Biblical Response to Enemies

[ITS]

A number of times the Sermon addresses our relationship to our enemies. Summarize a theology of a biblical response to our enemies.

[Jim Fishback]

The Christian is called to love God and to love his brothers and sisters in Christ. But God loved us in that while we were yet sinners, enemies of God, Christ died for us. Likewise, we are called to demonstrate love towards our enemies. How do we do this? First, by praying for them. That they would come to know the love of God. And that we would be able to love them as God loves them. We should be as kind to them as we are towards our friends. We should help them if they need help. If they persecute us for being kind to them, we should continue to pray for them and to be kind to them. We are to be strong in God?s love and to remain in His presence. We need to ask for vision and wisdom to see our enemies as God sees them. And when we see a need in them, we should meet it. Our prayer is that God would have mercy on them and that somehow through us, God would draw them a little closer to Himself, that they would one day know Jesus as Savior and Lord.

[nacltrey]

A number of times the Sermon addresses our relationship to our enemies. Summarize a theology of a biblical response to our enemies.

Christ calls his followers to radical new dimension in response to enemies. He addresses this specifically in the Sermon on the Mount. He calls his followers blessed when they are persecuted and insulted. He commands them to love and pray for their enemies even when they have been taught by religious leaders that it is permissible to hate those who do evil to them. The principle is more far reaching than just an ethic that applies when someone treats a follower of Christ badly. The principle is the same that applied to the Children of Israel in the Old Testament when they are continually called to show forth the glory of God to the nations around them that they might know Yahweh is God. It is the same principle that sent Jesus to earth and Paul on his missionary journeys. It is the principle that God loves the people of the world. The very same people that deny God, that worship false gods, are the ones that Christ loves. He calls his followers to that same kind of love for the people of the world. He tells his followers what to expect. Even when they love the world around them with the love he gives, they will be mistreated; they will be hated for his sake. His encouragement to his followers is to count themselves blessed, to always love and pray for those people. In that way some of those that are counted now as enemies may one day be counted in the multitude of Revelation 7:9.

[mchap]

A Biblical theology for a Christian's response to enemies is focused on a standard of love demonstrating that one is a child of God. Jesus extended the commandment to love our neighbor by defining neighbor as anyone in need, even one's enemies. The standard for a child of God to follow is God's love. God sends rain and sunshine on both the good and the evil. His general grace is for all people. Therefore, the Christian patterns love after their heavenly Father, exceeding the pagan standard of reciprocal love alone.

[mchap]

Jim provides good commentary on how Christians are to apply Jesus' call to "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Mt. 5:44)." Nevertheless, I would disagree that we should be as kind to our enemies as we are towards our friends. Jesus' disciples must be shrewd and prudent in avoiding attacks from their persecutors (Mt. 10:16). Disciples must behave wisely with far sighted realism. Righteous indignation is appropriate under certain circumstances. Recall Jesus' confrontation with Scribes and Pharisees, calling them fools, vipers, and hypocrits to their face (Mt. 23:13-33).

The Christian is called to love God and to love his brothers and sisters in Christ. But God loved us in that while we were yet sinners, enemies of God, Christ died for us. Likewise, we are called to demonstrate love towards our enemies. How do we do this? First, by praying for them. That they would come to know the love of God. And that we would be able to love them as God loves them. We should be as kind to them as we are towards our friends. We should help them if they need help. If they persecute us for being kind to them, we should continue to pray for them and to be kind to them. We are to be strong in God?s love and to remain in His presence. We need to ask for vision and wisdom to see our enemies as God sees them. And when we see a need in them, we should meet it. Our prayer is that God would have mercy on them and that somehow through us, God would draw them a little closer to Himself, that they would one day know Jesus as Savior and Lord.

[KY Distance Learner]

I think the previous posts have been well-reasonsed and have drawn from appropriate Scriptures. While taking the considerations of the Sermon on the Mount and other passages from St. Matthew which have been referenced into full account, there are is also passage from the Apostle Paul that brings light onto this subject. In Romans 12:14-21, Paul tells us not to curse back when we are cursed, much in the spirit of Jesus. And, he tells us we are not to repay evil for evil, and to remember that vengance belongs to the Lord. He counsels that we are to do positive good to our enemies in the form of feeding them if they are hungry, and drink if they are thirsty. He says that we are to "overcome evil with good."

In his own ministry, Paul exemplified his earlier teaching from Romans 12 when he wrote about some difficulty he encountered in II Timothy 4. There, he recalled the evil Alexander the coppersmith did to him. He felt that God would repay Alexander for his deeds, and did not rail against him. There was not a spirit of vengefulness in his words, just a quiet comment that he was assured that God knew how to bring justice about in the situation.

