Blue Space » 2009

02.19.09

9 Annoying Biblical Directives - #3 Love Your Enemy

“You have heard it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Although this passage is a little longer than my previous texts, I think you should read it again for good measure. These words from Jesus’ seminal teaching in Matthew 6, the Sermon on the Mount, set our entire world order on its head. The preceding passage to this one asks us to turn the other cheek and advises us to go the extra mile with someone. These admonitions I can embrace fairly easily as even prideful motivation can motivate these actions. The prideful motivations I speak of are ones in which we pity those that are angry with us because we believe we are better than them and therefore it is beneath us to respond in kind. It is curious and telling to me that the admonition to turn the other cheek gets quite a lot of attention while the admonition to love your enemies seems to have fallen into a veritable black hole.

Upon initial examination of these two admonitions, I believe that many view them to be somewhat similar; but if this is what you have surmised, I believe you are extremely wrong. Allowing yourself to become emotionally invested with and seeking to fully understand an enemy is a far cry from simply refraining from responding in kind to an enemy’s taunts or persecution. And let me ask you what do you believe this passage means when it states “pray for those who persecute you”? If you believe that it means to pray for the Lord to correct their behavior, to punish them in the future, or to vindicate you in the end, I believe that you are missing the point entirely. Take great care that the motivation behind your prayer is loving in nature. Praying for pain and destruction upon someone even when that someone is clearly sinning is fraught with many unsettling questions. Would you really prefer to see them endure pain and suffering to realize the error of their ways? Is your prayer motivated by a need to remind God of your suffering and by the way, God, don’t forget the name of the guy that did it to me? Is your prayer motivated by a concern that God has allowed justice to be circumvented? These questions are good ones to ascertain if your prayers have gone awry.

It seems clear to me that one of the goals of this passage is to break humanity of our dangerous habit of creating “in group” morality. In laymen’s terms “in group” morality has one set of standards for those who are in the “in group” and another set for outsiders. History is replete with examples of “in group” morality in action. From the ghastly ethnic cleansing of Nazi Germany to the present “kill the infidel” of Islam; and lest we become smug, the frequent insidious emergence of it throughout the history of the Christian Church. The admonition to love your enemy on its face seems to bluntly reject “in group” morality. Furthermore, their is a part of this passage that appears out of place if not examined closely. That passage is, “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” At first blush it appears that this passage would not be diminished if this sentence were left out. This sentence expresses what theologians would term common grace. This grace is extended by God to all humans whether believers or unbelievers. This is a further affirmation of God’s rejection of “in group” morality. He views that all people are in the “in group” and all are eligible for common grace as well as saving grace when as Romans 10:9 states “you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in their hearts that God has raised him from the dead.”

It is a delicious irony inside an irony that my awareness and attentiveness of “in group” morality comes as a result of my listening to Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. (In Dawkins’ mind I am deluded enough to say God works in mysterious ways.) Dawkins is adamantly against using any “holy” text to establish morality, and takes considerable time to build a case that the Bible is a book which blatantly advocates “in group” morality. He comments that the New Testament is a great improvement over the old, but claims that Jesus still heartily advocates “in group” morality. It is to our shame that his views on this subject are not refuted as he examines the historical record and actions of the Christian Church. It is also a shame that although he specifically mentions Jesus’ admonition to turn the other cheek he makes no mention of this passage. As I listen to his book, I find myself greatly challenged to pray for Richard Dawkins and to truly seek to love him. Ideologically he is my enemy, and it has been a challenge not to instantly view him through a bellicose lens. (It is astounding how refreshing it is to hear the pleasant voice which says, “This is the end of the disc, the program will continue on the next disc.”) However, the above annoying Biblical directive constrains me to do so.

So I dare you to do something that really would change this world.

Love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you.

Author: Joseph Wendel | Permalink | No Comments | Daily Entries

John 14:6

Archive for February, 2009

9 Annoying Biblical Directives - #3 Love Your Enemy

9 Annoying Biblical Directives - #2 Pray Continually

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