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Posts Tagged ‘love for enemies’

Jesus’s call to love our enemies and make peace

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on December 4, 2025| 1 Comment »

It’s my privilege this morning to share with you about our Lord’s teaching on love for enemies and peacemaking. This is a part of our sermon series on hard topics – and yes, it can be hard to love our enemies. For whatever reason God has allowed me to experience several really difficult enemies in our journey and I can testify to you that it’s a difficult path to walk. Although I can also testify that God always provides the strength and wisdom we need to do his will.

This is also a hard topic because of all the issues and questions it raises. It’s just not possible in one short presentation like I’m sharing today to address all of these. I was teaching a college class on this topic in Kenya in August and a student in the back – a large man with a booming voice – raised his hand every time I stopped for questions. And he asked really tough questions which led to some great conversations. And in this case by the end of the class we seemed to be on the same page. Likewise, I’m happy to have conversations with you to talk more about these things if you like. And I would love to hear where you’re coming from.

I want us to look briefly at two key passages this morning, and the first is –

Matthew 5:43-44

“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.”

A couple of observations. First, things were different in the Old Testament. That’s not hard to see. And here is where we see that Jesus changes things for God’s people in the new covenant. “This is how things were, but I say to you . . .”

The Old Testament operated by “an eye for an eye.” If someone harms you, you can return harm to them in a proportionate way. But in our verses Jesus calls us to return good for harm, rather than harm for harm. He gives two examples – we are to love those who harm us (enemies are those who harm us) and we are to pray for those who persecute us.

A second observation is that the word “love” here means to do good to someone; to care for, bless and sacrifice for them; to act for their well-being. If we ask, “Does love ever allow us to hurt someone?” Well, in an extreme situation, without the right equipment and pain killers a doctor might need to saw off someone’s leg in order to save their life. And although this causes great pain and is violent it is done in the best interests of the person.

So yes, if someone comes to my house in order to hurt my family, I’m really clear that I can restrain or harm them to protect my family. This can be consistent with love if it’s done with regard also for my enemy’s well-being, in this case, stopping them from doing evil. I would also not use excessive force or vent my anger on them after they are stopped or otherwise express my hatred toward them. Rather, I believe, love would call me to be concerned about them. I will pray for the person and perhaps I will visit them in jail.

So yes, love for my enemy allows me to do this. But I’m also even more clear that love does not allow me to kill my enemy. There is no possible way that this is what is loving or good for the person. This is not caring for them or blessing them. This is not acting for their well-being. Love, of course, means much more than this. Not killing a person is the bare minimum of what love means.

Let me share with you a story about loving enemies: Thomas, who lived in Africa, was a follower of Jesus. But his neighbor hated Christians. One night this neighbor snuck over to Thomas’s hut and set the thatched roof on fire. Thomas awoke in time and was able to put the fire out, saving his family. This happened two more times.

On another night the neighbor once again tried to burn Thomas’s house down. This time it was windy and another neighbor’s house also caught on fire. Thomas’s hands and arms were severely burned putting out these fires. Other neighbors told the chief what was happening and the evil neighbor was put in jail.

The next day a visiting evangelist heard the story. She said, it’s good that this man was put in jail! Thomas replied, “I feel sorry for him.” Then they prayed for the man. Thomas prayed, “Lord, I wish that this man would become one of your children . . .. I pray that we will become brothers in Christ and will be able to preach to our tribe together.”

Two days later the evangelist visited the local prison and asked who might want to become a Christian. Thomas’s neighbor responded. She told him about Thomas’s burns and his prayer. The man cried and nodded, “Yes, one day we’ll do that together – preach to our tribe.” [They Loved Their Enemies, True Stories of African Christians, by Marian Hostetler. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1988. Pages 87-89]

I don’t know what you think of this story. I confess Thomas was more patient with his neighbor than I would have been. But what if we all saw our enemies through the lens of such love – that our enemies might become Christians so that we could serve the Lord together.

Our second scripture is –

Matthew 5:9

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”

A couple of observations on this verse. First, peace or shalom is a rich and important theme in Scripture. It has to do with completeness and soundness in all areas of life. Peace equals well-being broadly defined. It involves abundant life, wholeness and blessing. More specifically peace has to do with right relationships with God and others. And when sin wrecks this, it has to do with God’s salvation and restoration of shalom.

A second observation is that in our verse Jesus identifies his followers with the term “peacemakers” or those who work for peace. Christians are defined as those who work for God’s peace in this broken world. We are to be agents of wholeness, blessing and well-being to both the individuals we encounter and the communities where God has placed us.

    Let me share with you now a story about Christians being peacemakers: Ethiopia is a country made up of numerous ethnic/ cultural/ religious groups. And there is often armed conflict going on in the country. The Mennonite church in Ethiopia, the Meserete Kristos Church, is called upon by the government to work for peace in the midst of the brokenness and suffering of these conflicts. This is one such story.

