Love Our Enemies?

The Word of God tells us we are our own worst enemy, 1 that we actually hate and oppose ourselves. This is because we love our own carnal desires and self will, which destroys our souls, rather than love our souls by doing the will of God, as Jesus did, and as He commanded us to do.

Our will turns to God’s will first, when we realize we are sinners and lost forever to a burning Hell. Then, in fear of God's terrible judgments, we call out to Him for His precious, enduring mercy. We repent of our sins to Him. We pray for Him to love us with His incredible gifts of salvation and eternal life. Jesus, with His precious blood, responds to our prayers by washing every sin away from our souls by our faith in His Word. Then, by the power and operation of the Holy Spirit, Jesus enters into our bodies and lovingly incorporates Himself into our spirit.

By our study of the Word of God, by prayer, and by doing everything that God commands His disciples to do, Christ grows up into our spirit to His full stature,2 causing our fleshly wants and worldly desires to fade entirely away. Our souls are then filled with the love for God’s spiritual things (His will), which is "For God so loved the world" (and every soul in the world), "that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."3

When we are filled with God's love, this breaks our will and our spirit, so that all remaining in us is The Great Eternal Spirit of God’s Life. "Christ is come in the flesh."4 Then our will, our life, becomes changed into the Life and Will of God. This is eternal life for all those who believe. Jesus said, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work."5

God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit live in His saints’ bodies (true, crucified Christians).6 Jesus, in us through the Holy Spirit, is again the man who was and is to this day "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief."7

We are to be like Him.8 This is why the Son of God’s first commandment to His disciples after salvation is, "if any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."9

Jesus said, "Have faith in God."10 If you want to go to Heaven and stay out of Hell, have faith enough to believe this first and most important message of Jesus regarding the crucified life. John echoes Jesus’ command by saying we must deny the lusts of the body, "the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life."11

James states that the tongue is "a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell."12 "But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison."13 The Word of God says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof."14 If we are to do work for God, it must be God Himself doing the work. Only God loves.15 He alone can and will tame the tongue, using it to bring forth life eternal to the entire world.

If you would like to get a close look at the devil himself, look into your bathroom mirror. The Spirit of God in us and our flesh are constantly at war and will always be at war till the day we die.16 These are two nations with two armies entrenched in us, one against the other. This is the struggle between the Spirit of God’s love for our soul’s eternal life (Jacob), and Satan’s hatred and eternal death (Esau) for our souls and for our flesh.

When Jesus was visibly in the world, He knew to keep His own flesh under the rule of God’s Holy Spirit. Jesus fasted often. The souls of everyone ever born depended on His conquering of His worldly desires, and we are as responsible as Jesus for every soul that we come in contact with in our short life span. If we don’t allow God’s work of concern and love to continue in us through His Holy Spirit, then we are as guilty as the devil himself. It was for this cause that Jesus, "being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient" (TO LOVE HIS ENEMIES) "unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name."17 We also are, through Jesus, the sons of God with the very same work as Jesus had.

The Holy Spirit, God’s love, lives in those whose will (their hatred) is nailed to the cross of love (self-denial). "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is Love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another."18

"The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit."19 The road to acquiring a broken spirit and a contrite heart begins the moment we become saved, when Jesus lovingly enters our body and marries into our spirit through God the Father’s Holy Spirit. We grow up in Christ through faith in the Word.

