sun and rain equal harvests of food. To give food is a good thing. It is to meet a practical need.

3)   Jesus also tells us to greet/bless our enemies – v. 47. I say bless also, because the greeting in that day was “peace,” a word that functioned as a blessing. So this is not about whether we are rude or not. In greeting our enemy, we give them a blessing. This also is a good thing.

These examples of doing good fill out what it means to love in this passage. So when Jesus says, “love” he means – do good to or for someone.

As a side note, let me say that in these last two examples focused on food and cursing, we see the contrast with Moses in Deuteronomy 23 (which is why this text is most certainly behind the phrase “hate your enemies”). The Ammonites/Moabites did not give Israel food. Instead of returning the same as Moses commanded, we are to feed our enemies. Also, the Ammonites/Moabites sought to curse Israel. Instead of returning harm for harm as Moses said, we are to bless our enemies.

The word “love” in the rest of the New Testament. We have seen that love in Matthew 5 means that we do good to or for someone – we pray for the person, we feed our enemy and we bless our enemy. When we look at love in the rest of the New Testament (see the handout – Love in the New Testament) we find the same picture. So “love” in Matthew 5:44 means the same thing that it means in all the rest of the New Testament. To say it simply, it means to do good to someone. And this is how we are called to treat even our enemies by Jesus.

What does love allow? There are a range of possibilities here, as long as it is something good for the person. But we have to make a crucial distinction here between returning harm for harm, and other forms of harm that can be done for a person’s benefit:

  • Non-redemptive harm for harm has to do with revenge, retribution, pay back, getting even with an enemy by harming them. I say, ‘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, not as payback or as a part of the cycle of harm for harm.

An example of the latter is the harm that a doctor does in amputating a leg in order to save a patient’s life. Also we can think of the harm that is done when we lovingly discipline our children in order to teach them.

So the real issue is not harm to someone, or even force. It has to do with why it is done, and how it is done. Is it done for the person’s good and is it done in a way that is marked by love and concern?

I believe that it can be consistent with love to:

  • restrain or disarm an enemy – this is not unloving.
  • harm an enemy to stop them – not out of payback, anger or a desire to punish, but because, among other things, it is best for them to stop.
  • call the police to restrain them or if we think this might help them in the long run – but we are not to do this simply to punish them or as payback – to return harm for harm for us.

But, I believe, we certainly cannot kill an enemy since this has nothing to do with what is best for our enemy; with what is good or loving for them. We will talk about this more in a later class.

Which enemies?

Is it possible that Jesus has in mind a particular kind of enemy, or facing enemies in a particular kind of situation? Let’s look first at the context. In the social context of Israel at this time, to speak of an enemy would call to mind the Romans who occupied their land and actively oppressed them. And in terms of the context of our verses Matthew 5:41-42, which comes right before our verses, alludes to the Romans. As we saw, in these verses, Jesus is talking about the various requisition demands of the Romans – carrying a pack one mile, etc. So Jesus specifically refers to them right before he says, “Love your enemies.”

Next we look closely at the text itself. If we do this we find some indications of who Jesus is talking about: 1) v. 43 – the phrase “hate your enemy” comes from Deuteronomy 23:3-6 where it refers to Ammonites and Moabites. They were enemies who were to be hated on a national level during times of war (which happened throughout Israel’s history); and as individuals they were to be hated by not allowing them to be a full part of Israel up to the 10th generation. The hatred that Jesus opposes in these verses is both national and individual. 2) v. 44 – “your enemies” is given without any qualifiers or limitations. It refers to anyone who seeks to harm you. So whenever you have an enemy this would apply. 3) v. 44 – “those who persecute you.” These could be personal enemies or government authorities. 4) v. 45 – “the evil,” or evil people. 5) v. 45 – “the unjust,” or unrighteous people. These last two references are as broad as you can get. 6) v. 46, by implication, people who don’t love you. 7) v. 47, by implication, people who are not a part of your group. There are no indications of any qualifiers as to the kind of enemy or the circumstances in which we meet them. Rather, Jesus references national enemies and also speaks in exceptionally broad language about any kind of enemy.

Finally, we look at the teaching of the passage. Jesus is expanding the meaning of love your neighbor. It doesn’t just apply to fellow Israelites, but all people (like in the parable of the good Samaritan – Luke 10). And more specifically, Jesus teaches us to have ‘complete love,’ which by definition covers all people. It is all inclusive. If it leaves out certain people or doesn’t cover them in a certain context, then it is not perfect or complete, like the Father’s love.

So when I look at the examples that are used, which include national and personal enemies, and the language that is used, which is as broad as possible and without qualification, and also the teaching of the passage, which calls us to complete or all inclusive love, which must include all enemies – my conclusion is that we are to love all enemies, in whatever context we find them.