    In 2022 a peace training was done in the Dangur region, which had been experiencing violence and bloodshed for several years. The leader of the training was seeking to communicate that genuine love and humility help in building peace. He decided to use footwashing as an example of this. Two people came forward – a Muslim man and a Gumuz man.

    The leader untied the Muslim man’s sandals and began to wash his feet, while he sat literally shaking from shock. Next, the leader went to the Gumuz man and washed his feet. Some people started screaming. Others stood up holding their heads with their two hands. While washing their feet the trainer said, “Let these feet change their ways today! Let these feet walk in the way of peace! Let these feet run for peace and make history.”

    When he was done the participants returned to their seats. The group then reflected on what had just happened.

    • They were shocked that a Christian did the lowly work of washing a Muslim’s feet.

    • They were especially shocked that the leader had washed the Gumuz man’s feet because he was darker skinned than the rest and the object of racism because of this. This act communicated that the Gumuz people are worthy of dignity and respect.

    After the training the Gumuz man, Dergu, went to a government official and told him about the transformation he experienced at the training. He wanted to do something that makes for peace. He asked for a gun and was given one. He went into the bush where the armed guerrillas were based. He met them and shared what happened to him. He was able to persuade five of them to lay down their arms and give up using violence to solve their conflicts.

    After he taught these five people more about peace – he sent them out and they brought back fifteen more guerrillas. Within a year they brought back 850 armed guerillas. Gradually all armed groups in the district were convinced to surrender their weapons. And this spread to several other districts. [“Culturally Rooted Empowering Peacebuilding: A Case of Meserete Kristos Church’s Peacebuilding Approach in Ethiopia” by Mekonnen Gemeda, in Anabaptist Witness, April 2024, Mission and Peace in Ethiopia, excerpt, pp. 153-155]

    Our convictions about loving enemies and peace may well exclude us from some things that our government might require of us. But as this story shows there are other ways that we can be both faithful to Jesus and useful to our communities in bringing healing and help.

    Let me speak personally now as I bring things to a close. I choose to follow Jesus’s call to love and peace, not because God doesn’t use the government and its “eye for an eye” approach to suppress evil for now. God does. And he calls those who do this his “servants” (Romans 13:4). And we are to honor them (1 Peter 2:17). I choose love and peace because it’s the unique calling of Christians to display Jesus’s love and reconciliation to the world. This is our job. And if we don’t do it, who will?

    I choose to follow Jesus’s call to love and peace, not because I’m naïve. I know how the world works. Those who are powerful often take what they want by force. I choose love and peace because more violence, even by the government which God uses – more harm will never fix this broken world we live in. It’s just a stopgap. It’s the love of Jesus that brings healing and hope to our world. Only this brings true peace.

    I choose to follow Jesus’s call to love and peace, not because it’s easy. On a personal level it’s much more satisfying to strike out when harmed and to seek even more than “an eye for an eye.” I choose love and peace because when I was God’s enemy, he gave me his love and peace. And as one who has received such a precious gift, I know that I’m obligated to pass this grace along to my enemies as well.

    I would like us to end with a congregational reading from Romans 12:14-21:

    L: Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

    P: Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another.

    L: Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.

    P: Repay no one harm for harm, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

    L: 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.”

    P: 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.”

    A: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Amen.

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    How to overcome evil with good. Romans 12:19-21

    Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on January 24, 2021| 2 Comments »

    I am quite certain that each one of us have been wronged, wounded and hurt by others. And so you know that when this happens a struggle is unleashed within us to see whether we will be overcome by it, so that we respond in kind or whether we will overcome the desire for payback and choose love. This is what we’re talking about this morning.

    According to the world there’s really only one way to respond – we should strike back; we should harm our enemies in return. Now God put a limit on this when Moses taught in the Old Testament ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.’ (Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:17-2, Deuteronomy 19:19-21 in contrast to Genesis 4:23-24). That is, the payback has to be in proportion to the injury suffered.

    But still there is in our world an endless cycle of people harming others and then those harmed returning the same through personal vengeance, the justice system and warfare. An endless cycle.

    But Jesus shows us another way; the way of love. For when Jesus’ enemies sought to kill him he endured the harm and suffering of the cross and returned good for evil. And in doing so he shows us how to overcome evil with good. He wasn’t overcome so that he did harm back to his enemies. He overcame through the power of love.

    Paul speaks of this in –

    Romans 12:19-21

    And I want us to look more closely at this passage today. Paul says,

    “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

    First we look at the negative side of this –

    Being overcome by evil

    This comes from the phrase in v. 21, “do not be overcome by evil.”

    This is how it works. Someone harms you. This can happen on a small scale, for instance, someone insults you. Or it can be something truly terrible, for instance, someone kills a loved one of yours.

