April 12, 2024 Edit: Added in some apostolic citations of blessing. This is more Biblically correct than what I had written before.
In the famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus raised the bar beyond the Old Testament Law for several areas of human behavior. He makes it clear, for instance, that it isn’t good enough to avoid murdering someone; you must also keep your thoughts about people pure in your heart. It isn’t enough to avoid adultery, you also must not objectify people of the opposite sex with lust.
In the same sermon, Jesus also raises the bar in for how we’re to deal with our enemies. Jesus commands us to both love our enemies and pray for them.
“Whoa! What does that mean? Is that surrender? Does that mean letting my enemies win?”
No, not exactly.
Jesus Says to Love and Pray for Your Enemies
This command is one of the most difficult commands that Jesus gave us. It cuts right to the heart of God’s priorities versus human priorities.
Let’s go straight to Matthew 5 and see what Jesus said.
43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
There it is, right in verse 44: “But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!” That’s pretty straightforward. Not a lot of wiggle room, I think.
Is Jesus saying that I have to love that neighbor who keeps letting his dog poop on my lawn? Yes.
Is Jesus saying I have to love the guy at work who is trying to backstab me and get the promotion even though I did all the work? Yup.
Is Jesus saying that I have to love my political enemies that are trying to do evil things to me and to everyone in this country? Right, even those folks.
If you were a Christian back in the Roman Empire and they were about ready to throw you into the arena with some lions, Jesus would still want you to be loving those Romans who were persecuting you.
Further, Jesus says you have to both love those people and pray for them.
That’s difficult. Really difficult. Extremely difficult in the case of some people and some circumstances.
So, why did Jesus give us this extremely difficult command? Doesn’t Jesus care about us? Doesn’t he understand that those people are our enemies? And what should we pray for?
Love Your Enemies
Let’s start with loving our enemies.
Jesus certainly cares about us. And he understands how difficult this commandment is. It’s unnatural to love people who hurt us.
Okay, so why did he give us this command?
Do you have the answer? It’s right there in the text, starting at verse 44.
To understand what Jesus is doing here, you have to understand the political climate of Judea in 33 AD. The Romans had conquered Judea and the Jews were not a free people. They were being oppressed. The Romans taxed them heavily and Jewish law was secondary to Roman law. We see an example of the primacy of Roman law when the Jewish religious leaders want to execute Jesus for blasphemy. They aren’t allowed to execute anybody, so they take Jesus to Pilate and demand the Romans crucify him.
Needless to say, the Jews that Jesus was speaking to during the Sermon on the Mount saw the Romans as enemies and felt persecuted by them.
Throughout the gospels, we see people trying to force Jesus to pick a side in the Roman vs. Jewish conflict. They think that the Messiah is going to be a conquering hero who liberates Judea. Indeed, that’s how the Jewish religious leaders positioned things when they approached Pilate. They said that Jesus was claiming to be a king and that was treasonous to Caesar (as if the Jewish leaders were Roman loyalists; snort!).
When the Jews ask Jesus about whether they should pay taxes to Caesar or not (Matthew 22, Mark 12, Luke 20), they’re trying to trap him. Pick a side, Jesus. If you say that we shouldn’t pay taxes, then we’ll tell the Romans that you’re a revolutionary and a traitor. If you say that we should pay taxes, then we’ll discredit you with your Jewish followers as being a Roman stooge.
But Jesus outfoxes the foxes. He doesn’t pick a side between the human factions. He says, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's” (Mark 12:17, ESV). Oof. The people are stunned by his answer and how it avoids this Rome vs. Israel conflict.
In doing so, Jesus signals that he has other priorities. He has not come to earth to pick a side in a human conflict. He has not come to be crowned the king of an earthly kingdom. Surely, Jesus was and remains the King of Kings, but his kingdom is the Kingdom of God. Jesus has a different perspective. It’s not Jews vs. Romans, rich vs. poor, black vs. white, or Democrats vs. Republicans. It’s the Kingdom of God vs. the Kingdom of Satan. That’s the real battle.
Even though the Messiah has been described in great detail as being a “suffering servant” in Isaiah 52 and 53, the Jews of his day miss it. They’re looking for the conquering king of Jesus’s second coming.
So, why does Jesus command us to love and pray for our enemies? And why do we find that so difficult?
