[Jesus said,] “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you." (Luke 6:27-28 NLT)
Jesus: Enemy-lover. Sounds quite jarring. I could have referred to Him as Jesus: Lover of Enemies, but maybe Jesus: Enemy-lover pushes the point further.
Paul wrote, "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." (Romans 5:8 NLT) "While we were still sinners" As sinners we go against and rebel against God, basically behaving as His enemy. But God sent Jesus to save us anyway. It wasn't because we did good works. It was simply because He loved us.
As we look at God's Word, the God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New. Recall the story of Jonah. It begins, "The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: "Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” (Jonah 1:1-2 NLT) If you are familiar with the story, Jonah didn't want to go. And he had good reason for feeling that way. It could be argued that the Ninevehites were the worst of the worst of the worst of God's enemies.
Here is a writing from one their cruelest kings. This will give you a sense of Nineveh, of how bad they were and what Jonah would have known about them. WARNING: THIS IS GRAPHIC!
The following was written by King Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC). He wrote, “I flayed (the skin from) as many nobles as had rebelled against me (and) draped their skins over the pile (of corpses)…I cut off the heads of their fighters (and) built (with them) a tower before their city. I burnt their adolescent boys (and) girls…I captured many troops alive: I cut off their arms (and) hands; I cut off of others their noses, ears, and extremities. I gouged out the eyes of many troops. I made one pile of the living (and) one of the heads. I hung their heads on trees around the city.” (from James K. Bruckner, Jonah,Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah : The Niv Application Commentary from Biblical Text– to Contemporary Life, Niv Application Commentary(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2004), 29.)
What familiarity do you find in our world today?
Does Jesus still love those who are against Him?
How does God call us to do as He did/does? How does Jesus call us to love our enemies, introducing them to His incredible love and grace?
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