    How will we respond? It’s natural to be angry and to want justice; in fact, we usually want more than “an eye for and eye;” we want to give back much more harm than we got. Evil is very powerful. Once we fall victim to it, it gets into our system and tries to replicate itself through our anger – so that we start doing evil as well; so that we start harming people.

    The question is ‘What will we do with our anger?’ Usually we give in to our anger to one degree or another; our desire for justice.

    And when we do this we return harm for harm. In various ways, through our words and our deeds, we seek to hurt and destroy our enemy. The result is that you are now harming another person, just as your enemy harmed you. You are doing the same thing. 

    You have been overcome. You are now caught up in the cycle of evil for evil; harm for harm – just responding to others based on how they have treated you.

    But harm for harm never truly satisfies, even, for instance, if someone kills your family member and the criminal is executed. It doesn’t restore what was taken away from us. It doesn’t give us peace. You may even the balances and that might feel good on a certain level, but you will never overcome the evil done to you with more harm.

    So we should set this response aside. As Paul says in Romans 12:17 – “Do not repay anyone evil for evil,” or as it is better translated “harm for harm,” referring as it does to the teaching of “an eye for an eye.” “Do not repay anyone harm for harm.”

    How to overcome evil with good 1

    Let’s look now at the other side of this –

    How to overcome evil with good

    Paul tells us to do this in v. 21, “overcome evil with good.” There are three steps in this process. When someone injures us:

    1) Endure the harm without giving it back. Paul says in v. 19, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves.”

    Now, there’s a lot that we can do, within the limits of loving our enemies. That is to say, this doesn’t mean be passive and just take it.

    • We can stand up for ourselves and for what’s right.
    • We can get to a safe place.
    • We can point out the wrong that’s been done.
    • We can restrain and stop an evildoer from what they’re trying to accomplish.

    There are redemptive things we can do in relation to our enemy. But fundamentally the point here is that we should not return evil for evil, harm for harm.

    So let’s say someone breaks into my house and wants to hurt my family. If I could, I would stop them. Let’s say disarm them. They have a bat, but I eventually take it away. What I can’t do is then take the bat and beat them in return. And I certainly can’t kill them, because Jesus calls us to love our enemies, not destroy them.

    2) Look to God for your justice. v. 19 goes on to say, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’”

    It’s normal to have anger when someone harms you. This is due to our sense that an injustice has happened. This is how God made us. We are not to deny this or try to suppress it. And indeed God gives us the capacity for anger to stir us up to act to make things right.

    Anger is not wrong. It’s what you do with your anger that’s the issue. And in our sinful, fallen state it can easily lead us outside of God’s will for our lives. Paul teaches us that we are to place our angry desire for payback in God’s hands. 

    This is the key to overcoming evil and breaking out of the cycle of evil for evil – giving the agenda of justice or payback over to God. He can fight for us and judge our enemies according to his will. This is what God says he will do, “I will repay.” Not, “you will repay,” but “I will repay, says the Lord.”

    So when we suffer harm from an enemy, pray something like this, “God I have been wronged. Take note of this and act for me in the way that is pleasing to you. I give it into your hands and trust you with it.”

    It is our trust in God that sets us free. We know that God can handle it. It might not happen right away; it might not happen until the final day, but all wrongs will be righted by God. We can trust God to take care of us.

    3) Do good to your enemies. Once we’ve placed the agenda of payback into God’s hands this frees us up to love our enemies and do good to them. We can focus on mercy, since we know that God will take care of issues of justice.

    Paul says in v. 20, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink.” Rather than harming our enemies we return good for evil.

    How to overcome evil with good 2

    This is counter-intuitive. It goes against what our flesh desires, for sure. But we can only overcome evil by returning good for harm; by choosing mercy and love. This releases us from being captive to the cycle of anger, hatred and bitterness. The circuit is broken. We’re set free! Our trust in God sets us free.

    Now, we hope that such acts of love will lead our enemy to repent, and we should pray for this. But if not, we know that God is more than able to deal with them. Such judgment is described in v. 20 as “burning coals” coming down on their heads.

    Let me end by pointing out that Jesus modeled for us these three steps of overcoming evil with good when he died on

    The cross

    When his enemies conspired against him, 1) He endured the harm without giving it back. As 1 Peter 2:23 says, on the cross, “when he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten.”

    2) He looked to God for vindication. 1 Peter 2:23 also tells us that while he suffered, he “continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.” He gave the agenda of payback and justice into God’s hands.

    3) He continued to love his enemies doing good to them. As Luke 23:34 tells us, while he was on the cross, he prayed for his enemies, for mercy and forgiveness. He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And he died for their sins.

    Jesus models for us how to overcome evil with good on the cross. As Peter says Jesus left us an example, “so that (we) should follow in his steps” – 1 Peter 2:21. Brothers and sisters my we each follow in his steps.

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