In his second Inaugural address, March 4, 1865, just a little over a month before he would be assassinated, Abraham Lincoln uttered these immortal words:
“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Abraham Lincoln spoke those words at the end of a time in our nation’s history when America almost did to herself what no one else has been able to do—destroy her. Though the war was over, the battle was not. Bitterness and anger were still in a fever pitch in this country. But Lincoln knew something that Jesus teaches us in the Sermon on the Mount, and that is the only salve that can cure the wound of bitterness between enemies is the salve of love. But it is more than just an ordinary love. It is a supernatural love, a divine love that loves the absolutely unlovable. It is one thing to love a friend; it’s one thing to love a relative; it is another thing to love your enemy.
It’s not always easy to love the unlovable. Who are those people in your life? How do you love an enemy or one who persecutes you?
I heard about a woman who had some chickens and her chickens got out of her yard into a neighbor’s yard and infuriated the neighbor.
This woman was a godly Christian woman, but her neighbor was an ungodly man that she had witnessed to many times without any success.
This man just despised her. He despised Jesus, he despised the church, he hated the Bible, and he hated her chickens.
Well, one chicken got through the fence and this man picked it up and wrung its neck and threw it back over the fence. She happened to be in the yard and that dead chicken landed right at her feet.
That evening she knocked on his door, and when he opened it there in a big bowl, piping hot, was this lady’s famous chicken and dumplings. She gave it to him and said, “It occurred to me today that in all of my years I have never prepared a meal for you, and I just wanted to give this to you and hope you enjoy it.” It broke that man’s heart. He invited her in and she led him to Jesus.
In the “Sermon on the Mount” Jesus said,
Matthew 5:43–47 (ESV)
43“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
44But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
46For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
47And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
Once again Jesus exposes how the Pharisees distorted what the Bible really said about whom we should love, and how we should love them.
First of all, they had added something to the law that the law did not teach. It is true that the Old Testament taught “You shall love your neighbor.” In fact, the Lord Jesus Himself taught that the second greatest commandment of all is to “love your neighbor as yourself.” But the Pharisees had added four words — “and hate your enemy.” Yet, that is not found anywhere in the Bible. But in addition, the Pharisees had gone beyond that. They agreed that you should love your neighbor, but they narrowly define who a neighbor was. To them Gentiles were not neighbors.
A saying of the Pharisees has been discovered that reads: “If a Jew sees a Gentile fallen into the sea, let him by no means lift him out for it is written, ‘Thou shalt not rise up against the blood of thy neighbor,’ but this man is not thy neighbor.”
In other words, the Pharisees taught it is okay to be bigoted; it’s okay to be prejudiced. If a person was not Jewish and did not have the same color of skin, speak the same language, use the same type of accent, they were not your neighbor. Does that sound like anyone today?
Jesus defined who your neighbor is when He was asked: “who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied with the story of “The Good Samaritan,” (Luke 10:25-37).
I’m sure you are familiar with the story, but let me remind you of an important point in that account. When the man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, they stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. First, a priest came by, saw him and passed by on the other side. Then a Levite came, saw him and passed on the other side.
But a Samaritan came to where he was and when he saw him he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’
What is significant about this story is that the Samaritans and Jews hated each other, and I mean “hate.” This is how much the Jews hated the Samaritans. When a Jewish person was in Judah and wanted to travel to Galilee in the north they had to pass through Samaria. But there was no way they were going to travel through Samaria to get to Galilee, so they would cross the Jordan river go north pass Samaria and cross back over into Galilee.
Jesus pointed out that it was a Samaritan that had compassion on the man . . . a foreigner loved the man where his own people would not.
Jesus goes beyond “Loving your neighbor” and says, “But I tell you, ‘Love your enemies.'” He defines that even further in Luke 6:27-28 where He tells us to “bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you.”
Jesus goes on to say in vv.46-47,
Matthew 5:46-47 (ESV)
46For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same?
47And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
If you only love people who love you back; if you’re only kind to people who are kind to you; if you only treat people the way they treat you, you’re no better off than a pagan or an unbeliever.
