Note from author: This is a continuation of “Love for Enemies”.
In our previous post (Love for Enemies Part 4), we connected our need for Christ through the lens of the Law and sacrifices. We also learned how Christ eliminated the need for animal sacrifices, cleansing our sins once and for all through His own work on the cross. Now all people can directly go to God through Jesus Christ!
To recap – we have been learning since the very beginning of Love For Enemies how we can love our enemies: pray for those who hurt us, bless and not curse, to not rejoice when bad things happen to our enemies, even though we feel like they deserve it. In sum, we are to love people by treating all with patience and kindness in the same way God has shown us through Jesus (Matthew 7:12; Matthew 6:1-4).
As we go forward in how we love our enemies, let’s turn to Romans 12:17-21 (NIV):
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
This is not a new commandment that God gave to people after Christ came. This was also passed down through the Law given through Moses!
We can see this in Proverbs 25:21-22 (NIV):
21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;
if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
22 In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head,
and the LORD will reward you.
Most of the time, when people have been hurt by someone, they do not want to do any good to them. In fact, when they see their enemy in trouble, they tend to gloat, gossip, make fun of them and continue to spread bad rumors. We are to be better than that.
What are we to do instead of what the world tells us is okay to do? God tells us to bless and not curse people.
God sees what we do, He knows our hearts. If we rejoice when bad things happen to our enemies, God will not be pleased with us, and turn His wrath away from them because our heart is not in the right place (Proverbs 24:17; Romans 12:14).
Now when it comes to doing good things to our enemies, some Christians do good things only so they can brag about it.
When we read Romans 12:17-21 and Proverbs 25:21-22, the motivation for being kind to our enemies must come from only one thing: love.
In addition to patience and kindness, one of the traits of love is that when a person loves others, they do not brag or look down on people (1 Corinthians 13:4-5).
The only reason why we love others, even those that people say are unlovable, is because God loved us first (1 John 4:19).
I also want to point out something. In various social media like Tiktok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, etc., we see people who take selfies while they are giving food to homeless and the poor.
While it is good to raise awareness of the need to care for people, you need to do it in a way that respects the people you want to help. Doing it for likes or doing it for attention is not the right way.
Sometimes people help the poor and the homeless by giving them food or money and take selfies to post it on social media just so other people will praise them.
That is exactly what Romans 12:16 means about being conceited. People who take selfies of themselves helping the poor and homeless are making themselves look good at the expense of others. Please don’t do that to people. Do not make people feel worse about themselves.
Not every good thing you do has to be posted and bragged about. Just do everything out of love and service for God, not yourself, and God will bless you and you will be rewarded. So do not make it about getting praise or noticed by other people (Matthew 6:1-4)!
Remember to pray for those who hurt you, bless and not curse, to give them water if they’re thirsty, food if they’re hungry, and not look down on people who have hurt you. We do all this because God has loved and treated us while we were still far away from Him!
Romans 5:8 (NLT): “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
Let’s pray that as we try to obey God’s command to love others, we will also trust that God will help us do the right thing. Because the Bible clearly says that God has given us, His people, the Holy Spirit, who gives us power, love, and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7)!