- Jesus: The Series (Season 6)
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Devotion by John Piper
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
“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. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:38–48)
Now those are some of the most difficult, controversial, radical demands Jesus ever put on the world, and they are real. They are in the Bible. We should live like this. His words raise serious questions: Do we really need to do that? Do Christians even have enemies? We’re generally nice people. I hate to have enemies. Secondly, how do you do that? It seems very complicated and difficult to love an enemy. Third, how in the world can you get to the point where your heart really wants to bless an enemy? I can maybe imagine doing nice things for them, but Jesus says to love them. He says to bless those who curse you and abuse you.
You Will Have Enemies
So, do we even need this command? Do we really have enemies? Jesus said: “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household” (Matthew 10:25). Which means: If Jesus got criticized, how much more you? So if you are a follower of Jesus, it’s a given that you will have enemies. Paul said: “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” (2 Timothy 3:12). If you don’t have any enemies, your godliness is probably not showing very well. Jesus said, “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you” (Luke 6:26).
We need this. Christians, we will be maligned, and all the more as American culture collapses around us as we take biblical stands over against worldly stands. We will be accused of things falsely. How will we respond to those who rise up against us? Love your enemies.
We Don’t Need Anything
Do you know why Jesus said those radical commands — go the extra mile, let a person sue you, give? He meant for that to be your default response. Each example says that Jesus is our satisfaction. We don’t need money. We don’t need revenge. We don’t need security. We have Jesus. I can display the worth of Jesus to the world by giving to the one who asks, by endangering myself to serve you. That should be our default response.
You can tell who people are when they are studying this issue. You will know in just a few minutes who the people are who are trying to weasel their way out. They are not broken-hearted because they are unloving people. They try to get out of the trap of Jesus’ demand that we be changed at the root of our being, which brings us now to this last question.
Four Motivations to Love Our Enemies
How are you going to become a person like this, a person who loves your enemies? Let’s look first at Romans 5:10. “If while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, how much more will we be saved by his life?” God saved you while you were his enemy. You didn’t befriend him before he moved in on you and saved you. So the root origin of how to love our enemies is to experience being loved as an enemy of God.
Secondly, Matthew 5:44 says, “Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you and you will be sons of your Father” (who loves like that). In other words, another motivation is that we show ourselves to be a child of God. We prove we have the same DNA as the Father.
One of the reasons it’s hard to love our enemies is because it feels like we’re letting them get away with murder. Nobody gets away with murder or anything else. “Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat.” Hand vengeance over to God. Don’t think justice won’t be done. It will be done. All sins will be punished, either on the cross for those who repent and you can’t improve upon that punishment, or in hell for those who don’t repent and you can’t improve upon that punishment.
“Blessed are you when men persecute you and revile you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice in that day and be glad for great is your reward in heaven.” There is a reward in heaven, spectacularly beyond anything you lose on this earth in loving your enemies. Let’s show the world how free we are from vengeance, free we are from the love of money, free we are from the need of security, and how much love we have for those who persecute us.