Love Your Enemies
What can this mean? It seems so unnatural. It is unnatural, but consider the following by R. Lenski quoted by John MacArthur in his discussion of The Sermon on The Mount:
“Love indeed sees all the hatefulness and the wickedness of the enemy, feels his stabs and blows, may even have something to do toward warding them off; but all this simply fills the living heart with the one desire and aim to free its enemy from his hate, to rescue him from his sin, and thus to save his soul. I may not like the criminal or the slanderer, but I can by the grace of Jesus Christ, love them all, see what is wrong with them, desire and work to do them only good, most of all to free them from their vicious ways.”
And what can motivate us to forgive others. It is simply this: we were, and did, just about everything hateful and unjust that we see others doing. Christ died for us while we were still sinners. If we’ve been saved, we should be so grateful for our salvation, we should forgive others just as we’ve been forgiven. [Colossians 3:13]: “Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you.” [Romans 5:8]: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Finally, how is it humanly possible to forgive others who harm or offend us? It is not humanly possible, but we have the power of God indwelling us (the Holy Spirit) and by His power, we are able to forgive. Praying for them miraculously softens our hearts, especially when we consider from whence, we have come. God is glorified when we pray for those who have harmed us because it reflects the change that He has wrought in us. Praise God.
Paul Metzger