Love Your Enemy
The laws of the Kingdom of Heavens determine our behavior and through them we possess blessing and power.
Is it possible for us to obey this law? It is God’s order and He knows it is possible for us to obey. That is God Who dwells in me, Who executes that order for me.
Some may claim that these laws do not fit, our time anymore. Our present time is a time of power. If someone attacks me and I don’t hit him back, he will take advantage of me and I will be always in defeat. God Who puts this law is eternal and His orders don’t change with time. These laws are different from the earthy laws.
There were 10 commandments in the Old Testament and similarly, there are also 10 in the New Testament. God gives us laws periodically. In the old days, we were slaves, but we became His beloved’s if we follow His rules. We are also His disciples and pupils have to follow their teachers.
The subject of this 5th law is about loving your enemies. The Lord said, "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you." [Matthew 5:43-44]
Let us find out, who said, " hate your enemy? God is love, whether in the Old Testament or the New Testament. But the Pharisees added these words themselves. God doesn’t know hatred, but only love, "That you may be the sons of your Father in heaven; foe 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 have you? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others do? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." [Matthew 5:45-48]
Divine commandments are against hatred.
Before we begin our study. Let us read this verse, " Love is the fulfillment of the law." [Romans 13:10] The Commandments did mention this and our Lord Christ, summarized the commandments into two:
The First: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind."
The Second: "And your neighbor as yourself." Refer to: [Luke 10:25-27]
With these two commandments, LOVE was ordered in both the Old and New Testaments. It has been referred to as, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another." [John 13:34]
Similarly, St. Paul said, "Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adulatory," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear false witness," "You shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in the saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." "Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is a fulfillment of the law." [Romans13: 8-10]
What is better than searching the Word of God that enlightens for us knowledge and wisdom?
"Through love one another" for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." [Galatians 5: 13-14]
"Now the purpose of the commandment, is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith." [I Timothy 1:5]
Accordingly, we can see that the law can be summarized in one word, that is love.
In the Old Testament, people had to love God and their relatives, but in the New Testament, we have to love one another only.
With joy I appreciate God not asking me to love Him! My love to Him can’t be described. I see no point in asking my children to love me! The fact is they love me because they are my children and I love them.
I love God, not to gain Heaven.
Nor to avoid the flames of hell
I love Him because He loved me
He is the One that loved me first!
[A poem that became a hymn later.]
Naturally, God didn’t ask me to love Him, as it is natural for the faithful children to love their father. We, His adopted children, were baptized, to live with Him in a new life.
It is a sin to break the law of love. We feel shameful when we realize we did break it, when:
When we love our enemies, we follow God’s lead in loving us at a time we may be His enemies.
But who are our enemies?
It is important to see how many times we use this harmful weapon and to what extend others use it.
Example:
Once a clergy rebuked a servant when he heard her badmouth some people. But she replied that these were facts and not hearsay. He replied, telling her that saying bad things about others, even if they were true, is considered bad. If what was said was not true, then it is considered as lying.
Frequently we think that it is permissible to say everything about others as long as we know they were true. This is wrong.
God knows to what extent our churches had been harmed, just by this tiny member, that is the tongue, by insulting others.
How many times did we say improper things about others, criticizing them and their services? Remember the other heavenly law- the eighth- that says; "Do not judge, so you may not be judged." [Matthew 7-1]
When Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on the throne filling the altar, he screamed, as he felt ‘‘ being a human with unclean lips ‘’
We have to rid ourselves from these sins and to thank God help us by fleeing away out of them. Remember that our sins were also crucified with Him on the cross.
This law teaches us;
We need to remember St. Paul’s words, "Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. Therefore if your enemy hungers, feed him; If he thirsts, give him a drink; For in so doing you evil heap coals of fire on his head. Do not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good," [Romans 9:19-21]
This again confirms the Fifth Law: "Love your enemies."
Naturally it is difficult to love your enemy. Nobody can deny the feeling of resentment against insult like being:
However the children of God can. God never gave an order He knew it is impossible to obey.
So as one of God’s children, meaning that I repent my sins faithfully and come forward to my Lord Jesus Christ, as a reborn anew and have my Lords nature, then I can. I sould be sharing the Divine Nature, exactly as St. Paul mentioned that there is no doubt that God naturally loves His enemies.
Nobody can explain why God loves us at a time we openly disobey Him.
"But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." [Romans 5:8] That is a message that God loves His enemies.
I dare to say that God can’t but love His enemies, as God’s Nature is love and not hate.
That is how The Lord Jesus loved His enemies while He was in this world. He blessed those who trespassed against Him. He was nice to those who dismissed Him. He prayed for those who insulted and persecuted Him. He screamed and said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." [Luke: 23-34]
Why Christ loved His enemies?
Because He was Son of God, not only a perfect man, but God Himself. Thus His Nature was God’s nature that loves the enemies.
So, if we are, the children of God, then we can love our enemies.
Why then, only few of us obey that order?
That is because there is a lot of "the ancient man" within us, but we have been reborn and should be anew in Jesus Christ.
There is another good reason for us to love our enemies, that is the cross of Jesus Christ. Through the cross we can overcome what stops us from loving our enemies. Through Christ’s death, He purified us totally and wiped out all our sins. When He was pinned to the cross, the "ancient sinful character", which we inherited from Adam, was also pinned down and we were saved.
We thank God for the cross of Jesus Christ. Truly we are indebted to the cross.
I stopped by the cross to ask for forgiveness of my sins. I saw Christ dying instead of me. So come to the cross again and pin on it the "ancient sinful nature" of the ancient man. Now we can get rid of it and can grow and live in God.
A small ship was sailing in the ocean, when a strong hit it. It broke and was filled with water. In the boat there was a father, a mother and their baby. When they realized that the end was near, they asked a young man to take their child to safety. He took the child quickly to the lifeboat where a sailor told him, that there was only one, either for him or the child. He then threw the child into the boat and went down with ship screaming to the child to remember him for his sacrifice, accepting his death to let him live.
What our Lord Christ did for us, is more than what this person did.
If you have an enemy and feel his hate, see his intentions to harm you, and you feel disgust against them, realize then that this is the nature of the ancient man and not that of God.
If you want to get rid of that "old sinful nature", pray to God to relief you from such feelings, to be able to love your enemies, with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Just remember the Divine promise, "I will put My Spirit within you and cause to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them." [Ezekiel 27-36]
What a pleasure knowing God’s promise in helping us to obey and practice His commandments.
The great St. Cyril said that there are brothers who have the image of Christ during their prayers, giving them the beauty that is not matched.
St. Gregarious once described those who are full with love like their good Father as they became His children.
It is necessary to have principles and goals similar to the Divine ones, to become pure and holy.
To end this chapter of the fifth law, we have to be complete like our Father Who is in Heaven. This doesn’t mean in His wisdom and ability, but in love. We have to love others as Christ loved us. This may be hard to achieve, but that is what Christ asked us to be. He is capable to give us the power to obey His order. He always gives us the power to follow Him and if we don’t do it, then it is our failing.
God can change us as He did change the thief on the right,
the sinful woman and others. David the prophet pointed out that God leads
us in His Name.