43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45so that you may prove yourselves to be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors, do they not do the same? 47And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Even the Gentiles, do they not do the same? 48Therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:43-48
Treat those who personally slight you with intentional and irrational generosity. Nice. Ok. That’s all and well isn’t it.
What about those who make it their personal mission to tear you down, mow over you and just make life difficult?
Love Your Enemy
Why on earth would you ever love your enemy?
The Well Off recognize something about everyone…we all put our pants on the same way. God sends rain and sun upon everyone. We are all human. We all sin and fall short of God’s glory. The Well Off recognize we all make enemies of people at some point in time or another.
Therefore, we want the people we have made enemies with to love us. So why would we do any different to others?
Also, if we are Hearing and Following Jesus, our lives have to be different. When we only love those who love us, we do the same thing as those who don’t follow Jesus.
Where is the Salt and Light in doing what everyone else is doing?
When our ordinary life intersects with a holy, extraordinary God, then we cannot stay the same. Naturally, our lives will begin to be different.
Love is sacrifice. To love our enemy is to sacrifice for them. This does not mean we have to give them proximity. To love our enemy is to sacrifice what we feel is our right to revenge and paybacks.
The main reason we love our enemy is because revenge and paybacks eat us alive. The Life of God in our soul cannot flow if our soul is flooded with the spirit of revenge. If our thoughts are consumed with “I’ll show them,” “They’ll never get the upper hand on me,” “Payback’s a b*#@&h,” the Living Water of God is damed up outside of our soul. Death will flow into the world around us, not life.
And as leaders, do you want your culture to be filled with payback and revenge? Again, love does not mean proximity. If a vendor mistreats you, if an employee continually mistreats others, “love your enemies” is not permission to keep them on board. “Love your enemies” means you let the Life of God flow through you in generosity. But it doesn’t have to mean you must have them around you.
Pray for Those Who Persecute You
Maybe we can be like Stephen and pray the same prayer as Jesus, “Father forgive them for what they do.”
Maybe we can be like David and pray, “Rise up, Lord! Save me, my God! You strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.”
The commonality between the prayers is this…
Committing those who persecute you to God.
David had a wish. He was real about this wish. Yet, he was not going to be the fulfillment to this wish. Is this the best prayer to pray? No. “God, forgive them” is a categorically better prayer.
However, in light of someone pursuing you to take your life (David’s situation) and you are in hiding (instead of actively being killed like Jesus & Stephen), praying for God to take care of them instead of acting on your desire to kill them is better.
Ok. So you don’t have someone pursuing you to kill you. Maybe they want to kill your career. Kill your chances. Kill your joy.
The Well Off recognize prayer for God to handle all aspects of your life is better than taking matters into your own hands. There will be days “smash their teeth” is the prayer you pray. Other days you can get out, “God forgive them and bring them to you.”
Either way, you are placing your life and future into God’s hands to handle the conflict.
The same and loving your enemies, praying for those who persecute you does not require proximity. David prayed this prayer inside a cave while on the run. Jesus prayed this prayer while dying on a cross. Stephen prayed this prayer while being stoned by the religious leaders.
Each of them trusted God for their future, not their own power and strength.
Talking in ideal terms often leaves us thinking, “Those close to Jesus do this. I can’t. Therefore, I’m not close to Jesus.” This is hard for anyone. Our natural inclination…and the pervasive thought pattern around us…is that we stand up for ourselves and get back whatever anyone tries to take from us.
The Well Off desire a greater righteousness. They seek this righteousness. However, there will always be a competing voice inside of us trying to get us to stand strong in our own power and strength. I write to strengthen us all to stand strong in a different way. When we all stand differently and together, we find it easier to stand strong.
Remember, as leaders, you set the tone. Do you want everyone you lead to run around providing for their own futures in their own strength? Or do you want everyone trusting there will be more than enough and suffering and difficulty is just the right of passage to the preferred future?
As one of The Well Off, this is how you lead. You stand strong. But your standing strong looks different. Your standing strong is to stand strong in prayer. You stand strong to trust God for your future. Because your future with God, even if it means to go through suffering and difficulty, is better than what you can ever do on your own.
Prayer: God, give me the strength to trust you for my future instead of protecting myself and doing something that will bring harm to others.
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