Posted on 09/20/2014 4:05:24 PM PDT by HarleyD
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’ said Jesus in his famous Sermon on the Mount. “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 5:43).
If you’ve ever wondered why many people refused to follow Jesus during his earthly ministry, you have to look no further than that verse.
In our day, we have watered down the term “enemy” so much that this command has lost much of its shock value. Today, “enemy” is used primarily in reference to people who are rude to us or treat us unkindly. We even use the portmanteau “frenemy” to refer to an associate pretending to be a friend or someone who really is a friend but also a rival.
But in Jesus day, the Jews in Israel had real enemies. For the entirety of their existence as a people they had been fending off enemies — from their slavery in Egypt to the state of occupation by their latest enemy, the Roman Empire. Telling them to love and pray for enemies was akin to telling the Christians in Iraq to love and pray for ISIS.
And yet, that is exactly what Jesus was saying. When Jesus gave the command to love and pray for our enemies he knew it would one day require praying for Islamic extremist groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda who murder his Bride. Jesus was saying that when we think of those people, we no longer even see them as enemies. As John MacArthur explains, “we are not to be enemies of those who may be enemies to us. From their perspective, we are their enemies; but from our perspective, they should be our neighbors.”
But how do we do that? How should we pray for these neighbors who want to murder members of our family? Such a task is difficult, but there are three specific ways we can pray for those who are engaged in persecution against Christians:
1. Pray for their conversion
There are two primary reasons we don’t pray for the conversion of Islamic extremists. The first reason is that we believe it is absurd to think they’ll become Christians. The second reason is that we fear they might actually convert.
The first reason is more common, since praying the terrorists will convert seems like a useless plea. We recognize the theological truth that God can do for them what he did for us: provide the gift of grace that they might be saved (Ephesians 2:8). But we look at the situation “realistically” and tell ourselves that the probability of their genuine conversion is so close to zero that it would be a waste of our time (and God’s) to even bother to ask.
No doubt such conversions are unlikely and rare. Yet we should pray for their conversion anyway. If we truly love our enemy, how could we not at least petition God on their behalf?
Another, less frequent, reason we don’t pray for their conversion is because we fear they may actually repent. Like Jonah in Nineveh, we want our enemies to receive their just desserts, not mercy and forgiveness. Consider all of the Christians who dutifully prayed for the Nazis. How would they have felt if they discovered that Hitler, in the moments prior to his death, had truly repented of his sins and was forgiven by God? Many of those Christians would have felt cheated, as if it was unfair of God to forgive such horrific crimes. They would likely want to complain, as Jonah did when God spared the Ninevites, “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” (Jonah 4:2)?
But it is precisely because he is a gracious and compassionate God that we ought to pray for the conversion of our enemies. How could we do anything less than ask God to show them the same grace shown to us?
2. Pray the evil they do may be restrained
There is no dichotomy in praying for the good of our enemy and praying that their evil actions be restrained. It is to their benefit as well as ours that they be prevented from committing more evil. For those who have hardened their heart against God, it would be better that their life was shortened than for them to continue to persecute his children.
The protection of innocents from slaughter may require human governments to take military action against that Islamic extremists. We are warranted in supporting the just use of force in restraining such evil. But we should remember that while the death of the terrorists may be the only effective way to restrain their actions, we should not rejoice in their suffering or death (Proverbs 24:17).
3. Pray they will receive divine justice
Just as we seek justice on earth from duly established governmental authorities, we can seek the divine justice of our holy God. As John N. Day says, “[W]hereas love and blessing are the characteristic ethic of believers of both testaments, cursing and calling for divine vengeance are their extreme ethic and may be voiced in extreme circumstances, against hardened, deceitful, violent, immoral, unjust sinners.”
In asking that divine justice be done, we should be careful to guard our motives. Praying for divine justice can be a way to circumvent our duty to love our enemy. While we must leave vengeance to God, we must not forget what is commanded of us. As Paul writes in Romans 12:19-21:
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
In the order of our prayers, asking for divine justice should be included as the “last resort” option, a plea for doing what is necessary for those who will neither turn to God nor turn away from doing evil.
