God Loves His Enemies |
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It is recorded that Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “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 who is in heaven….” This is found in Matthew 5:43-45a NASB. The King James Version has an extended version of verse 44 which says, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” A similar passage is found in Luke 6:27-28.
Something I would like to point out is that God actually does hate His enemies. I cite Psalm 5:4-6 for this: “For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; no evil dwells with You. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood; the LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.” Just because God hates His enemies doesn’t mean He doesn’t love them with charity love. He hates them in a loving way. He loves them, blesses them, does good to them, and is prayed to for them as He commands. Psalm 145:8-9 says, “The LORD is gracious and merciful; slow to anger and great in lovingkindness. The LORD is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works.” Some things that people who were God’s enemies were doing are described in James 4:1-4. They are sinners. They are called as a group “adulteresses”. They are called friends of the “world”. The “world” is described in 1 John 2:15-17: “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.” I do not believe that this passage is saying to not love sinners who are in the world and of it. I believe this passage is saying that we are to not donate (in charity love) our heart, soul, mind, and strength to doing “worldly” living. “Worldly” living is adultery against God and is what people who are God’s enemies do. John 3:16-18 is a famous passage which I want to follow up the previous passage with. It says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” God so loved the world that He sent a Savior. I believe that if a person still exists in whatever form, God loves them. I believe that in His love, He adequately commands them to obey His royal law. I believe that even people in Hades/Hell are commanded to obey the Law of Christ, which is the royal law. I believe that if they still exist, they can repent into obeying God’s commands if they choose to. I believe that support for this is found in John 3:16 (previously quoted), 1 Peter 3:18-4:6 in which proclamation is made to the dead, and many passages which speak of the goodness of God. God’s royal law is that we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We are also to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. I believe that the gift of eternal/everlasting life goes to those who are engaged in doing good, as stated in Romans 2:6-7. I believe that “wrath and indignation” is rendered to “those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness” as stated in Romans 2:8. I believe that these are ongoing conditional renderings of God to people as they are choosing how to live. I believe that people can turn from doing good into doing evil and will reap the consequences of doing so. I believe that people can turn from doing evil into doing good and will reap the rewards. I have support for this notion in the above statements as well as in Ezekiel 33:10-20 and Jeremiah 18:1-10[i]. I also believe that people can be engaged in both doing good and doing evil at the same time. The good is not evil, and the evil is not good. This is called double-mindedness. God loves His friends. God loves His enemies. I believe that God commands us to love both as well as Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount that I cited at the beginning of this article. I believe there is always a good way to do this, and there are benefits for those who do. [i] Ezekiel 33:10-20 (NASB) is as follows: 10 "Now as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, 'Thus you have spoken, saying, "Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we are rotting away in them; how then can we survive [fn]?"' 11 "Say to them, 'As I live!' declares the Lord [fn]God, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?' 12 "And you, son of man, say to your [fn] fellow citizens, 'The righteousness of a righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will not stumble because of it in the day when he turns from his wickedness; whereas a righteous man will not be able to live by [fn] his righteousness on the day when he commits sin.' 13 "When I say to the righteous he will surely live, and he so trusts in his righteousness that he commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but in that same iniquity of his which he has committed he will die. 14 "But when I say to the wicked, 'You will surely die,' and he turns from his sin and practices justice and righteousness, 15 if a wicked man restores a pledge, pays back what he has taken by robbery, walks by the statutes which [fn] ensure life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 16 "None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has practiced justice and righteousness; he shall surely live. 17 "Yet your [fn] fellow citizens say, 'The way of the Lord is not right,' when it is their own way that is not right. 18 "When the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, then he shall die in it [fn]. 19 "But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and practices justice and righteousness, he will live by them. 20 "Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not right.' O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways." Jeremiah 18:1-10 (NASB) is as follows: 1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, 2 "Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will announce My words to you." 3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something on the wheel [fn]. 4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, 6 "Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?" declares the Lord. "Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. 7 "At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; 8 if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent [fn] concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it. 9 "Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it; 10 if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think [fn] better of the good with which I had promised to bless [fn] it.”
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November 2015
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