March 24th, 2025
"You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."
The idea that people being made in the image of God makes them valuable and worthy of dignity and honour is likely a statement you would agree with in principle. But what if I told you that the people who have hurt you or are actively against you are also worthy of being treated as valuable? If we’re being honest, treating people we dislike, or those who dislike us with care and consideration is a difficult challenge for all of us.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses the problem of how we treat our enemies. It had always been evident throughout Israel’s history that God’s people were to love their neighbour and treat their fellow Israelites fairly and with kindness and respect (Leviticus 19:9-18), honouring the image of God in them. However, throughout the years of the Laws' existence, many teachers began to reinterpret the Law and other scriptures (Psalm 139:19-22) as only obligating Israel to love their fellow Israelis, allowing for the hatred of enemies. Jesus addresses this assumption, responding with God’s desire for how believers should treat their enemies.
“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
This command was a simple yet straightforward direction for all who call themselves children of God. Such an idea was revolutionary for the time. Jesus sets the record straight that one’s enemies are still deserving of the love and care that any person made in God's image deserves
Maybe you’re reading this and saying, “That’s great and all, but it doesn’t make loving my enemies any easier.” For most of us, the struggle with our enemies isn’t that we don't know that Jesus said we should love our enemies. Instead, loving our enemies is difficult because it's hard to feel affection for those who hurt us. Some people are harder to love than others. Whether it be a bully at school who terrorizes us, a parent who constantly disappoints us, or, quite frankly, just people with dislikable personalities, inevitably, in all our lives, we will come across people who are outright challenging to love and offer us every reason not to treat them kindly. Yet, it is fundamental that we understand this essential truth about love:
Love is not a feeling; it is a choice.
The word love in this verse does not refer to warm affections. Instead, the love described by Jesus is a moral kind of love—care and kindness toward another because it is the right thing to do as ordained by God. It is a love that, regardless of how you feel, you can choose to do, understanding that every human is made in the image of God and deserves respect.
We must not forget that, as our verses for the day describe, the driving motivator for making such a choice in love is not our own desire to love. We love to be like our God in heaven, who displays kindness to both good and evil.
If you ever feel like it is too difficult to treat someone with love and dignity as image bearers, remember first that while you were still God’s enemy, Christ died for you (Romans 5:8-10). We, who have done far worse to God than our enemies have done to us, are forgiven and loved by God despite the evil we’ve done. How dare we not extend this same love and grace to others?
Loving our enemies is undoubtedly challenging, but it's certainly not impossible. By God’s grace, we, too, can learn to love and honour the image of God, even in our worst enemies.
Challenge This Week
Take a moment to listen to this powerful testimony by Corrie Ten Boom, a Christian holocaust survivor who forgives the Nazi who killed her sister in the concentration camps.
After you listen, pray Corrie Ten Boom’s prayer for yourself:
“Thank you, Jesus, that you have brought into my heart God’s love through the Holy Spirit who is given to me, and thank you, Father, that your love is stronger than my hatred and unforgiveness.”