[edtacular]

In the Old Testament we see God commanding His people to strike down their enemies and wipe them off of the face of the earth. There is no compassion shown toward them and treatment of them is decisive and just. This is because things that are manifested in a physical way in the OT become spiritual issues in the New Testament. God’s enemies are no longer physical groups but spiritual forces, His blessings and punishments are no longer of the physical nature but are spiritual blessings and curses. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood… but against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” It is with this that we must interpret Jesus’ teachings on evil as He instructs us to turn the other cheek to those who hurt us and love our enemies. We must recognize that our issue is not with the person but the forces at work within them. Treating our enemy with hate, vengeance or retaliation makes little sense because we are fighting physical actions and not the spiritual forces at work causing them. This is why we must pray for our enemies, not just that their lives be good or that they treat us better but that their spirit would be changed. I also think its important to note that this love for enemies and lack of retaliation is not commanded of civil authorities who’s responsibilities are not spiritual in nature, and Paul makes it clear in Romans 13 that God allows governments to keep order with force when it is necessary.

[edtacular]

While I agree with everything stated here, I think it is incomplete to only view the New Testament teaching as the entire biblical view. The question many people seem to ask when it comes to Jesus’ teaching on enemies is why this is so different from the Old Testament teaching. The reality is that in the Old Testament God’s enemies were physical just as His people were a physical nation. Things are not so simple in the New Testament. Jesus is speaking to His followers in time when their enemies are clearly spiritual, which is evidenced by Paul in Ephesians when he writes that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces in this present darkness. While it is true that we are commanded to pray for our enemies I think we must also note that the reason we pray is so that the spiritual purposes behind their actions would ultimately be changed.

[Douglas]

Enemies are to be loved unconditionally. But love must be understood in light of God’s character. God is called love, and the Christian has the responsibility to emulate that love as much as he or she can. As such, Christians should seek to be longsuffering in their love towards others. In a pragmatic culture that tends to frame love in an overly subjective and selfish way, Christians must emulate the love of God that transcends the world’s understanding. Especially relevant to this objective is the command to not personally seek revenge. This must be left in God’s hands, knowing that God, in his own timing, uses the instrument of governments to implement justice in the contemporary context.

[Douglas]

I think these comments reflect the tension the Christian lives with in the contemporary context. I'm a little uncomfortable with the distinction between physical and spiritual--though they do illustrate--but think I understand the intent. The physical nature as it reflects the "old man" is certainly warranted, but looking at Jesus' comments in the Sermon and the admonition to be whole makes it necessary to tie the physical and spiritual together. I think Jesus' admonition, as much as anything, is a commentary on the worth of the person as he or she is created in God's image.

[dwitsken]

The bottom line of the Sermon on the Mount is that we need to be careful to seek God's true and perfect standard of righteousness rather than our own standard. The Pharisees and teachers sought a standard they could keep. They sought to know how far they could go without transgressing God's law. Instead of seeking to love as God loves (e.g. he makes the sun rise even for those who are evil), they sought to know how far they could exact vengeance without transgressing God's law and they interpreted God's command to love in a way that was easy (loving only their friends). So too, we exhibit the same error when we ask how far we should go before resisting our enemies.

If you have kids, you've probably struggled with telling them how to respond when bullied on the playground. The answer Jesus gives in the Sermon on the Mount is black and white. But was it really Jesus' intent to give us a hard and fast rule for dealing with enemies? I don't believe it was. It seems, rather, that his intent was to show the difference between a minimalistic, man-made righteousness and God's perfect righteousness which was revealed in the Law and Prophets and now is fulfilled in Christ. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives us the starting point for answering our kid's questions about how to deal with the playground bully. Instead of asking when they should fight back, we should be asking how they can best love the bully. The answer to this question is not black and white. At times it may be more loving to walk away; Other times it may not.

[dwitsken]

. . .“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood… but against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” It is with this that we must interpret Jesus’ teachings on evil as He instructs us to turn the other cheek to those who hurt us and love our enemies. We must recognize that our issue is not with the person but the forces at work within them. . . .
Although our ultimate enemies are spiritual, it doesn't seem to me that Jesus was drawing this distinction in the Sermon on the Mount and, therefore, we should not use that principle to interpret Jesus' teachings in the Sermon on the Mount. That he was not distinguishing physical and spiritual enemies is evident from the contrasts he drew. In 5:38-48 (don't resist; turn the cheek), he was not showing the contrast between a spiritual mindset and a physical one (i.e. differentiating between the physical sinner and the spiritual force of sin). Rather,he was drawing a contrast between right and wrong understandings of the righteousness of God's kingdom. The person with a wrong understanding of kingdom-righteousness asks "What is the minimum I must do to be saved?" This person is self-oriented. The person with a right understanding asks, "What is God's standard of righteousness?" Then, recognizing his spiritual poverty and inability to meet that standard, he begs God for mercy knowing that God is good and gracious and kind.

