Perhaps like many people, you have never had a real enemy (human enemy, that is, discounting Satan and the spirit world), or at least, never felt that you could identify someone as your specific enemy. You recognized that there were those who stood in opposition to the truths of the Word that you held dear, but that opposition was generic in nature and not directed at you personally and specifically. Perhaps that has changed recently. Or, at the very least, you now have the sense that an enemy is approaching and painting a target on you in preparation to attack. The reality, or even the thought, of having to confront an enemy of the truth provokes several questions.

            What should be a believer’s response to the attack of an enemy? Tit for tat retaliation? Or if you hit me, I’ll hit you harder? If you bring a knife, I’ll bring a gun, so to speak? Though no one asked that question specifically, the Lord Jesus offered a fourfold answer in The Sermon on the Mount in the sixth chapter of Luke’s gospel. First, “love your enemies” (v. 27b). The Greek word Luke records the Lord as using here is a form of agape, not the love based in feelings and emotions, but that self-sacrificial giving of oneself for the benefit of another. It is a love that may entail great personal cost and even great natural loss—at least during this life. It is a love that engages itself in being a blessing to the one who would be our enemy. Second, the Lord leaves no doubt about the positive and active nature of this love, for He says, “do good to those who hate you” (v. 27c). Anyone can say that he loves his enemies. The Lord says, in effect, “prove it.” Don’t retaliate, don’t just endure the hatred; positively do good to them. Do something that can be recognized as helpful or beneficial to them. Third, He says, “bless those who curse you” (v. 28a). When the tongue of the enemy is hurling execrations, the lips of a believer are not to be shouting reprisals but blessings on the head of the enemy. He is to remember that he himself is only a wretch that has been favored with the unmerited blessings of God’s salvation. And he is to desire God’s favor, His mercy and grace upon the one opposing him. Fourth, Luke records the Lord’s command to “pray for those who mistreat you” (v. 28b). Yes, surely the believer can and must pray for himself, for his protection and deliverance according to the will of God. But he is commanded to pray for the one who mistreats him. He is to request that God would save the soul that is lost or sanctify the brother who is carnal.

            Why does God permit believers even to have enemies? After all, what human father would allow his child to face an enemy if he could prevent it? The answer lies in the nature of who God is and who we are. And there are multiple ways to address this question, but we will stick to those mentioned in this passage. First, the Lord enjoins the believer to “be merciful as your Father is merciful” (v. 36). The existence of enemies affords believers the opportunity to manifest the character of God, to show to a lost world the transforming nature of Christ’s redemptive work in the life of one He has delivered from sin.  The instantaneous response of the flesh to an attack is to respond in kind. But God saves and redeems sinners and desires this miracle of His grace to be manifested. This reason, then, is that God might be honored, but also that lost men might be saved. The second reason is that the believer might receive God’s blessing: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and it will be given to you” (vv. 37, 38a). Believers reap what they sow. The Lord would have His beloved reap blessing and so He instructs them to sow blessed seed. Vengeance and retribution are the Lord’s prerogative—not the believer’s. The fiercer the attack and the more gracious the response, the greater is the blessing of the Lord.

 None of this is to suggest that believers have no right to defend themselves or their loved ones from physical harm. (That’s another subject.) Rather, we are addressing the spirit, the attitude, and the actions that should follow when a believer confronts an enemy of the gospel. And to those who might suggest that these truths apply to another dispensation, I would point them to Paul’s statements in Romans 12:14-21.