““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,” Matthew 5:43-44 (ESV).
As I recently reflected on these difficult words and considered how to live them I was struck by the commentary provided by Scot McKnight: “It begins when we confess who is our enemy and it ends when we learn to love them as our neighbor” (147). Who is my enemy? I usually don’t consider that I might have any enemies and yet I think we all have enemies. Who is that person who constantly gets under your skin? Maybe it's not a single person but it's actually a group of people. Maybe your enemy is a political party. Perhaps it’s the homosexual community, or the media, or even another Christian denomination. These imperatives given by Jesus are not just some pie-in-the-sky idealism — they are meant to be lived out. But in order to respond to Jesus’ words we must take the time to identify the enemy and then work to love them as our own neighbors. Who is your enemy? What are you doing to pray for and love your enemy? Do you want them to be your neighbor or would you rather see them meet with ruin?
By: Pastor Jay Mast
Sources: McKnight, Scot, et al. Sermon on the Mount. Zondervan, 2016.