No matter how good you try to be to others, people are going to be mean to you. Somebody, somewhere, at sometime is going to do you wrong.
When Jesus tells us to “love our enemy and pray for those who persecute you” there may be some that say, “that is impossible,” but it is not impossible. Whatever God commands us to do, God empowers us to do. When you become a true child of God you have that love.
Romans 5:5 (ESV)
5and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Don’t say you can’t love your enemy. If you are a child of God, you have in your heart right now the love of God, which has flooded your heart through the Holy Spirit.
Few would disagree with me that Jesus tells us to “Love your enemies.” But the issue is not whether Jesus commands us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, the question is “Am I going to obey what Jesus tells me to do?”
There may be some who will keep hating those who hate them, taking vengeance on those who malign them, refusing to forgive those who mistreat them and failing to pray for those who persecute them.
“Four Steps on How to Love the Unlovable in Your Life”
1. Pray unceasingly:
A. Pray for your own heart
Ask God to soften your heart towards this person, to put off anger and hatred, to put on meekness and kindness, to understand this person’s struggles and meet them with compassion. Ask God to allow you to see them as He sees them.
B. Pray for them
Ask God to be at work in their hearts, drawing unbelievers to himself and sanctifying believers to become more like Jesus.
2. Forgive them.
Yes, it can be very difficult to forgive people who have hurt us. But do you really want to live with anger, bitterness, and resentment? As Christians, we are commanded to forgive others, as God forgave us. Forgiving people doesn’t mean condoning their actions. It means letting go of your bitterness and resentment toward that person, or a desire for revenge, and handing them over to God to deal with as He wants. Let God do His job.
Forgiveness changes our own heart and attitude and it allows us to move forward and be right with God.
3. Love unconditionally:
In this sense love is a verb. Jesus shows us how to love the unlovable. It’s not to just tolerate them. Or just not make fun of them. Or to pretend you love them. Instead, we should serve them.
Here’s why:
1) Serving gives us an easy way to see how we should love.
It’s not just some mushy, hard-to-grasp emotion, but an action.
2) Serving someone has a way of changing the way we see them.
If you are continually looking for a way to help someone, it’s very hard to think they’re worthless. It’s very hard to stay mad at them. Serve them. “Serve them?” you ask. “Are you crazy, I don’t even like being around this person!” Yes, serve them, the way Jesus served others, which teaches us about love and humility.
To serve means to humble ourselves to them. Serving someone is one way of showing love, and a sincere act of servanthood can soften hearts.
4. Find specific ways to bless and encourage them.
Write them a note of appreciation. Tell them you are praying for them.
Sergeant Jacob DeShazer was a bombardier in General Jimmy Dolittle’s squadron during World War II. While bombing Japan, his plane was shot down by antiaircraft fire. He bailed out of his plane and was captured. He was placed in a 5 ft. wide cell in a prison camp.
He was beaten, whipped, spat upon, tortured, and forced to undergo some of the most gross indignities you could imagine. He developed an intense hatred for his guards, and all he wanted to do was to get his hands on one of their throats to squeeze the life of him.
They continued to torture him. Everyday his hatred would grow until it became like one gigantic mountain. He had only one reason for living and that was to one day get revenge on these guards.
One day a Bible was brought into that prison. It was passed around and it finally came to DeShazer. He began to read it, and he came across the words of Jesus that said, “Love your enemies.” Well instantly the love of Jesus melted that mountain of hatred inside of him, and he was filled with the joy of Jesus Christ.
From that point on every time he was tortured, beaten, whipped, or harassed, he would just simply say, “Lord, help me to love my enemies.”
When the war was over he returned home. He determined that God wanted him to go back to Japan, not to seek revenge, but as a missionary to tell them about the love of Jesus Christ.
The story of Jacob DeShazer’s conversion and return to Japan was printed in a little gospel tract. One day a Japanese man who was disheartened, broken, dejected, and suicidal, was given that tract by an American stranger. He read it and his heart was touched. He began to read the Bible for himself and he gave his life to Jesus Christ. His name was Captain Mitsuo Fuchida. He was the Japanese officer who spearheaded the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. He, too, began to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ all over Japan because of three words: “love your enemy.”