There are so many times when the commandments of Christianity go against our very human, and very flawed, natures.
We see groups like ISIS murdering Christians in Iraq, and the urge to hate them can be strong. We hear of pastors being burned to death in Nigeria and our gut instinct is to be filled with rage.
On the more mundane front, someone at work wrongs us, and we want to retaliate. Someone spreads rumors and we want to hurt them back.
But Jesus, who had more right to hate the cruelty and injustice in the people of the world than anyone, who knew more than anyone what betrayal was, commands us differently.
"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" (Matthew 5:44-45)
What..wait....are you sure Jesus? Umm...love them? Did you see what they did to me? Do you know what they did to my friend? Did you see how they killed Your people?
HOW can You ask this of us? I mean...really....that's crazy....love your enemies.....that makes no sense at all, Jesus. Why would you ask that of me?
Because hatred is poison, and it will slowly destroy all that which is good within us. When we give into hatred, into plotting vengeance, into savoring someone else's defeat, that which is good, and noble, praiseworthy and worthwhile in us withers.
As Christians, we are not to dwell in hate.
"You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment.
But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, 'You good-for-nothing,' is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell." (Matthew 5:21-22)
William Barclay, in his commentary on these verses, writes:
"What Jesus is saying here is this: "In the old days men condemned murder; and truly murder is forever wrong. But I tell you that not only are a man's outward actions under judgment; his inmost thoughts are also under the scrutiny and the judgment of God. Long-lasting anger is bad; contemptuous speaking is worse, and the careless or malicious talk which destroys a man's good name is worst of all." The man who is the slave of anger, the man who speaks in the accent of contempt, the man who destroys another's good name, may never have committed a murder in action, but he is a murderer at heart. "
John, the beloved Disciple, writes:
"Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." 1 John 3:15
It is hard..exceedingly hard, to have compassion on those who hurt us, hurt those we love, or hurt fellow followers of Christ. It is even harder to love them.
But we must.
Even if that just means praying, earnestly, devoutly, that the Holy Spirit will bring the truth of Christ into the hearts of our enemies, that they might find His light and love, and repent.
If we can do more, we should. We should forgive those who have hurt us (after all, hasn't God forgiven us of much worse offenses on our part against Him?) and by being kind even when they are not. We don't have to pretend that someone is better than they are, or that they haven't committed grave wounds against us or others, nor even that some judgement will have to be made for those wounds, but we must love them anyway. (And in most cases, we must leave the judgement to God, or to the authorities, which in Romans we are told are given their authority through the will of God. Rom 13:1-7)
Loving our enemies doesn't mean we have to have a fond feeling of liking them, it is deeper than that.
"I have to love him as I love myself. Well, how exactly do I love myself?
Now that I come to think of it, I have not exactly got a feeling of fondness or affection for myself, and I do not even always enjoy my own society. So apparently 'Love your neighbor' does not mean 'feel fond of him' or 'find him attractive'. I ought to have seen that before, because, of course, you cannot feel fond of a person by trying. Do I think well of myself, think myself a nice chap? Well, I am afraid I sometimes do (and those are, no doubt, my worst moments) but that is not why I love myself. In fact it is the other way round: my self-love makes me think myself nice, but thinking myself nice is not why I love myself. So loving my enemies does not apparently mean thinking them nice either. That is an enormous relief. For a good many people imagine that forgiving your enemies means making out that they are really not such bad fellows after all, when it is quite plain that they are. Go a step further. In my most clear-sighted moments not only do I not think myself a nice man, but I know that I am a very nasty one. I can look at some of the things I have done with horror and loathing. So apparently I am allowed to loathe and hate some of the things my enemies do. Now that I come to think of it, I remember Christian teachers telling me long ago that I must hate bad man's actions, but not hate the bad man: or, as they would say, hate the sin but not the sinner." C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
This doesn't mean that a Christian must remain as a doormat in a bad relationship. That doesn't mean that a Christian must put themselves in harm's way over and over again. It doesn't mean that Christians should look the other way at oppression and injustice and pretend they are not there. (Indeed, we are to stand against them.)
But it does mean that we must make the hard decision to actually follow what Jesus commands.
To love the unlovable. To forgive. To pray and bless and be merciful even to those who have hurt us.
To trust that God's justice and judgement will be greater and fairer than our own.
We aren't given an option. We are told to love our enemies. To forgive those who have wronged us. To not hate, even when the world tells us hate is justified.
So when in the course of everyday life....or watching the news, which is filled with terrors, resolve to pray.
Pray for those who hurt you; that Christ might become manifest in their lives. And if possible, show love to them.
Pray for those will kill and maim Christians and other innocents around the world; pray that the Holy Spirit might work in them and lead them to repentance and peace.
Pray for repentance yourself when you find that you are on the tip of calling someone a name (even if it is a politician), or when you are on the verge of speaking badly of someone to others. Ask that the Lord guide your words and your heart.
Will your prayers and love change others? Maybe. I have personally seen people come around due to a Christian's love, prayers and kindness to them. But they very well may not.
The backstabber may hurt you again. Your loved ones will be hurt again in this life by someone, as will you.
The slaughter of our Christian brethren will keep occurring until Christ Himself comes again.
Then why pray, you ask. Why love them if nothing may change?
So that you may honor God with your life, by following His commands. So that you will be a light in a dark world, and you will stand for Christ and His love, in a world that doesn't understand loving thy neighbor, much less loving thy enemy.
You love your enemy, and your neighbor, to honor God. You forgive wounds against you, to honor God. You bless those who persecute you, to honor God.
It really just comes down to this....are you going to do what Jesus told you to do?
