Love Your Enemy

But then they added, “Hate your enemy.” Nowhere in the Old Testament scriptures can we find a command to hate our enemies. It does not exist. Yet, the Jewish people accepted and believed the teachings of their religious leaders. The same thing occurs today among Christians. Pastors greatly influence what Christians believe. Some pastors are now preaching that God is not a trinity, hell does not exist, and God does not know everything. Those are just some of the major issues.

Non-Christians and some followers of Jesus are also influenced by the voices in the secular world. Their sense of right and wrong comes from their culture and that sense of right and wrong changes over time. As a result, many people do not believe that there is an absolute standard of right and wrong. It is now reported that 47% of male pastors and 85% of female pastors in the United States reject some one or more of the teachings of Jesus and the apostles (www.barna.org). Are they being influenced by their culture?

Because the Jewish religious leaders taught that they should love their fellow brethren and hate others such as tax collectors and Gentiles, the people did. John Lightfoot (A.D. 1602-1675) referring to the attitude of the Jews toward the Gentiles provides this quote from their teaching,

If a Jew sees one of them fallen into the sea: let him by no means left him up out of there; for it is written, “You shall not rise up against the blood of your neighbor: but this is not your brother.” (Lightfoot, John. Commentary on the New Testament From the Talmud and Hebraica. Vol. 2, p. 134).

. . . that they may love all the sons of light . . .And hate all the sons of darkness.” (1QS 1:3-4, 9-10).

These quotes reveal that Jesus was addressing a real issue - hatred in the heart. So when Jesus commanded His listeners to love their enemies, they must have been very surprised.

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you . . . (NASB) Matt. 5:44