Because, like the Jews of 33 AD, we want Jesus to pick a side — our side. We want Jesus to agree with us that those people are bad, and we want him to do something about it! And the frustration comes because Jesus says, “You need to align your priorities with God’s priorities. Yes, there is conflict here, but it’s spiritual conflict, not mere human conflict. You need to remember that you’re playing for Team God, not Team John or Team Jane. And the priorities on Team God are to recognize that every human being was created by me. Every human being is loved by me. And I want every human being to have the chance to accept my free gift, be forgiven, become part of Team God themselves, and live with me forever. And I want you to be a part of that transformation because you are already on Team God.”
So, Jesus is commanding us to view our conflicts in a wider context, the context of the Kingdom of God. And that’s really difficult when we’re being persecuted. But that’s also how we reach those who are doing the persecuting. Remember at Jesus’s crucifixion, after he had suffered beatings and torture, after he had been nailed to the cross, after he had asked God to forgive his tormenters? What did the Roman centurion standing at the foot of the cross say? “Surely, this man was the son of God” (Matthew 27:54, Mark 15:39, Luke 23:47). Jesus convinced the centurion by his actions.
Jesus had a big impact because he was different, very, very different. And Jesus is calling us to be different in this passage in Matthew 5. In verses 46 and 47 he says, “If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that.”
Let that sink in — even the pagans do that. I want you to be different. You are to be like God in heaven, the God who created and loves all people. The God that wants redemption and salvation for all people. The God who sees the big picture and has a wider plan. Be like him.
And if we do it, perhaps someone will say, “Surely, these are the sons and daughters of God.”
So, we should love people because he created them. We should love them because, like us, they bear God’s image. We should love them because God loves them. We should love them because Jesus commanded us to.
Learn to love the person even while you hate the persecution. Show them the Father’s and Son’s love through your actions and the way you react to their sinful deeds.
Quieting Your Inner Lawyer
“But…!” I hear you cry. “There is real evil in the world! There is real persecution. Surely, God doesn’t want us to just roll over and let bad people do bad things.” That’s your “inner lawyer” crying out and throwing up a straw man. “If I do what God seems to be telling me to do,” your inner lawyer says, “Then evil will triumph!” This is similar to the expert in religious law asking Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29), forcing Jesus to respond with the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
So, let’s settle your inner lawyer down a bit. What do we know to be true about God?
Does God want to let evil win? No, of course not.
Will God let evil win? No, of course not. As the saying goes, “I’ve read the end of the story, and Jesus wins.” The end is not in doubt.
Will God let them “get away with it?” No, not ultimately. Remember that God is supremely just. That’s why he sent Jesus to earth to suffer and die. Your enemies are likely sinful and committing further sin as they persecute you. God will repay them fully for all of their sin. That’s an ironclad promise. The only way they will not be punished themselves is to receive Jesus as their savior and join Team God. In that case, Jesus will have received their punishment. And if that happens, then when you meet those former enemies in heaven, you will weep with joy over them being there with you. In short, justice will be served one way or another, of that you should have no doubt. Also, remember that God let you “get away with it” until the point where you accepted Christ as your savior. Don’t deny those around you the chance to be redeemed as well.
Will God let this persecution, persist? Ah, now, that’s a far better question. Yes, quite possibly. When you became a Christian, you traded control of your earthly life for eternal reward. Now, Jesus is your Lord. Most people today don’t understand the idea of lordship. As your Lord, Jesus gets to say that happens with everything in your life, including your life itself. You are bound to follow him and obey him, no matter what. That’s how lordship works. It’s up to him to decide how to spend your life for the benefit of his Kingdom. Maybe he’ll ask you to bless your neighbors by just living a modest, faithful life in full view of them. Maybe that will be a happy, relatively trouble-free life. If so, congratulations! But maybe Jesus will call you to die for him as a martyr. The choice is his. Nowhere does the Bible promise Christians a stress-free, persecution-free life. In fact, Jesus repeatedly says that people will hate you because they hate him, that you’ll have trouble in the world, that you’ll be persecuted, and that you’ll be handed over into the power of bad people.
If you’re expecting nothing but smooth sailing here on earth, you definitely bought the wrong ticket. If God doesn’t spare the martyrs around the world who die every day for their faith, if he didn’t spare the apostles, most of whom died for him, and if he didn’t spare his own son, why would you expect nothing but smooth sailing? Worse, why would you demand smooth sailing?
Here is what God promises you: comfort in the middle of the trials and persecution. David says it best in Psalm 23: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4, ESV). So, expect that you’re going to walk through “the valley of the shadow of death.” Expect the storm. Expect persecution and conflict with bad people. And expect God to be there to comfort you through it all.
