Love Who?

If you are following my blog, you may continue to note that I am writing less frequently in this series on the Sermon on the Mount. It is taking longer to get quiet and digest what the words of Christ mean in my life. I am being challenged more and more to live out my faith in the daily and often in the moment. As God grows me, more and more, I am learning that victories and failures, at their root, come from choices I make in those moments of decision to either follow Christ or my self-will. This verse and the following passages speak to when I am faced with what I will do with the love God has unconditionally poured into me and over me.

First, when I read these verses, my carnal, sarcastic self has a stubborn, rebellious answer that looks like this: “Seriously?” My reply is rooted in my unwillingness to love even my family and friends the way God has called me to, let alone my enemies. In my experience, I have come across many folks in the faith who have shared with me that they don’t feel they have enemies, maybe only a few people they don’t like. Once again, my inner Sharon quips, “Seriously?” They need to ride through Charleston traffic with me, and it would be very apparent who I have deemed as the enemy. I love the Lord, but I struggle! Maybe my prayer life would be enhanced if instead of always asking ‘who is my neighbor,’ I should ask the Lord to reveal to me, ‘who is in my enemy?’

Yesterday was our 43rd wedding anniversary. We made it! Staying married this long only happens one way. Grace. We love each other, but both of us are sinners, often wanting our own way and, at times, painfully unaware of it. I shared with one of our pastors, Trey, on Sunday as we chatted that we stayed married not because either of us deserves it but because God deserves it. Trey said you ought to write about that! You never know how God can use another person to speak to you. 

Sure, there has been fun, romance, companionship, passion, etc., along the way. Still, there have been times when we have come to places and challenges where we were more enemies than friends, holding opposite views about our relationship, parenting, finances, goals, even our faith walk, etc. It was only by prayer and patience that we worked it out. Neither of us is worthy of 43 years of all that mercy, forgiveness, patience, and endurance, but God is worthy. He alone provides the love and mercy for us to keep our commitment first to Him and second to each other. Somedays, we are still working it out. So when God says to love your enemies and pray for them, I recognize that I have trouble responding with the type of love Jesus refers to here, even among my family, neighbors, and friends.

 So, when Jesus calls us to love and pray for those who are our enemies, He is challenging us to the highest response by Grace we can offer. He is not asking us to pray like I want to, “Lord, you know this person is out to get me, aggravates, undermines, doesn’t respect, and causes me trouble. Would you smite them like I read in the Old Testament? You know, Lord, like in times of war and persecution. Don’t kill them, Lord; make them suffer, Lord.” Going biblically historical seems justifiable and theological at the moment. However, this does not approach the tone of Grace that Jesus set before us. The type of prayer Jesus refers to is that we intercede and ask Him to bless our enemies and make good things happen to them. What? Seriously? The answer is emphatic: yes.!!! In the follow-up passages, Jesus expounds that even the pagans do good to those who do good to them. Even the faithless greet their own little possies. But Jesus gives us the word picture that God sends rain and sun on both the just and the unjust. These two groups are those who embrace God and those who reject Him. And the Lord loves His enemies, and we as His children are called to imitate Him (Ephesians 5:1) Because at one time I was the enemy of God (Romans 5:10-21).

Praying for good to happen to your enemies means you have invited forgiveness into your heart and circumstances. By the way, in no way do we, as His children, have to endorse wrongdoing, affirm abusive behavior, stuff our hurt, or even agree. I am not called to agree WITH my enemies but called to be IN agreement with God. These two things are not synonymous. True forgiveness comes from God’s heart to ours and is to be shared with others. I like to think clinically that I have received the vaccine for anger and hatred, and the love of Jesus gives me spiritual antibodies that I can help spiritually transfuse to others through prayer and forgiveness. When Jackie DeShannon released her record in 1965, “What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love,” I couldn’t help but think of the difference a disciple following Jesus can make in the world around them. 

In these moments on the mountain, the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord has answered the love who questions and the love how to process. It is now up to me to love when? The answer is always now.

Lord, right now, even as I write these words, conviction grips me that I am far too passive about loving my enemies and praying for those who trouble me—even recognizing denial about the hatred that hangs out in deep and dark places in me. Lord, remind me you are not my resource of love and forgiveness but the only source of it. Holy Spirit, help me let love off the chain in my life and partner with you to lavish it on others; let me be extravagant with my enemies as a testimony of the Grace I have so undeservedly received.