Until Jesus is fully living in us through the Holy Spirit, until we become mature Christians, it is hard for us to understand how we or anyone could possibly keep the following commandments of Jesus. "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, ... and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."20 "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."21 "If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee."22

When we grow up in the love of Christ, the Spirit of God both teaches us23 and gives us the power of God’s love to keep all of these impossible commandments.24 Love is the hardest thing to do. It takes the power of God to love your enemies. Jesus makes all impossibilities possible.25 Satan’s job is to make us as full of hatred and bitterness as he can. If he succeeds, we cannot love our enemies, and we are lost to Hell forever. We see the evidence of God’s loving Word come alive and the evidence of His miraculous achievements of love unfold before our very eyes when we obediently, in God’s love, do what He commands. We see our enemies’ eyes open to the light. We see them receive the fear of the Lord, which is wisdom;26 they repent. We see them receive the love of Christ and become filled with the Holy Spirit,27 the joy of the knowledge that they have eternal life through the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.28 We see them growing in God’s commandments which is love.29 Then they become soul winners.30 We see them become great testimonies to the power of God in every way. "Beloved, if God so loved us," (kept His own commandments31) "we ought also to love one another." (Keep God’s commandments.32) "No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us." (We are able to keep all of His commandments.) "Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit."33

Because of this, we understand why the Lord tells us to "LOVE OUR ENEMIES." We understand, too, the power of prayer.34 We then understand the wonderful wisdom, logic, and mercy of Christ. We understand why we are commanded to love (keep His commandments) and to be like Him, in Him.

When witnessing the evidence of these spiritual facts regarding the love of Christ, the Apostle Paul declared, "Therefore most gladly will I rather boast in my weaknesses in order that the power of Christ may take up its residence in me. Wherefore I am well content in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions, and in circumstances under which I am subject to extreme pressure on behalf of Christ, for when I am weak," (in my own will) "then am I filled with ability and power" (which is the will of God).35

"LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, do good to them which hate you."36 The very nature of our sinful, backsliding flesh hates denying our fleshly desire, our own selves, and our own will in favor of God’s will. God’s Holy Spirit and our unholy flesh are like two great armies against each other. Jesus calls on us to bless them that curse us, and pray for the salvation of them which despitefully use us. "And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other."37 When you are being persecuted for righteousness’ sake, show God’s love by continuing to be righteous. "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."38

The grand prize for serving God is so indescribably wonderful that we are never to quit serving in the love of the Lord, no matter how much persecution we endure.39 If we do, if we start hating again, we will lose not only our souls, but also an eternity in the most beautiful vacation spot in the universe. Heaven is so beautiful that only a loving God could think to create40 or have the capability to create such a place for His saints, who loved their enemies by Christ’s power in them. And, of course, if we don’t follow God’s commandments to let Him live and work in us, our souls will be lost to the most evil place imaginable, a place so terrible that it cannot be imagined.

We cannot allow ourselves to become discouraged from doing God’s work of love,41 no matter how fierce the persecution becomes, no matter how hard the times become, and no matter how dismal everything looks. Nothing is worse than Hell. Nothing is worth losing an eternity in the Kingdom of Heaven. Nothing is worth losing our soul, and nothing could ever be worse than burning in Hell forever.42 Therefore, we must keep on LOVING OUR ENEMIES, and doing God’s will. We must resist our own will which hates doing good and loves doing evil; (evil is our unwillingness, our disobedience to do God's will).

No man can see God and live.43 For this reason, we must die. Our will, our hate, in order to do God’s will, must die. We must let Jesus become fully alive in us. We can only see the God of love during our lifetime in the life of Christ. He is the Light showing God’s love to us.44 Jesus shows us God the Father in us, in Himself45 through the love of His crucified life and His death. We have risen from death unto life for His work.

Jesus states, "And him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again."46 You have a mansion and eternal youth, with everything else, in Heaven. There are many mansions in Heaven. All nationalities melt into one holy nation.47 No one can take away the many treasures God has laid away for those who love Him and keep His commandments.48 Jesus continues, "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." 49

"For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye?" (from God) "for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye?" (from God) "for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye?" (from God) "for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But LOVE YE YOUR ENEMIES, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great." (Heaven’s paradise is forever. God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and all the saints of God will be there.) "And ye shall be the children of the Highest: for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." 50

