“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor.’ But I say to you, love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you. If you do this, you will be true children of your Father in heaven. HE causes the sun to rise on good people and on evil people, and sends rain on those who do right and to those who do wrong. Matthew 5:43-45 NCV
Verse selection is a meticulous process. I’m planning themes and overviews of entire books of the Bible. For now, I’m drawn to certain verses. Theologically speaking I fall off the wall towards conditional election. But in this case, certain verses call me. Or select me to write about them. And this is one of them.
Love your enemies. Nothing is more Christ-like; more difficult, more confusing. How do I pray for those who hurt me? Enemies. And those who cause pain. I really rather just forget them. I try not to hate. I am a Christian after all. Don’t let bitterness take root! Well, maybe I’m not that angry. Just let them take a long walk off the side of the planet. Be gone! Away from my memory. Out of my head. Out of my life. I don’t wish them evil, but no good either. I wish them non-existent. Loving my enemies? Can’t check that off yet.
Prayer. Praying when times are good is easy… but do I really pray? Like an excited child, I list the things I like and ram a “thank you” in there and call it prayer. Maybe if I’m singing, I’ll call it worship. Praying when times are difficult? No where do I feel closer to GOD when times are bad. But I’m angry too. I don’t like the bad times. I don’t like to grow and I don’t like it difficult. And I won’t even contemplate the times when I can’t pray… I just cling to the promise In the same way, the SPIRIT helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the SPIRIT himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express (Romans 8:26 NIV). Right now my prayers focus on me. Prayer for those who hurt? Can’t check that one off either.
The last portion of the verses is a great comfort to me in times of not understanding. For HE causes HIS sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. The sun—blessings and curses. Jesus says—He makes HIS sun rise on the evil and the good. The sun shines on both; the evil and the good. There are no dark spots following the evil ones around. Wouldn’t it be awesome if it were true… “oops, hey sorry I can’t associate with you. There is no sunshine around you. You must be evil.” But no, HE shines his sun upon all.
The sun is necessary for life. Growth. Warmth. Plants thrive in the sunshine. The sun is welcome to any outdoor gathering. Enjoyed. But what about too much sunshine? A scorched land. Damaged. Hardened.
Later on in Matthew, Jesus speaks of the Sower sowing seeds. Seeds that fall on the rocks are scorched by the sun. No soil. No root. Jesus explains the parable. These are people who hear the word of GOD and are on fire for him. Nothing can stop them, that is until hardships come. And then they fall. Hard. Because there is no root, no depth, they fade away when called to endure trials for HIM (Matthew 13:1-23).
The sun—GOD uses it to send blessings and curses. For HE causes HIS sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Rain? In a time of drought, water falling from the sky is a time to rejoice. But sometimes the ground is too dry and the rain doesn’t soak in. It runs off, as if on concrete. Sadly, the thing that the dirt needs most has built a runway to send it off. It reminds me of my heart.
Love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you. My heart can have a wall around it. A fortress to send away anything I don’t like. Or want to contemplate. The thing I need most is a melting of my heart of stone. I need to let Love to soak in. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26 NIV).
The parable mentioned earlier is often called the parable of the Sower. But really the parable is speaking of soils. It speaks to the condition of our heart. And how our hearts receive the WORD. What kind of soil will your heart have? What does GOD have to work with?
I can think of two ways for rain to soak into a hardened ground. One is a long, slow soaking over a long time. The second is to drive holes into the ground to get water below the top hardened layer. This is our hearts. Love, grace, mercy, forgiveness. The WORD of GOD. How do we soften the soil to our hearts to let these soak in? Will it take enduring trials over many years, decades? Or a major disaster that changes our lives forever that will cause us to cry out to HIM? How much work is needed on our hearts?
Love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you. My heart is easily hardened. It can be embittered with “righteous anger.” But if I want to be a true child of GOD, I need to pray for those who hurt me. The sun shines on the good and the evil. What separates the good from the evil? One way is our response when the sun shines. And when the rain comes down.
It is easy to hate my enemy. It is easy to love those who love me. My calling, the calling of GOD is for me to Love my enemies. And pray for those who hurt me. Nothing else can move forward until I respond, correctly. All of my life with Christ will keep coming back to that; Love my enemies. Once I get a handle on it, or maybe a glimpse of what it means to truly love my enemies then I can be open to more of what GOD has to teach me.
What response do you have to HIM?
