In one of the more spectacular books I've read, "The Hiding Place" Corrie Ten Boom recounts the night that German pilots bombed her city in Amsterdam during WWII. Her older sister, Betsie, knelt beside her at the piano bench as they prayed for hours. They prayed for their country, for those who would lose their lives, for those who would be injured, and for the leaders of their nation. Corrie prayed until she could think of nothing else to pray. But as she fell silent Betsie persisted still, beginning to pray even for the very pilots flying those planes and dropping those bombs. "Oh Lord," whispered Corrie, "listen to Betsie, not me, because I cannot pray for those men at all."

THE WORD

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you."

Luke 6:27-28

If I were to ask you who your enemies are you might be quick to think you don't have any. The word enemy sounds pretty extreme, that is, until you read the verses in the Bible where it refers to us as enemies of God (gulp). The fact is, God doesn’t just oppose wicked philosophies, false religions, and demonic forces. He also opposes the proud, the greedy, the selfish, and the lazy. He opposes us.

So, when He says to "love your enemy" and "do good to those who hate you" He's not asking us to do something He Himself hasn't done. He was nailed to the cross for His enemies and even asked the Father to forgive them while He hung there.

But here's the kicker: Jesus doesn’t just DEMONSTRATE that kind of love FOR US, He DEMANDS that kind of love FROM US.

At the risk of being convinced we are enemy-less (not a word, I know) I think it would be helpful for us to identify exactly who Jesus was talking about when He referred to our enemies.

3 ENEMIES IN YOUR LIFE

1. OPPONENTS

These are people who you have so much in common with that you find yourself both consciously and subconsciously competing with them. They're the people you compare yourself to.

If you’re a mom with young kids, it's probably the other moms with young kids, and maybe you find yourself inwardly asking, "How clean is their house? How well-behaved are their kids in public? How often do they wash their hair with real water and not just dry shampoo?" Or maybe it's the people in your same field of business or those who share the same hobby as you. We would probably never consider these people our enemies. In fact, we would probably call many of them our friends, yet in our hearts, we secretly compete with them and, at times, even silently root for them to fail.

Peter wrestles with this in John 21 when Jesus is commissioning and encouraging him. Mid-conversation, Peter points to John and says, "What about him? What are you going to do with him?" Peter can’t even enjoy Jesus' company because he’s too busy making an enemy out of a brother.

When I find myself playing the comparison game with the people in my life I fail to see them as brothers and sisters and begin to see them as rivals and opponents. Why? Because a COMPARATIVE spirit breeds a COMPETITIVE spirit.

While preaching at a school this week I gave three volunteers each a basketball and told them whoever dribbles the longest wins. Simple! But then I added a twist: you can knock the others' ball out of their hands. The game ended pretty quick. The moment they began to take their attention off of their own ball and put it on someone else's, they began to lose control of their dribble. That's what living in comparison does. Don't spend your life trying to answer someone else’s calling. Take joy in your own!

2. OUTSIDERS

These are the people in your life who are drastically different from you politically, socially, culturally, religiously or theologically.

Let me paint a picture for you: think of a southern, small-town conservative Christian, who votes republican, shoots guns at the range on the weekends, has been married for 14 years, and has 3 kids. Now think of a 23-year-old atheist from Portland, who identifies as radically left, advocates for socialism, and considers themselves to be bi-sexual. We'll say they volunteer at planned parenthood on the weekends too.

Two vastly different people who fit very squarely into two vastly different groups and who hold two vastly different viewpoints on probably just about everything. Jesus painted a very similar picture when He told the story of the good Samaritan.

We may see Samaritans and Jews as being fairly similar, but in their minds, you couldn't be more distinct from one another. When Jesus starts commanding His followers to “love your neighbor as yourself” and they pose the question, “Who is my neighbor…?” He tells them a story in which the main character is a Jew and the hero is a Samaritan.

Just to put into context how radical that was, it would be like Jesus coming to a rural, red state town of conservatives and telling the same story where a man is robbed, beat up, bleeding on the side of the road and the hero who comes along and saves him is the left-leaning atheist. It’s not a story about WHO is right, it’s a story about WHAT is right. Loving our enemies means serving the one who likely wouldn't return the favor if the tables were turned.

In 1860 when Lincoln won the Presidency he shocked the nation by turning around and appointing both republican and democratic rivals of his, many of whom had bad-mouthed him throughout the election (hard for us to imagine, I know). He did it genuinely believing them to be best suited for the job and was quoted as saying, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

3. OPPOSERS

When we speak of this enemy it has very little to do with who they are and more about what they’ve done.

These are the people who have opposed us, hurt us, offended us, or betrayed us; the Judas’ in our lives.

I once read about a 16-year-old boy who was kidnapped from Roman territory by a roving band of savages in 400 AD. He was taken to a remote island and enslaved for five years before escaping and navigating his way back home. But night after night he began to feel the call to go back to that island and preach the gospel to his captors. So, he left what we now know as England and returned to the island that we now know as Ireland. There, he brought his Celtic kidnappers the message of Jesus. That's the story of how Patrick became "Saint" Patrick.

Five years of brutal slavery could have easily resulted in a lifetime of bitterness. He had a choice: he could either carry his bitterness or carry the burden of Christ. He couldn’t carry both. You and I can't carry both either.

CONCLUSION

We will not always understand it, remember it, or like it, but we need enemies in our lives. God often uses them to humble us, teach us, and give us the opportunity to love the way He loves; to be able to say "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

As you read this, I don’t know who you need help loving or forgiving today, but I can promise you this: you need help. I know I do every day, and it's only by the supernatural grace and love of God that I will be able to love those around me the way He does. The reality is, it didn't matter how far away from that island Patrick was, so long as he kept bitterness in his heart, he would still be enslaved if he didn't forgive. Choose love today, it's a lot lighter.