Instead of getting angry at God for the injustice you experience, use it as an opportunity to get close to God and experience his comfort. Nothing will grow your relationship with the Almighty than turning to him and trusting his promises through troubling times.
Pray for Your Enemies
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, we get to the hard part. It’s one thing to love somebody, but Jesus also commands you to pray for your enemies.
Hm.
Where to start? Praying is active. We need to form words and speak them or think them. Those words need to be cogent.
So, what does “pray for those who persecute you” look like in practice?
I think we can get help here from David’s psalms and some of the apostles.
David was always dealing with somebody who was opposing him, and he got pretty good about praying for those people. I think we can use the prayers we find in the psalms as a model.
Let’s take a look at Psalm 10, as one example. You can find similar examples throughout the psalms.
Psalm 10
1 O Lord, why do you stand so far away?
Why do you hide when I am in trouble?
2 The wicked arrogantly hunt down the poor.
Let them be caught in the evil they plan for others.
3 For they brag about their evil desires;
they praise the greedy and curse the Lord.4 The wicked are too proud to seek God.
They seem to think that God is dead.
5 Yet they succeed in everything they do.
They do not see your punishment awaiting them.
They sneer at all their enemies.
6 They think, “Nothing bad will ever happen to us!
We will be free of trouble forever!”7 Their mouths are full of cursing, lies, and threats.[a]
Trouble and evil are on the tips of their tongues.
8 They lurk in ambush in the villages,
waiting to murder innocent people.
They are always searching for helpless victims.
9 Like lions crouched in hiding,
they wait to pounce on the helpless.
Like hunters they capture the helpless
and drag them away in nets.
10 Their helpless victims are crushed;
they fall beneath the strength of the wicked.
11 The wicked think, “God isn’t watching us!
He has closed his eyes and won’t even see what we do!”12 Arise, O Lord!
Punish the wicked, O God!
Do not ignore the helpless!
13 Why do the wicked get away with despising God?
They think, “God will never call us to account.”
14 But you see the trouble and grief they cause.
You take note of it and punish them.
The helpless put their trust in you.
You defend the orphans.15 Break the arms of these wicked, evil people!
Go after them until the last one is destroyed.
16 The Lord is king forever and ever!
The godless nations will vanish from the land.
17 Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless.
Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them.
18 You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed,
so mere people can no longer terrify them.
David starts the psalm with a complaint in verse 1. We’ve talked about righteous complaints before.
In verses 2 - 11, David describes “the wicked,” his enemies. He lays out their sins and describes how ungodly they are. He describes them as being opposed to God, bragging about their evil desires and cursing God (verse 3), thinking God is dead (verse 4), and thinking that God does not see what they are doing (verse 11).
In verses 12 through 18, David asks God to do something about this state of affairs. He asks for punishment (verse 12). His call is not merely for destruction, however, but for justice. He asks God to defend the weak and the powerless who are being abused by the wicked. In verse 14, he says that the helpless have put their trust in God. He’s asking God to defend God’s character and God’s promises. God has asked us to put our trust in him and promised that he will help and comfort us. David is reminding God of those promises. The implication is that God’s righteous name is on the line.
Now, in verse 15, David really lets loose. He doesn’t hold back at all. After reading it, I want to say, “Tell us how you really feel, David.” He’s definitely upset. “Break their arms!” “Go after them until they are destroyed!” He really wants justice.
Finally, in verses 16 through 18, he brings it back home with some reminders about God’s character:
The Lord is King.
The Lord will comfort the helpless.
The Lord will bring justice to the oppressed.
What can we learn from all that?
Well, first, shockingly, “Break the arms of these wicked, evil people! Go after them until the last one is destroyed,” is a solid, Godly prayer. Who knew?
But let’s put that in some larger context. David isn’t simply asking for bad things to befall his enemies.
In the ancient world, people’s arms and hands represented their strength and power. Psalm 89, speaking of God, says “You have a mighty arm; strong is your hand, high your right hand.” The right arm and right hand are particular images of strength and power. Sorry, lefties. That’s also why sitting at the right hand of someone is a place of honor. That’s why Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven and why James and John requested to sit at the right and left hand of Jesus in heaven (he said it wasn’t his call to make).
Someone with broken arms doesn’t have much power. They can’t get an advantage on you, physically. So, when David is suggesting that God “break the arms” of these people and destroy them, he’s really saying “Take away their power, and stop them from continuing with their wicked acts.”
Let’s note a few things:
David is calling for righteous justice against people who mock God, on behalf of the downtrodden who have put their faith in God.
