Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)
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Scratching the Surface
of
Enemies
(A Brief and Incomplete Guide to Loving the Unlovable)
It’s one of the hardest things about following Jesus:
“Love your enemies! Pray for those who
persecute you!”
It’s so hard because enemies want the worst for us.
They work on it.
While the natural response is to “do unto them before
they do unto us,” Jesus says following Him includes loving the unlovable:
“You’ve been told to hate your enemies; but I say love and pray for them. If you do that, you will show how much you
love Me. As you do it to/for them, you
do it to/for Me. Really, if you love
people who love you, that doesn’t make you any better than anybody else. If you’re going to model Someone better and
show how I’m really your Lord, you will treat everybody – even enemies – with
love and offer prayers for My best in their lives.”
Let’s look closer.
Following Jesus includes loving enemies with that
distinctive Christian behavior called agape love; praying and working for the
highest good for others no matter who, what, where, or when without the need or
expectation for response, regard, or reward.
Following Jesus includes loving enemies by praying for
their salvation by grace through faith in Jesus that will be evidenced by them
talking, acting, and looking like they’ve been born again.
Let’s look even closer.
Despite our best efforts to reconcile with enemies
through Jesus according to principles outlined in Matthew 18:15-17, they still
may want and work on the worst for us.
Still, Jesus says following Him includes turning the other cheek,
walking the extra mile, feeding, clothing, housing, and caring for our enemies
in a Matthew 25 kinda way without exception.
Even when our enemies persist in being irregular,
irascible, and irreconcilable, following Jesus includes intercession for them;
or as a mentor once urged, “Sometimes it’s better to talk to God about someone
than to talk to someone about God.”
Many years ago, a wise counselor said this to me: “You
are not responsible for what others say and do.
You are only responsible for what you say and do; and how you respond to
what others say and do.”
At Montgomery, Alabama’s Dexter Avenue Baptist Church on
November 17, 1957, Martin Luther King, Jr. talked about this hard part of
following Jesus: “Over the centuries, many persons have argued that this is an
extremely difficult command…They would go on to say this is just additional
proof that Jesus was an impractical idealist who never quite came down to
earth…[But]…far from being the pious injunction of a utopian dreamer, this
command is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization…It is love
that will save our world and our civilization, love even for enemies.”
He went on, “Jesus was very serious when He gave this
command. He wasn’t playing. He realized that it’s hard to love your
enemies. He realized that it’s difficult
to love those persons who seek to defeat you, those persons who say evil things
about you…who hate you most…who have misused you most…who have gossiped about
you most…who have spread false rumors…He realized that it was painfully hard,
pressingly hard. But He wasn’t playing.”
He continued, “This is what Jesus means…He says, ‘Love
your enemy.’ He doesn’t say, ‘Like your
enemy.’ Like is a sentimental something,
an affectionate something. There are a
lot of people that I find it difficult to like…I don’t like them…But Jesus says
love them! And love is greater than
like. Love is understanding, redemptive
goodwill for all men, so that you love everybody, because God loves them.”
Specifically, King noted, “You refuse to do anything that
will defeat an individual, because you have agape in your soul…You love the
individual who does the evil deed, while hating the deed that the person
does. This is what Jesus means when He
says, ‘Love your enemy.’ This is the way
to do it. When the opportunity presents
itself when you can defeat your enemy, you must not do it.”
Jesus also put it this way, “Love everybody as much as I
have loved you.”
That includes enemies; and that means offering agape to
them and prayers for them.
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Blessings and Love!
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