Jesus said in Matthew 5:43-44, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” That is a command that so many of us hear, but I think we don’t always understand just how difficult a thing He was asking of us.

You see, an enemy is not just a person who we don’t like. It isn’t just someone who annoys you or is mean to you all the time. An enemy is a person who really wants to do you harm. Jesus says in that verse that He is talking about those who curse, hate, misuse, and persecute you — these are people who truly have malice in their hearts towards you. 

Friend, I really believe that this is the highest level of love, to love those who hurt us, and I want to tell you a few stories about this amazing love today, both to show you what an amazing, shocking command this is and to encourage you that it is not impossible to do.

If we ever need a picture of what it looks like to love our enemies, then of course there is no better place to look than at Jesus. Just think about how much Jesus loved Judas. He knew that this man was going to betray Him someday, yet He acted as a blessing to him. In all the time that Judas walked with Jesus, Jesus loved him, prayed for him, protected him, and fed him. Even in that last moment in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Judas had just identified Jesus as the Man the soldiers should arrest, Jesus called him friend (see Matthew 26:50). To that last moment, Jesus was offering restoration to the man who had given Him up to die a horrible death on the Cross.

Even when Jesus was on the Cross, in all that pain and humiliation, He was showing love for His enemies. The Bible says in Luke 23:34, “Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.’ And they divided His garments and cast lots.”

I want you to think about that friend. Jesus was on the Cross, blood pouring off of His body from the marks left by the scourging and the nails in His hands and feet, having to push up on those nails just to breathe. He was hanging completely naked in front of everyone who passed, including His own mother. From all sides, He was hearing blaspheming, hatred, and ridicule. People were mocking Him, saying, “Call out to Your Father and ask Him to take you down from that Cross if He’ll hear you.”

He was in such terrible suffering as He was bearing the sin and sickness of every single one of us, and everyone was ignoring or ridiculing Him for it, but in the middle of all that, Jesus fulfilled His own sermon. He said, “Father, forgive them. They don’t really understand what they are doing.”

This is the kind of love that I’m talking to you about! That sounds so amazing, friend, but you’re probably also thinking that it sounds really difficult. You might be saying to yourself, “Well, that’s Jesus, but I couldn’t do it like that.” It’s true — in our own strength, this kind of love is incredibly difficult, but I want to give you the encouragement that God has equipped you to do it.

Romans 5:5 says, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Friend, when you were born again, the love of God — the very same love that Jesus used to love Judas and forgive the crowds who mocked Him on the Cross — was poured out into your heart! It’s not love for those who are easy to love. It isn’t romantic or platonic love. It is the agape love of God that would dare to love someone who hates you. 

You may feel like this command is too difficult for you to do, but you have to remember that God has absolutely outfitted and equipped you with everything you need to love your enemies, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. 

As you read this, you might still be thinking that this sounds like such a difficult assignment and you are never going to be able to do it. I know that when we are looking at Jesus’ example or at stories in the Bible, it can feel like those people are just better or more faithful than us, so I want to tell you a couple more stories about this amazing, high-level love that might feel less far-off from you and your life.

I know a story of a Christian man who was married to his wife for over four decades. He loved her so much, and they were so happy in their marriage, but one day, something horrible happened. They had a neighbor who had a drinking problem, and one day, he was driving around drunk, and in that state, he ended up hitting the Christian man’s beloved wife and killing her.

That is so heartbreaking, friend. Maybe you’ve lost people who you loved. It can be so easy to look for blame when we go through pain like that, and sometimes it really is someone else’s fault, but we don’t have to hold onto bitterness toward that person. When this Christian man learned who was responsible for his wife’s death, instead of getting angry or giving out hate, he just started praying for that neighbor of his. He started doing good for him and showing love to him, and eventually that neighbor was so filled with shame that he started lashing out at that godly man with hate and resentment.

He was so horrible, but even that didn’t stop the man whose wife he had killed — he just kept praying and loving his neighbor all the way until he died. That might seem like a lot of work and pain for nothing, but friend, at that Christian man’s funeral, the neighbor’s heart just opened up to Jesus because of all the love that he had been shown. He had spent so much time resisting that love, but it kept coming after him for all those years, and that day, it finally broke down the barriers of his heart!

Another story I want to tell you comes from a friend of mine who went through so much pain in her family. She married this wonderful man who she loved so much, and for a while, they had a wonderful marriage, but then he started drinking. His drinking grew to be such a big problem, and then one New Year’s Eve, she found him in their bedroom, on their bed, dead from drinking too much alcohol.

She was so overcome by grief that she became an alcoholic herself, but thankfully, as her son grew up, he would minister to his mother, and eventually, he was able to lead her to Jesus. 

After the struggle of losing her husband and fighting her alcoholism, she must have been so happy and relieved, but the pain in her life wasn’t done yet. Over the years, something dark started to work in her son’s mind, and someone offered him drugs and got him hooked on them. One New Year’s Eve, my friend came home, and on the same bed where she’d found her husband, she found her precious son dead from a drug overdose.

This is such a traumatic event, friend! She could have been devastated and angry. She could have gone back into her old behaviors or held onto bitterness at the people who had traumatized her, but she didn’t do any of those things. Instead she found the young girl who was responsible for getting her son on drugs, and she started visiting her in prison and ministering to her. No one would have blamed her for avoiding or hating that girl, but my friend instead forgave her and showed her the love of Jesus, and that young girl was able to receive Christ in prison. She was set free by a woman who loved and prayed for her enemy.

These aren’t distant stories, friend. These are real people living out the love of God in today’s world, and you have that same love in you. You can let go of hate and bitterness and pain, and you can give prayer, kindness, and truth to people who are horrible to you. In fact, you can make an eternal difference in their lives!

Friend, I want to challenge you today to intentionally live with this love of God toward your enemies. Ask yourself, “Is there somebody right now who is my enemy? Is there anyone who has hurt me, taken things from me, or misused me? How can I exercise love for that person? What are the ways that I can bless them and pray for them right now?”

This is a really high road, but it is one you can take. You have that love on the inside of you, so instead of thinking about how hard it is and how much you don’t want to do it, I want you to say, “Lord, I have these horrible feelings toward this person, but that really isn’t what matters. What matters is that I can say ‘Yes’ to You. I can say ‘Yes’ to this powerful love that’s on the inside of me.”

When we let go of what we want and depend on what He has put inside of us, we become able to give amazing, selfless love to those people who the world would call our enemies — and that is something that sends ripples into eternity!