In loving his friends a man may in a certain sense be loving only himself – a kind of expanded selfishness.
Matthew, Judson Press, 1886, p. 123.
The best way to destroy an enemy is to turn him into a friend.
Taken from " Hard Sayings of Jesus " by, F.F. Bruce, page 73. (c)1973 InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the USA, Revised edition. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515. www.ivpress.com.
[God] bestows His blessings without discrimination. The followers of Jesus are children of God, and they should manifest the family likeness by doing good to all, even to those who deserve the opposite.
Persistence in prayer for someone whom we don’t like (Lk. 6:28), however much it goes against the grain to begin with, brings about a remarkable change in attitude.
Taken from " Hard Sayings of Jesus " by, F.F. Bruce, page 73. (c)1973 InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the USA, Revised edition. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515. www.ivpress.com.
Assuredly there is but one way in which to achieve what is not merely difficult but utterly against human nature: to love those who hate us, to repay their evil deeds with benefits, to return blessings for reproaches. It is that we remember not to consider men’s evil intention but to look upon the image of God in them, which cancels and effaces their transgressions, and with its beauty and dignity allures us to love and embrace them.
All of us would be wiser if we would resolve never to put people down, except on our prayer lists.
A Call to Spiritual Reformation, Baker, 1992, p. 29. Get this book!
Our responsibility to love our enemies is grounded in the fact that God providentially loves the just and the unjust.
Love and the Commandment of God by D.A. Carson taken from Love in the Hard Places by D.A. Carson, 2002, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 15.
As love to God prevails, it tends to set persons above human injuries, in this sense, that the more they love God the more they will place all their happiness in Him. They will look to God as their all and seek their happiness in portion in His favor, and thus not in the allotments of His providence alone. The more they love God, the less they set their hearts on their worldly interests, which are all that their enemies can touch.
Charity and Its Fruits
As love to God prevails, it tends to set persons above human injuries, in this sense, that the more they love God the more they will place all their happiness in Him. They will look to God as their all and seek their happiness in portion in His favor, and thus not in the allotments of His providence alone. The more they love God, the less they set their hearts on their worldly interests, which are all that their enemies can touch.
Charity and Its Fruits.
A person should respond not on the basis of how one is treated but on the basis of how one wants to be treated. Maybe nothing happens to enemies. They may hate one all the more, but incredible things happen within the one who lives this ethic out. Hate has nowhere to go except inside. Love frees up energy.
Luke – Exegetical Commentary, Zondervan, www.zondervan.com, 2011, p. 289.
As the Lord says, He makes the sun to shine and the rain to fall on the unjust and the wicked as well as on the godly. And His followers are required to act accordingly. Christ commands us to love our enemies, and uses as His model the fact that God from heaven showers His blessings on the wicked. We see that God actually hates and is infinitely angry with persons upon whom He pours great blessings. We are not allowed to hate persons, but are commanded to love them. We cannot, of course, be pleased with persons who hate God and hate us, but we can behave lovingly toward them and pray for them. In so doing, we follow the model of God.
The Problem of Pleasure, Soli Deo Gloria, 2002, p. 17.
It is impossible to truly pray for someone and hate them at the same time.
Supernatural Love by Kent Hughes taken from Luke by Kent Hughes – Volume 1, copyright 1998, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, page 226.
Our Lord God must be a pious man to be able to love rascals. I can’t do it, and yet I am a rascal myself.
The Early Years, Christian History, n. 34.
Love’s question is never who to love – because we are to love everyone – but only how to love most helpfully. We are not to love merely in terms of feeling but in terms of service. God’s love embraces the entire world (John 3:16), and He loved each of us even while we were still sinners and His enemies (Rom. 5:8-10). Those who refuse to trust in God are His enemies; but He is not theirs. In the same way, we are not to be enemies of those who may be enemies to us. From their perspective, we are their enemies; but from our perspective, they should be our neighbors.
Matthew 1-7, Moody, 1985, p. 346.
Can we pray for justice, and yet love our enemy at the same time? The answer is yes…We will magnify the mercy of God by praying for our enemies to be saved and reconciled to God. At the personal level we will be willing to suffer for their everlasting good, and we will give them food and drink. We will put away malicious hatred and private vengeance. But at the public level we will also magnify the justice of God by praying and working for justice to be done on earth, if necessary through wise and measured force from God-ordained authority.
World Magazine, September 22, 2001.