As former enemies of God, we should be gracious and grateful that we are allowed to pray for our current enemies, secure in the knowledge that Jesus will hear us. We should be thankful enough for the grace of God that we want even our enemies to receive it too. But if they refuse and harden their hearts against the one who would spare them, then we must ask they receive the divine retribution due everyone apart from the righteousness of Christ.
Additional Resources: In discussions of praying for our enemies it's important to consider the role and relevance of the imprecatory prayers found in the Bible. The topic was too complex to address in this brief article, so for more on that topic I recommend Sam Storms' essay "Imprecations in the Psalms."
Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?
At some point, divine justice is all you can hope and pray for. “Turn the other cheek” is what we’re told to do, but that involves a certain context. It doesn’t mean let someone go on a killing rampage if the only way to stop them is to kill them instead.
But more to the point, I couldn’t understand once why Jesus said “love thy enemy”. What sense does that make? But if you are only kind to those who are kind to you, and cruel to those cruel to you, what good is it? That’s what everyone does. That’s what animals do. It requires no effort, no sacrifice, and no one wonders why you did it.
“What is best in life?...Conan.”
“To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.”
“Good.”
“Love thy enemy” also means to fight without hatred. To fight because you are following God’s law, and that’s all. To disengage from personal rancor and pray for the person who has fallen into so much evil that you are required to fight them, without taking it personally.
Needless to say, it’s easier said than done.
But it’s also the flip side of not fighting back and letting evil people walk all over you simply because liberals keep insisting that Jesus was a wimp. And is it really all that confusing that evil interprets this teachng as not fighting back at all? Otherwise it would get its @ss kicked.
45, 50 cal and 20MM!!!
Hate comes from anger tricked by evil.
You can’t change a soul’s mind if you kill his body. To give up on a soul is what we SPECIFICALLY ask God exactly iyioNOT to do in the Our Father and every prayer for Mercy.
Our faith is afraid like Saint Peter’s was until He truly experienced Jesus’ love and mercy. It is easy to offer my life....but what about my kids’ lives or your kids’ lives? My life’s loss might save theirs but if it likely wont, then I must become a soldier that the enemy I pray for cannot hurt those innocents on my side of the line and I will seek as strongly to not hurt the innocents on his side of the line....and what fools we are to have to be shooting at each other while the devil laughs at our predicament.....his hate/anger and my fear for my innocents.
The Saints pray for justice in Revelation, but it’s much more manifold than our personally receiving retribution.
Those innocents who are being slaughtered need justice to be at peace
For them, justice is mercy.
This is consistent with the essentially undifferentiated Nature of God.
His Justice is His Mercy.
He said love your enemy. Pray for him. Notice, specifically, he never said not to defend yourself or yours. Resist evil with His power and all your strength.
Need this.
You are so right. Adversaries are here so that we know how to fight.
Very good.
One thing that helps to remember is that what we are fighting is the spiritual forces controlling the lives of the unbelievers.
They are sold into sin and, without sounding like I'm excusing them, they have very little control over what they do.
Yes, they choose to do it and choose to engage, but it's easier to pray for them and love them when you realize that in some respects, they have very little control over what's going on in their minds.
Without the Spirit of God, who is greater than he who is in the world, humans are sitting ducks for the enemy. In the flesh, there is no resisting him.
Great understanding of spiritual warfare. I wish other Christians understood the wisdom you put forth, less families would be torn apart and more prayer and understanding could help the sinner find hope....and Christ.
I wish I had learned it sooner.
It would have saved me a lot of grief over the years as well.
So many live in the bondage of a Priest, Pastor, or other religious figure.
WE all did until truth found us.
Thanks.
It's how we handle the enemies that are closest to us that really matter. Do we pray for them and show them that Jesus loved and died for them? That is more important than ginning up good feelings for people we never meet. Of course our prayers need know no bounds.
I think C S Lewis talks about this in the Screwtape letters, but I don't have it handy to confirm.
May those who love us, love us;
and those who don't love us,
may God turn their hearts;
and if He doesn't turn their hearts,
may He turn their ankles
so we'll know them by their limping.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.