Why should I Love my Enemy?

“We cannot go on hating another man in the presence of God. The surest way of killing bitterness is to pray for the man we are tempted to hate.” - Barclay

In Matthew 5:43-45 , Jesus says, “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, so that you may be sons of your Father in Heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Every phrase of this section is pregnant with meaning and deserves examination if we are to discern what Jesus is telling his followers and apply it to our lives. In this post, I will look particularly at the “why,” and then get into the “what” and the “how” in future posts. After all, understanding why is often not as simple as it may seem. 

 On the surface, it may be easy to adopt a, “The Bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it,” attitude. But if Jesus provided the “why,” then perhaps we should take a look at it. In this passage, Jesus gives a straightforward, yet profound, reason why we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. He says we are to do this so that we may “be sons of [our] Father in Heaven.” A few verses later, in one of the most shocking statements in this discourse that has become known as “The Sermon on the Mount,” He says, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect” (v 48). Jesus is saying that his followers, in loving their enemies, are acting like God. Then, he commands them to be like God.

In verse 44, Jesus uses the word ἀγαπᾶτε, a form of the word we transliterate as agapē. This word, according to the Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, “means to love the undeserving, despite disappointment and rejection.” It “has more to do with moral principle than with inclination or liking, it never means the cold religious kindness shown from duty alone.” This is an important thing to understand. Agapē is more than tolerance. It is more than a lack of hatred. Agapē is an active, self-initiating act of one's will toward the loved, irrespective of the other's attitude toward the lover. This is the way God exhibits His favor to man, by causing “His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and send[ing] rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (v 45).

Jesus is saying here that, if we are part of the family of God, then we should love as actively and indiscriminately as God does, because we are being formed into His likeness.