What To Do When the One You Are To Love Becomes Your Enemy

Sorry, it has been a while.  It's been one of those few months where it seems like life just gets in the way of writing.  I also have been writing in another blog I co-author called Iowa Seed Sowers.  Please check it out for news, evangelism events, and also ideas on how to reach the lost of Iowa and around the world.  Thanks for sticking with me and not giving up. 

With that being said, a few things have been on my mind lately, one of which is how to live and share the gospel in a world like today.  People today most definitely describes the people talked about in 2 Timothy 3:1-9.  These people are the most unloving of them all.  But Jesus commanded every Chrisitian to love thier enemy (Matthew 5:43-44; Luke 6:27).  But the problem that I run into is this...who is my enemy, and what do I do when the people I am trying to reach become my enemy? 

Who Is My Enemy?

I know that we as Christians obviously have enemies like Satan and his demons.  But if we look at the word enemy from Matthew 5:44 in a Strong's and Thayer's concordences, it takes on a more important meaning.  The word enemy litterally means:

A person who is hateful, actively hostile, and an adversary.  It is talked about as a person who is hostile toward the things of God.

So what this means is that those who oppose me on the street as I witness, those who try to stop me preaching, and those who are yelling and cursing at me are those who I am supposed to be loving.  So those who the bible says, "curse you, hate you, spitefully use you, and persecute you", I am supposed to love. 

How Am I To React... In Thought, Word, and Deed (Matthew 5:44)

The human knee-jerk reaction to a person yelling at me would be to yell back.  An eye for an eye...right?  But Jesus said to love these people.  So how do I go about doing that?  Lets look at some scripture to get a better understanding. 

Bless (Word)

Bless those who curse you.  What does it mean to bless?  It means to:

Speak well of, to consecrate a thing or person with God's blessing and prayer, to cause to prosper, make happy, and bestow blessings on.

Blessings here indicate more of spoken words and not action (which we will see next).  So when a person is cursing me out, I should respond with a sincere, "God bless you."

Do Good (Deed)

Do good to those who hate you. 
What does it mean to do good?  I can think of alot of things, but scripture says:

To do beutifully, finely, excellent, well.  To do things that are excellent, noteworthy, commendable, noble, and worthy of honor. 

So here it's putting your action to the blessings of your mouth.   We must not only love in tongue, but in deed and truth.  Some practical things we can do is buy them lunch, offer to help them in any way. 

Pray (thought)

Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you (Matthew 5:44).

Alot of times we may say the right thing, do the right thing, and then all there is left to do is pray.  I cannot change a person's heart, but I can lift him up in prayer to the one who can, and that's God. 

There are some times when I cannot say or do anything in the moment, or I'm not even near the person who is coming against me.  To spitefully use really means to threaten, unjustly accuse, or to insult and slander.  Most times when people sling insults they are behind your back and not to your face.  Look at the Apostle Paul and his dealings throughout his letters on how people accused him and slandered him before he got there and after he left.  They were cowards. 

But praying for people not only helps the one who is coming against me, but helps me, the one who is being persecuted.  When things are at their worst, and seems like there is no hope, a person can get bitter, angry, and want to seek revenge.  But it's hard to be bitter and angry towards a person who you are praying for.  It for the most part aligns my thinking with God's word. 

This has been a good reminder for me.  I always have to keep my heart in check and often site 2 Timothy 2:24-28 as a good example of what an evangelists heart needs to be when sharing the gospel with the lost, saving them from the ultimate enemy which is Satan himself.