One of the hardest sayings of our Lord has been a call to love our enemies, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-44). That part at the end about being perfect like the Father seems impossible, but we must remember what the Father did, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16). Which leads us to fact that we were all enemies of God, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Romans 5:10-11)
Remember God loved us when we were his enemies! So how can we not love our enemies? But how? How do we love our enemy? The answer is we are to be ministers of reconciliation to our enemies, “once, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:11-21).
We love our enemies by preaching the reconciliation to our enemies! By telling them they where enemies of God and He died for them.
For remember the man God chose to write two thirds of New Testament was an enemy of the Church, “I worked hard and killed men and women who believed as I believe today. I put them in chains and sent them to prison. The head religious leader and the leaders of the people can tell you this is true. I got letters from them to take to our Jewish brothers in the city of Damascus. I was going there to put the Christians in chains and bring them to Jerusalem where they would be beaten. I was near Damascus. All at once, about noon, I saw a bright light from heaven shining around me. I fell to the ground. A voice said to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you work so hard against Me?’ I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, the One you are working against.’ Those who were with me saw the light. But they did not hear Him speaking to me. I asked, ‘Lord, what should I do?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Get up! Go to Damascus. You will be told what to do there.’” Acts 22:4-10). If the early church had not obeyed, “love your enemy,” the the greatest ambassador of reconciliation and the Apostle of the Gentiles would have been hindered, but instead just like all of us in our sin, Jesus called Paul and reconciled Him.
Love your enemies, because you were enemies of God once, and how you love your enemy is by preaching the gospel, the minstry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:11-21) . Amen.
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