[Samuel Xie]

A number of times the Sermon addresses our relationship to our enemies. Summarize a theology of a biblical response to our enemies.


One of most difficult commandments of Christ Jesus is to love our enemies (Matt 5:44). The reason provided in the Sermon on the Mount was directed to God's own character and His kindness toward the evil, namely, His enemies (Matt 5:45). The Bible teaches that enmity derived from human sin (Gen 3:15; Eph 2:15), and was abolished by God the Son, Christ's sacrificial death on the Cross (Eph 2:16). In other words, we, including our enemies, are enemies of God (Rom 3:23; Js 4:4). Therefore, the Bible teaches what we should respond to our enemies is not simply "to revenge" or "to love," but to leave it to God who alone is just (Rom 12:19), and Christians, who have been forgiven and loved by God, ought to love their enemies like their God (Matt 5:44).

[Samuel Xie]

Enemies are to be loved unconditionally. But love must be understood in light of God’s character. God is called love, and the Christian has the responsibility to emulate that love as much as he or she can. As such, Christians should seek to be longsuffering in their love towards others. In a pragmatic culture that tends to frame love in an overly subjective and selfish way, Christians must emulate the love of God that transcends the world’s understanding. Especially relevant to this objective is the command to not personally seek revenge. This must be left in God’s hands, knowing that God, in his own timing, uses the instrument of governments to implement justice in the contemporary context.

I agreed with all Douglas said about biblical response to enemies. However, I would like to point out that this loving response has its foundation, that is, God's love demonstrated in Christ's substitutional death (Rom 5:8;1 Jn 4:10) rather than God's common grace toward all mankind unconditionally. This understanding is significant for us to be able to love our enemies, because as the beatitudes shows that the first one of the characteristics of Christians is the awareness of their spiritual bankruptcy (Matt 5:3). A loving response to our enemies and not to seek revenge is not merely because God will revenge for us but because we Christians are forgiven while we are enemies of God (Lk 7:47; Rom 5:8).

[bj.dagen]

mchap argues that there is a different level or type of love expressed to friends as opposed to enemies. That is probably true for most of us. I would refine his comment, though, to say that our love to fellow Christians is, in some sense, to be greater. Two reasons for thinking this. The first is Paul’s statement in Gal. 6:10: “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us to good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” While good is to be done to all, the command to care for one another (fellow believers) seems greater. Secondly, and I would like to get some response to this, is there a difference or distinction in the way God shows love to His children as opposed to His enemies? While God in some sense loves all people, His wrath is currently being poured out on non-believers (Rom. 1:18). Thankfully Christians have passed from condemnation (Rom. 8:1). Does God’s love to His followers get reflected in greater ways than His love to non-Christians? Because we are "in Christ" it seems clear to me that God's love to Christians is somehow different. I'd be interested in hearing other thoughts on this.

[bj.dagen]

One of the realities of joining a discussion like this later in the game is that most of the good stuff has already been said. There are a couple things that I would add, though. One is that a theology of a biblical response to our enemies obviously has to start with God’s perspective toward His enemies. It has to begin with the question of how God responds to His enemies. On one hand, God obviously loves the entire world, including sinners (John 3:16). He sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous (Mt. 5:45). He doesn’t delight in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 33:11). Jesus died for us while we were still enemies (Col. 1:21-22). In short, God seeks the eternal welfare of all people. In this we should emulate our Lord. But on the other hand, it needs to be recognized that God’s love is not a sappy, sentimental type of love. It has a rough edge to it. God, for example, is already pouring out His wrath on those who reject Him (Rom. 1:18). Jesus regularly spoke of judgment. His standard of holiness remains. As such, sin must be punished. Such punishment is God’s prerogative alone (Rom. 12:19-20). Part of our response to enemies is to lovingly warn them of God’s wrath, but the actual vengeance belongs to God alone.

One other overall comment about the discussion of loving our enemies—The discussion in this forum sounds very sanitized. At least for me, the truth of Jesus’ words in the realities of life make the full weight of His command be felt. Talking about it in the tidy confines of this forum is one thing, but I personally find the practicalities of it hard to live out at times. In short, loving one’s enemies is tough.