Loving Your Enemies

 Die to Self-righteousness and Rise in Christ

Author: Jo-Anne Leroux

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father 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."  Mathew 5:43-45 NKJV  Jesus goes on to tell us in verses 46-47 that we are no different from the non-believer if we do not love our enemies.  Anyone can love a friend.  Luke 6:36 exhorts us to be merciful.  Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Our enemies can be defined as anyone that opposes who we are for the sake of who they think we ought to be.  Conversely, our enemies are also those who do not measure up to who we think they  ought to be.  Our offended self is not capable of loving.  We have conditions on our love.  If these conditions are not met, we withdraw love and fall into judgment.  So how do we love our enemies?  Only by the Spirit of God living within us, can we shift from the conditional love of the soul-life to the unconditional love of God.

But you may argue, but we are not to be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?  Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" 2 Corinthians: 6:14-15 NIV.  The enemy would be delighted to have you use this scripture to justify not loving an enemy.  We can love but not be united (or yoked) with someone.  The Lord loves us while we are in sin, but cannot unite with us.  Now that we've nixed that line of defense, lets take a look at the offended self.

All aspects of manipulation and control revolve around either offending (withdrawing our love) or being offended (having love withdrawn.)  When our eyes are on the enemy, the enemy is in control.  All energy is expended on either protecting our own position or judging our enemy.  We will attempt to change ourselves to suit our enemy or change our enemy to suit us.  We are controlled by our fear of man.  The people who have the most power to hurt us, of course, are those most dear. 

When someone close attacks us, our belief that we are a good loveable people is immediately challenged.  With our eyes on our enemy, we see only half the picture and are blinded to our part; our sin.  My sin is in my self-righteous reaction; my need to justify and preserve myself, regardless of whether or not this attack is deserved.   My sin is in a counter reaction of hurt, offense and self-defense.  To smooth the path and see the glory of the Lord, we need to repent of our own sin at the foot of the cross, not make our enemies repent. Isaiah 40:3-5  

We need to fix our eyes on Jesus when we are attacked.  We need to examine our hearts with the Holy Spirit.  Did we offend?  How?  Am I protecting myself?  What role am I playing here?  What am I afraid of?  These are some of the questions we take to the Lord.  We need to get right with the Lord.  We either need to forgive or be forgiven.  We need to shift our love source from man to God.  Only supernatural Love can love enemies.

How many of you know that hurt people, hurt people.  The offended, offend.  This understanding is a key to loving your enemies.  Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34KJV  This is absolutely true!!  When blinded by the pain of offense, they know no other way.  They don't know they are suffering from a love deficit.  They don't know the Love of God.  They are trapped in performance.  You don't have to stoop to this level.  You can rise above it in the resurrection with Jesus if you just call on His name; if you just humble yourself before him.  He IS Love.  In His Love, you can love your enemies.

Let us fix our eyes on the prize that is set before us.  Let us reach for the high calling in Christ Jesus.  The fullness of this is attainable.  Ephesians 4: 12-13 says we are to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

We can have this!  "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority." Colossians 2:9-10  It's ours in Christ Jesus!!  So let's go for it.  ALL of it!!  Let's learn from Him what it means to love our enemies.  Let's go for the glory.