Jesus said, "All power is given unto me in Heaven and in earth."55 Hence, "we are more than conquerors" in Christ Jesus,56 and we "can do all things" (such as love our enemies) "through Christ which strengtheneth" us.57 Paul declared, "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"58 Christians cannot live their own lives. Because of this, God commands Christians to totally reject our own will that His will, His loving kindness, may move and work in us as He pleases towards others, including our enemies.59

Paul states, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."60 We are commanded by God, "Be ye holy; for I am holy."61 We "are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power,"62 and we are dead with Christ from the rudiments (the weak incompleteness) of the world.63 If you are a Christian, "risen with Christ," then your life is hid with Christ in God (the Father).64 No godly work can be done by us unless we are completely yielded to Him. Jesus said, "Without me ye can do nothing" (can do no godly works).65 We are flesh and blood which cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.66 We must become spiritual through Jesus that we may be called "the sons of God,"67 begotten by the Father’s Spirit in us. God loves His Son more than anyone or anything.68 We share in this same divine love from all of God’s heart, because we allow God’s only begotten, well beloved Son to live and fully work His work of loving kindness in us. God hears and answers us because of Jesus living in us.69 We may also be called "the sons of God,"70 and receive all the divine love in the Father’s heart, and eternal glory.

Through God we have the power to LOVE OUR ENEMIES, and the zealous will and power from God to lead sinners to Christ. God’s enemies are our enemies as well. Because of this, we must yield to God’s wise leadership. He is the only One who knows exactly how to successfully fight Satan and always win. He has conquered all things His proven way.71

Our will, our most deadly enemy, must be the first to die. God’s very urgent message to the whole world is threefold: Deny thyself!! Deny thyself!! Deny thyself!! Let Jesus live and do His work of Saviour of the world in you. Take up your cross daily. Let Him live, talk, save, and heal in you. Let Him use you as His temple. Turn away from all evil (all unwillingness).72 Again, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."73 Keep your eye single74 (do only God’s will).75 Let Him live and work in you, starting today, as He worked and lived in a human body two thousand years ago.76 This is the primary way God works. "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh," (living in us) "is of God:"77 The true confession is Christ working the works of God in us.78

"Love meekly and patiently" (in the sight of God) "bears ill treatment from others. Love is" (the Christ in us is) "kind, gentle, benign, pervading and penetrating the whole nature, mellowing all" (of us) "which would have been harsh and austere; is not envious. Love" (Christ in us) "does not brag, nor does it show itself off, is not ostentatious, does not have an inflated ego, does not act unbecomingly, does not seek after the things which are its own, is not irritated, provoked, exasperated, aroused to anger" (at God’s Word), "does not take into account the evil" (which it suffers), "does not rejoice at iniquity, but rejoices with the truth, endures all things, believes all things," (of God’s Word including "believe not every spirit"79 ), "hopes all things, bears up under all things, not losing heart nor courage. Love never fails."80 Jesus said, "Believe Me" (I am the Word of God,81) "that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works’ sake."82 The Father’s love is the Christ in us as Christians doing His work of love (redemption–salvation). This is the true confession that Christ is come in the flesh.83

Our enemies can see God’s Son living in us by the way we unwaveringly uphold the never changing law of God, preach the condemnation for breaking it, preach the mercy of forgiveness, eternal life in Heaven for obedience to Christ and endure persecution and continue cheerfully in Christ. They can see Christ in the way we rejoice "when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake."84 We believe the Words of Jesus which say, "great is your reward in Heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."85 They see God in us continuing His works and suffering in us. When they see the same Christ in us under severe persecution, turning the other cheek, and continuing in God’s love, they see Jesus in us.86 Again, it is impossible for man or woman to rejoice and be exceedingly glad to endure this punishment unless God is in them, comforting them through the power of The Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "If ye abide in me, and" (I) "My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."87 Ask for this strong indwelling presence of Christ in you. Then you shall please God by bringing forth much spiritual fruit, which is saved human souls.88