“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43–48 NRSVA)
“The most important thing you give your church is the person you are becoming.” This is a butchered rendition of a famous quote from the great Dallas Willard, one we have uttered thousands of times in the NAB family over the last decade or so. At the risk of overuse, I continue to mention it often because of the strong temptation in us all to focus on ‘doing the right things’ as the end goal.
Make no mistake, we ought to do the right things. And hopefully righteous living becomes like second nature to us all the longer we walk with Jesus. However, the truth of the matter is, the longer we live in the community of faith, the easier it can become to get the ‘doing’ right and get the ‘being’ all wrong. This is, at least in part, what pierces me as I read these famous words of Jesus today: “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. . .” This is, of course, a wonderful aspiration of doing, but what hits me today as I read it is the weight and impossibility of it all.
In my greatest moments, on my best of days, I can manage to love my neighbor. And truth be told, I can probably do this periodically without even thinking about it. But loving my enemy? Praying for those who persecute me? There’s no chance I can do this by sheer force of will. I have to become a different human being. I have to respond to the nudges from the Holy Spirit, who beckons me deeper into the life and teachings of Jesus.
All this seems impossible, and I have not even arrived at the most difficult command: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavily Father is perfect.” I am reminded yet again that we are being transformed through the work of the Spirit, by the power of the cross, because of the love of our Heavenly Father.
Just as the Father sent the Son, the Father and Son send the Spirit, and the fullness of their triune love sends us, the Church, to become the kind of love in our world that would see even our enemy and persecutor as someone worthy of love and prayer.
Stu Streeter serves as the NAB VP of Church Multiplication and Ministry Advancement.
