Following Jesus’ Command to Love Your Enemies

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” – Matthew 5:43-44, CSB.

These words from Jesus represent perhaps one of the most challenging commands in all of Bible. Everything in our human nature rebels against this idea. Love our enemies? Pray for those who hurt us? It seems not only difficult but almost impossible. Why would anyone do that?

Yet Jesus didn’t give this command carelessly. He lived it out perfectly, even as He hung dying on the cross, praying “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” for the very people who crucified Him. His love for enemies wasn’t just a teaching—it was His way of life. He lived it.

Why Love Your Enemies 

But why would Jesus ask us to do something so counterintuitive? Because loving our enemies breaks the cycle of hatred that destroys both relationships and our own hearts. When we harbor bitterness toward those who wrong us, we become prisoners to their actions. We give them power over our peace, our joy, and our spiritual growth.

Loving our enemies doesn’t mean excusing their behavior or pretending their actions don’t hurt. It means choosing to respond with grace instead of revenge, with prayer instead of plotting, and with blessing instead of bitterness. It means recognizing that they, like us, are broken people in need of God’s grace.

This radical love serves as a powerful witness to the transforming power of Christ. Nothing stops people in their tracks quite like unexpected kindness from someone they’ve wronged. It demonstrates that we serve a God who is bigger than human hatred and more powerful than the desire for revenge.

The Starting Point

Practically, loving our enemies begins with prayer. When we pray for someone, our hearts begin to soften toward them. We start seeing them as God sees them—deeply flawed but deeply loved. Prayer changes us first, then it has the power to change them.

Conclusion

Jesus calls us to this revolutionary love not to make our lives harder, but to set us free. Free from the poison of bitterness, free from the exhaustion of carrying grudges, and free to experience the supernatural peace that comes when we trust God with justice while we focus on love.

Today, who is God calling you to love instead of resent? The answer to that question might just transform both your heart and theirs.