I tell you, it’s impossible to be truly holy without total obedience to our Lord’s command to love one another. Jesus said, “The whole law is fulfilled in this – that you love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself” (see Matthew 22:37-40). Indeed, God tests our love for him by the love we show to our Christian brothers and sisters. “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (1 John 4:20).
You can sing God’s praises in church, you can serve food to the homeless – but if you carry a single grudge against anyone, your love for God is in vain. Scripture says if you harbor evil in your heart toward another, you’re an outright hypocrite in God’s eyes.
Loving those who’ve wounded us is not an option, but a command. “This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment” (1 John 3:23). “These things I command you, that ye love one another” (John 15:17).
You may protest, “Lord, I’ll serve you, praise you, worship you, sacrifice for you – but don’t expect me to lay down this hurt. If you only understood the depths of pain I’ve been through, you wouldn’t demand this of me. It’s beyond my ability to do.”
No – it is within your ability to do. Jesus says he has given us all power over the enemy. His Holy Spirit empowers us to forgive, even when we’ve been deeply wounded.
Yet Jesus states very clearly: “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:43-44).
Consider Jesus’ example. He faced the combined evil of every significant power in his day – government officials, political heads, church leaders. All of these people made themselves Christ’s enemies, railing at him maliciously. Yet at the height of his pain – on the very brink of death – Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34).
You may ask, “Are we supposed to love evil people – abortion doctors, unscrupulous politicians, militant homosexuals who claim Jesus was gay? Doesn’t the Bible tell us we’re to cry out against sin and fiercely resist evildoers?” Yes, it does. But we are to resist these people’s evil ways without hating their persons.
You may wish to claim David’s prayer: “Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies” (Psalm 139:21-22). Yet, even David finally discovered the gracious spirit of the law. He learned it’s possible to hate someone’s evil without hating the person. He wrote: “I hate the work of them that turn aside” (Psalm 101:3). “I hate every false way” (119:104). “I hate and abhor [their] lying” (119:163).
Moreover, we bring glory to our heavenly father whenever we overlook hurts and forgive the sins done to us. To do so builds character in us. We’ve already read that if we react as Jesus did, “The Lord shall reward thee” (Proverbs 25:22). When we forgive as God forgives, he brings us into a revelation of favor and blessing we’ve never known.
But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who ill-treat you. Love your enemies. Do good to them and lend to them without expecting anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Luke 6:27, 35-36.
This is perhaps the most ignored of Jesus’ teachings, yet also one of the most powerful and profound. This instruction to bless our enemies flies in the face of every survival instinct – every law of self-preservation. We recoil from the thought, particularly when raw and hurting from some vicious attack on ourselves or our loved ones. Instead of blessing, we want to bring down the curses of God upon our enemies. We long to see them destroyed.
Here are powerful guidelines for how to bless our enemies.
1. Be blessed with the PRESENCE of God.
2. Be blessed with the POWER of God
3. Be blessed with the PEACE of God
4. Be blessed with the PROTECTION of God
5. Be blessed with the PURPOSES of God
Just think what such a blessing implies: it is calling down the Presence and Power of the Most High, the Almighty and awesome God of creation and re-creation, to settle over our enemies. The Apostle Paul puts it this way:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of fire on his head.”
The ‘burning coals of fire’ sounds more appealing, but we need to remind ourselves it is the ‘burning fire of God’s Holy Presence’. When you bless your enemies, this is what you are calling down upon them. There is no need to be specific or prescriptive. Just let God be God.
Now for the practical bit. When you are burning with pain or outrage, try praying the ‘Five-P Blessing’ over the person responsible for your hurt. Do it as an act of your will. Do it repeatedly.
Two amazing things will happen: You will experience the Holy Spirit joining you in the blessing as the God of mercy begins to touch your enemy; you will feel the bitter poison of hatred and unforgiveness draining from you. This is the first step towards offering forgiveness – and it is one which God also requires. When we act like this, we are truly ‘children of God’.
What a change this could make! Can we ever gauge the effect that a blessing in God’s Name and Power could have on another human being? God will reveal it to us one day and we will see how our love for others led them closer to Him.