He’s asking God to do it. He’s not seeking vengeance himself. Paul, writing in Romans 12:19 (ESV) says, quoting Deuteronomy 32:35, “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.’” So, asking God to break arms is one thing; breaking literal arms yourself is quite another.
But there it is, right there: “Break their arms! Destroy them!” If you want to use the same words David used, I think God is fine with it.
“Okay, that feels a little better,” I hear you say. “I have a few instances where I can use that ‘Break their arms!’ prayer.”
Now, let’s also look at some things the apostles say in the New Testament:
1 Peter 3:9 (ESV): Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.
Romans 12:14 (ESV): Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
1 Corinthians 4:12b-13a (ESV): When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat.
But how do we square David’s “break their arms” with Jesus’s commands in Matthew 5 and the apostles’ direction to bless our enemies and persecutors? Are those in conflict?
One the surface, it may appear so, but I think that’s because we don’t understand blessing somebody.
Imagine for a moment that I have an enemy that is harassing my family, in some cases physically harming them. Now let’s ask ourselves some questions.
Does Jesus command us to love this enemy? Yes, certainly. My enemy is made in the image of God and God loves my enemies, in spite of their behavior.
Because of the love that we should have for our enemy, what should we desire for this enemy? Good things, but not in the sense that our enemies get what our enemies want. In particular, we should desire that our enemies come to know Jesus and accept him as their Lord and Savior. In other words, we should want for them to get what they need. And what they need most of all is to know Jesus.
So, what should we pray for? We should pray that they get what they need. We should bless them in that. But we should pray that we get what we need, which is an end to the persecution. In particular, those two things are not in conflict with one another. When Paul in Romans 12 says, “Bless those who persecute you,” he isn’t saying that we must accept whatever persecution happens without trying to change it or asking God to stop it. Rather, I think that he’s saying that we should still be fighting for and praying for the souls of our persecutors. David’s prayer of “break their arms” is about stopping the persecution, and I think we should be praying for that, too. Both go hand in hand.
If that’s still unsatisfying or even confusing, consider the opposite reaction that Jesus wants to turn us away from.
We might hate our enemies.
We might consider that they are unworthy of love or salvation.
We might curse them with, “Go to hell!” or “Damn you!”
We might pray for them to be destroyed in an eternal sense. That’s not what David is praying for. He’s praying for our enemies to be broken in a Godly way.
We don’t want to do any of those things. Jesus and the apostles are speaking against all of those.
To reiterate, we should want what is best for all people. In particular, we should want everybody to stop sinning, repent, and turn to Jesus as their savior. We should want everybody to become part of God’s Kingdom. We should want everybody to know the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and begin to love the other people around them in the same way. Those things are universally best for all people, in all circumstances.
For instance, imagine how much death and destruction would have been avoided if the Roman Caesars, Hitler, or Stalin had found Jesus and repented before they started such murderous reigns. Imagine how wonderful the world would be if everybody, even your worst enemy, was faithfully following Jesus. Wouldn’t that be a better place? I think so.
But that doesn’t mean letting them get away with evil deeds. We should also pray for them to be stopped by God.
Conclusion
In the end, I think that the best prayer for our enemies is something along the lines of
Father, we know that you made our enemies in your image, just like you did us. We know that you love them and want them to turn, repent, and choose Jesus. Help us to love them in the midst of their persecution. If you have called them to yourself and want them to be transformed, then please use us to accomplish your plan. Until that time, we ask that you would come against them, destroy their power, thwart their plans, and make it such that they cannot harm us. We ask for justice for your people.
You can make the words your own. If you want to use King David’s words for that last part, substituting, “Break their arms and destroy them,” that’s okay, too.
Today’s Prayer
Holy Father, maker of all things, may your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. We have so many enemies around us, whether personal, national, or international. We know you love them no less than you love us. We pray that you would pursue them, that they would know the reality of the one, true, holy God, and that they would come to accept and believe in the redemption of Jesus. But until that time, break their arms and destroy them, just as King David said. Protect us and comfort us as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
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Wonderfully written! God bless.
Praise the Lord brother... loved your teaching, however, I tend to differ from your conclusion. Lord Jesus brought us into a new way and that is the way of love. Why would we pray for Him to break the arms of our enemies and to destroy them? We don't see that in the new covenant or any of His apostles do that, in the Scriptures. They patiently endured and overcame all that what came against them.
Please remember that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood... If we pray against anyone it ought to be against the principalities and powers and rulers of darkness of this age and the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places that have blinded and bound the people and have made them our enemies. May the Lord give us the grace to endure and overcome and to bless our enemies. Love you.