In Luke’s account of the Sermon on the Mount, he recorded Jesus’ teaching to his disciples regarding how we are to act toward those who oppose us. Jesus said some surprising things that often go counter to how we understand self-preservation. Surprisingly, Jesus tells us to love and act kindly toward those whom we consider our enemies. We are not to oppose those who seek to take advantage of us, counsel that appears to be childish, naive and foolish. Yet, this is what Jesus said. I believe it is important for us to understand the wisdom of following Jesus’ counsel, because Jesus’ objective is different and higher than ours. Our objective often is self-preservation; we desire to protect ourselves, our possessions and our loved ones. Jesus desires for us to communicate the kindness of God toward others.
Actually, Jesus taught a principle that Paul summarized in Ephesians 4:32, we are to be kind and compassionate to one another as our Father is compassionate toward us. However, here Jesus was speaking about doing that toward those who are our enemies and those who mistreat us. Although Jesus didn’t elaborate in Luke 6, I believe Paul helps us understand what Jesus is getting at in Ephesians 6. In that passage, Paul explained that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities. In other words, those whom we consider our enemies, the ones to whom Jesus referred are not our enemies, but deceived by our true enemies, those to whom Paul referred to as powers and principalities. When we are kind to those who mistreat, we defeat the lies that they have believed and reveal to them God’s true nature. Jesus is teaching us to see others and act towards them as God sees them (and us). In so doing, we reveal to them how God sees them through our kindness towards them. To do so we too must overcome a lie we have believed that we must protect ourselves, our possessions and our loved ones in order to accomplish what Jesus instructs us in this passage. Jesus promises to take care of us, which includes protecting us, so that we are freed to actually love and care for those who mistreat us.
David Freitag 