Your ability to really love your enemies…to do good even to the ungrateful or wicked absolutely requires the intervention of the Godhead. It required that Christ suffer and die because of your natural enmity to God. It requires the Holy Spirit’s power to give you a wholly new life. It requires the Father’s patient hand to prune and grow you in a way of life that is otherwise impossible – even inconceivable. It requires nothing less than radical repentance, living faith, and renewal of your whole heart that you might begin to learn how to really love. Such faith working through love is the product of a good news worth living and dying for.
Seeing With New Eyes, P&R Publishers, 2003, p. 235. Get this book!
Take unilateral initiative, and don’t quit. Love your enemies. Unreciprocated love expresses the image of your Father.
Seeing With New Eyes, P&R Publishers, 2003, p. 238. Get this book!
The ultimate weapon to use against those who do evil is to love them; to meet their needs.
The Complete Husband, Calvary Press, www.calvarypress.com, 1999, p. 134.
Our response to those in the world is not to envy or admire them in their rejection of God. It’s not even to condemn them by wagging a Pharisaic finger of self-righteousness. Jesus said He did not come the first time to condemn the world. He came that the world might be saved through Him. Likewise, our job is to have compassion on the world – no different than the way Jesus did when they tortured and mocked Him on the cross – to point people to forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Judgment is His job and as we just witnessed in Revelation 14, that’s exactly what He will do when He comes a second time.
Sermon, Purposefully Misplaced in Babylon – part 2, Revelation 14:1-20, February 21, 2015.
Love, bless and pray for your enemies. You want to be like Jesus? You want to stop evil from spreading? You want to turn your enemy into your friend? You want to see evidence of the Holy Spirit in you? You want to root out all bitterness in your heart? You want to put aside the defeating victim attitude? Then show the humility of Christ, take the moral high ground and, Romans 12:21, “Overcome evil with good.” Don’t be natural. Be unnatural. It’s hard to hate someone when God gives you a supernatural love for that person.
Sermon, Enough Evidence to Convict?, Luke 6:27-36, June 3, 2018.
[Jesus Christ’s] victory, of course, does not mean that we rush off to kill all our enemies. It means instead that we are to love them. Our love for them must be strong enough, however, to tell them with both passion and compassion, that their hopes are in vain, that their gods are mute and dumb, and that there is only one name under heaven by which a man must be saved. Our love for them does not present the Christian Gospel as an option. It does not lead us to argue that it’s a good option that has worked well for us. Our love instead commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the Gospel, lest they perish. Our love calls on all our enemies to kiss the Son, lest He be angry and they perish along the way (Ps. 2:12).
Kiss the Son, Tabletalk, June 2008, p. 81, Used by Permission.
Earnest intercession will be sure to bring love with it. I do not believe you can hate a man for whom you habitually pray. If you dislike any brother Christian, pray for him doubly, not only for his sake, but for your own, that you may be cured of prejudice and saved from all unkind feeling.
It is impossible to pray for someone without loving him, and impossible to go on praying for him without discovering that our love for him grows and matures.
The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, IVP, 1978, p. 119.
God may define some people as enemies, but He says that we are to treat them as friends. Our duty is to consider how to serve them in such a way that they would be pointed to Jesus and repent from their sins… How can we even begin this impossible process?… Do we realize that we were Christ’s enemies? If we do, then we have no choice but to treat enemies the way God has treated us. Our conscience would rebel if we felt smug in a self-righteous judgment of our enemies.
When People are Big and God is Small, P&R Publishing, 1997, p. 188. Used by Permission. Get this book!
On the surface, love for enemies sounds like self-punishment or foolishness. It goes in the face of popular counsel that tells you to jettison people who damage your self-esteem. But if God says it, it must be good. There is always a blessing in obedience. The blessing might not be reconciliation or repentance by the enemy. Instead, it may be the privilege of not being controlled by that enemy. Or it might simply be the joy of becoming more like Jesus. Whatever it may be, there is always a blessing in obedience.
When People are Big and God is Small, P&R Publishing, 1997, p. 190. Used by Permission. Get this book!
Who are other people? They take on three different shapes: Enemies, neighbors, and family. What is our duty to them? Love. Love may take a different form with each group, but our duty is summed up as love. We love enemies by surprising them with our service toward them. We love neighbors by treating them like our family. And we love the body of Christ – our true brothers and sisters – in such a way that the world and spiritual powers are stunned by our oneness.
When People are Big and God is Small, P&R Publishing, 1997, p. 211. Used by Permission. Get this book!
When you hear of a notorious sinner, instead of thinking you do well to be angry, beg of Jesus Christ to convert, and make him a monument of His free grace.