Be blessed, my friends, and may you be a blessing unto others,
-Beth Haynes Butler
We see groups like ISIS murdering Christians in Iraq, and the urge to hate them can be strong. We hear of pastors being burned to death in Nigeria and our gut instinct is to be filled with rage.
On the more mundane front, someone at work wrongs us, and we want to retaliate. Someone spreads rumors and we want to hurt them back.
But Jesus, who had more right to hate the cruelty and injustice in the people of the world than anyone, who knew more than anyone what betrayal was, commands us differently.
"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" (Matthew 5:44-45)
What..wait....are you sure Jesus? Umm...love them? Did you see what they did to me? Do you know what they did to my friend? Did you see how they killed Your people?
HOW can You ask this of us? I mean...really....that's crazy....love your enemies.....that makes no sense at all, Jesus. Why would you ask that of me?
Because hatred is poison, and it will slowly destroy all that which is good within us. When we give into hatred, into plotting vengeance, into savoring someone else's defeat, that which is good, and noble, praiseworthy and worthwhile in us withers.
As Christians, we are not to dwell in hate.
"You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment.
But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, 'You good-for-nothing,' is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell." (Matthew 5:21-22)
William Barclay, in his commentary on these verses, writes:
"What Jesus is saying here is this: "In the old days men condemned murder; and truly murder is forever wrong. But I tell you that not only are a man's outward actions under judgment; his inmost thoughts are also under the scrutiny and the judgment of God. Long-lasting anger is bad; contemptuous speaking is worse, and the careless or malicious talk which destroys a man's good name is worst of all." The man who is the slave of anger, the man who speaks in the accent of contempt, the man who destroys another's good name, may never have committed a murder in action, but he is a murderer at heart. "
John, the beloved Disciple, writes:
"Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." 1 John 3:15
It is hard..exceedingly hard, to have compassion on those who hurt us, hurt those we love, or hurt fellow followers of Christ. It is even harder to love them.
But we must.
Even if that just means praying, earnestly, devoutly, that the Holy Spirit will bring the truth of Christ into the hearts of our enemies, that they might find His light and love, and repent.
If we can do more, we should. We should forgive those who have hurt us (after all, hasn't God forgiven us of much worse offenses on our part against Him?) and by being kind even when they are not. We don't have to pretend that someone is better than they are, or that they haven't committed grave wounds against us or others, nor even that some judgement will have to be made for those wounds, but we must love them anyway. (And in most cases, we must leave the judgement to God, or to the authorities, which in Romans we are told are given their authority through the will of God. Rom 13:1-7)
Loving our enemies doesn't mean we have to have a fond feeling of liking them, it is deeper than that.
"I have to love him as I love myself. Well, how exactly do I love myself?
Now that I come to think of it, I have not exactly got a feeling of fondness or affection for myself, and I do not even always enjoy my own society. So apparently 'Love your neighbor' does not mean 'feel fond of him' or 'find him attractive'. I ought to have seen that before, because, of course, you cannot feel fond of a person by trying. Do I think well of myself, think myself a nice chap? Well, I am afraid I sometimes do (and those are, no doubt, my worst moments) but that is not why I love myself. In fact it is the other way round: my self-love makes me think myself nice, but thinking myself nice is not why I love myself. So loving my enemies does not apparently mean thinking them nice either. That is an enormous relief. For a good many people imagine that forgiving your enemies means making out that they are really not such bad fellows after all, when it is quite plain that they are. Go a step further. In my most clear-sighted moments not only do I not think myself a nice man, but I know that I am a very nasty one. I can look at some of the things I have done with horror and loathing. So apparently I am allowed to loathe and hate some of the things my enemies do. Now that I come to think of it, I remember Christian teachers telling me long ago that I must hate bad man's actions, but not hate the bad man: or, as they would say, hate the sin but not the sinner." C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
This doesn't mean that a Christian must remain as a doormat in a bad relationship. That doesn't mean that a Christian must put themselves in harm's way over and over again. It doesn't mean that Christians should look the other way at oppression and injustice and pretend they are not there. (Indeed, we are to stand against them.)
But it does mean that we must make the hard decision to actually follow what Jesus commands.
To love the unlovable. To forgive. To pray and bless and be merciful even to those who have hurt us.
To trust that God's justice and judgement will be greater and fairer than our own.
We aren't given an option. We are told to love our enemies. To forgive those who have wronged us. To not hate, even when the world tells us hate is justified.
So when in the course of everyday life....or watching the news, which is filled with terrors, resolve to pray.
Pray for those who hurt you; that Christ might become manifest in their lives. And if possible, show love to them.
Pray for those will kill and maim Christians and other innocents around the world; pray that the Holy Spirit might work in them and lead them to repentance and peace.
Pray for repentance yourself when you find that you are on the tip of calling someone a name (even if it is a politician), or when you are on the verge of speaking badly of someone to others. Ask that the Lord guide your words and your heart.
Will your prayers and love change others? Maybe. I have personally seen people come around due to a Christian's love, prayers and kindness to them. But they very well may not.
The backstabber may hurt you again. Your loved ones will be hurt again in this life by someone, as will you.
The slaughter of our Christian brethren will keep occurring until Christ Himself comes again.
Then why pray, you ask. Why love them if nothing may change?
So that you may honor God with your life, by following His commands. So that you will be a light in a dark world, and you will stand for Christ and His love, in a world that doesn't understand loving thy neighbor, much less loving thy enemy.
You love your enemy, and your neighbor, to honor God. You forgive wounds against you, to honor God. You bless those who persecute you, to honor God.
It really just comes down to this....are you going to do what Jesus told you to do?
Be blessed, my friends, and may you be a blessing unto others,
-Beth Haynes Butler
No comments:
Post a Comment