LOVING OUR ENEMIES
LUKE 6:26–29
“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you”
(Luke 6:27–28).
We today think of love as a passive reaction to things we like, but in the Bible love is an active intention. Love is something commanded, and in general it means to seek the good of someone else. However, it is the Bible that tells us what that “good” is.
I recall an occasion when I was present in a meeting of Christian scholars and pastors, and one of the men became upset with an elderly scholar. He began to abuse him rather nastily, implying all sorts of bad things about his character. After he had finished speaking, the elderly gentleman looked at him and calmly said, “Sir, you are slandering me.” Instantly the other man realized what he had been doing was wrong, and asked forgiveness. This is an example of a loving response, because by rebuking him, the elderly gentleman was doing the other man a kindness.
When Jesus tells us to bless those who curse us, and to pray for those who mistreat us, He is not asking something absurd. We are not to ask that God heap prosperity and power upon those who are wicked. Rather, we have to let the Bible show us what it means to bless the wicked.
Many of the psalms have to do with the enemies of God’s people. David prays that God would bring the wicked to ruin, and in Psalm 139 he writes, “If only you would slay the wicked, O God!… Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies” (Psalm 139:19–22).
David’s hatred does not have in it an ultimate desire for the ruination of the soul of the evildoer. Rather, David knew it was when God chastised him that he repented and was saved; and he prays the same for his enemies. In this we see that “doing good” to our enemies does not exclude seeing to it that the wicked are punished for their crimes.
CORAM DEO
Judges 1–2
Luke 7:1–30
WEEKEND
Judges 3–7
Luke 7:31–8:21
How many marriages fall apart today because people no longer “feel in love” with each other? The Bible says love is an act of the will, expressed in deeds, even when warm feelings are temporarily absent. We are commanded to love our neighbors and even our enemies. There are people today who need you to express love to them. Out of obedience to God, seek their good.
For further study: Romans 5:1–11; 1 Peter 4:7–11
TABLETALK
from ligonier ministries and teaching and encouraging believers • april 1990
THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN
Daily Studies From The Teaching Fellowship Of R. C. Sproul
publisher Ligonier Ministries executive editor Ralph D. Veerman editor Robert F. Ingram
assistant editor Michael S. Beates design David K. Freeland marketing Gretchen L. Suskovic production W. David Fox, Melissa A. Prichard
circulation Gwen Weber writer Sharon J. Anderson board of directors Bruce Fogerty, G. Richard Hostetter, Robert C. Legler, Stephen H. Leveé, Jr., C. G. Mills, Archie B. Parrish, James M. Seneff, Jr., R. C. Sproul, John Thompson, Ralph D. Veerman, Luder Whitlock, Charles Colson (Director Emeritus)
Published by Walk Thru the Bible Ministries, Inc. under license granted by Ligonier Ministries, Inc. Copyright 1990, Ligonier Ministries, Inc. This Bible study is based upon teaching material by Dr. R. C. Sproul. Unless noted, all Scripture quotations in this publication are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishers.
member evangelical press association
On the Cover: J. Liss, Il Sacrificio d’Isacco, Firenze, Uffizi. Scala/Art Resource, N.Y.
robert ingram • editor
Coram Deo
The stories are remarkably similar, Abraham’s love for his only son prefigured the love of the Father for His only Son. Both were willing to sacrifice their loved ones. But with Christ, of course, there was no staying of the hand; no ram caught in the thicket to be the substitutionary atonement.
There is no telling what anguish Abraham’s soul endured during the three-day journey to the place determined by God. Three long days of anticipating what God had commanded him to do.
Anticipation.
How long did Christ anticipate the Cross? Being fully God, He knew the dreadfulness of it from all eternity when He made the covenant of redemption with the Father. Being fully man, He was painfully aware of the Cross prior to the advent of His three-year public ministry.
The horror of the substitutionary atonement was undoubtedly magnified each time He read the prophecy of Himself, the Suffering Servant, in Isaiah 53:10. The intimacy of His perfect union with the Father would be cruelly severed. Rather than beholding His Father’s benevolent face, He would instead behold His Father’s unmitigated wrath; wrath that held the cumulative weight of all the sin of all His people throughout all time.
Scripture doesn’t permit us, as it did not permit Jesus when He read it, to diminish the Father’s role in punishing Him. “But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief” (Isaiah 53:10). How could God be pleased to do this to His innocent Son? His pleasure was obviously connected to what Christ’s death would accomplish as well as Christ’s willingness to lay down His life voluntarily (John 10:17–18).
He who anticipated the pain also anticipated the results. He was vindicated, His people were forgiven, and He was exalted to the right hand of the Father. In this issue of Tabletalk we will examine three other difficult verses relating to the Crucifixion. We will see that Jesus lived His life Coram Deo: in view of the Father, under His authority, and to His glory, By desiring to live our lives as Christ did—Coram Deo—we too will delight our Father. ■
table of contents