Let love be genuine.
Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Love one another with brotherly affection.
Outdo one another in showing honor.
Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with one another.
Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. | Romans 12:9-21
On Sunday, Derek preached on Loving your Enemies. As he stated, this is a counter-cultural command, in every culture. As human beings, we naturally self-protect. We do what is most comfortable, draw boundaries, and respond to hurt and difficulty by making promises to ourselves (I will never feel ______ again). In all of this, we create a world out of fear rather than love. Our entire purpose is aimed at avoiding rather than pursuing.
When we do this, we view relationship as a commodity; we prioritize people based on what they cost us and the perceived benefit. Our fear causes our love to be diminished to only what is uncomplicated; Jesus flips this entirely upside-down, telling us to love our enemies.
Jesus breaks the control that fear has over us. He did this by sacrificing everything on behalf of His enemies (that is us, btw). In this, the threat of fear is removed: there is nothing that anyone can do to the love (and resulting identity) that is given to you by God. You have already gained all you need, and so you can risk potential hurt, knowing it is surface hurt at best. You can enter into spaces that were previously too dangerous/unsafe, knowing that the opportunity to love is worth the possible pain.
All of this sounds noble, but is a bit more difficult in practice. When Jesus tells us to love our enemies, He is drawing a large circle that includes everyone, including enemies. This is not just a directive for how we interact with a nemesis, but all those who are difficult to love:
those who LOOK different than you,
those who THINK different than you,
those who haven nothing to offer you,
these are the people that we are called to actively love. But how do we do that? How do we, who are naturally self-protective, love people we don’t easily connect with in a way that is genuine? The only way for this to happen is for us to act toward how we want to feel. For unnatural love to develop into something genuine, we actually have to choose to love against the grain; do what we want to become. Here are a few steps in that process:
INTERACT WITH YOUR ENEMIES | live in harmony with one another
The way our communities function, it is possible to eat, shop, work, and be entertained without ever leaving your house. It is also possible to set your life rhythms up to avoid ‘those people’ (whomever those people are to you). To be able to love people, you have to meet with them in a human way; those you cross paths with become part of your community. One way to love your ‘enemies’ is to set your life up to intentionally interact with those that may be a challenge to you.
PRAY FOR YOUR ENEMIES | bless those who persecute you
Derek made this point very clearly Sunday: it is not possible to pray for someone and to actively harbor bitterness against them. The act of bringing someone up before God changes the way that you view them. They are now co-sufferers of this sinful world; sinners in need of grace. Pray for the love you can not conjure up on your own.
ACT FOR THE BEST OF YOUR ENEMIES | if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink
There is no better way to unite someone to yourself than to make their concerns your own. When you enter into someone else’s need, you become part of their support; they become part of your worldview. To enter someone else’s world for their best changes the way that you view your own best; we grow into care through shared experience.
CREATE GOOD | overcome evil with good
This is more a result than it is an action. The promise that Paul gives us in Romans and that Jesus gives us in the Sermon on the Mount, is that living in this counter-cultural way will produce something that is missing when we simply love those who are easy to love. When we reflect the love of the gospel (love your enemies) we give God the a place to make Himself known. When people receive grace (unmerited love), and when people give grace, it shakes us out of our comfortable, boundary-filled existences into something that is unknown and scary…
and inhumanly remarkable.