WHY & HOW WE MUST LOVE YOUR ENEMIES
Matthew 5:43-48
Jay Adams tells the story about a time when a couple sat before their pastor, ready to end their marriage. They had only come to him because they were looking for a head nod, acknowledging that their relationship was done. They explained to the pastor that they just didn’t feel like they were in love with one another anymore and it was time to go their separate ways.
After having explained their situation, Phil, the husband, said: "Well, I suppose that it has been a long time since you've heard a story like that pastor. And, while we don't agree on many things, I must say that Emily is absolutely correct when she claims that there is nothing left to our marriage—every drop of love that I once had for her has drained away." They both sat back in an uneasy confidence, knowing down deep that divorce was wrong, but sure that they had spoken the last word on the issue. After all what else could the pastor advise if there was no more feeling, no more love, nothing left?
"I am truly sorry to hear about your difficult times and the sorry state in which you find yourselves at present. I can understand why you have come for help. When a marriage has gone sour and you find that all of your own efforts to try to sweeten it again fail, then there is only one thing to do. ("Here it comes" they thought; "He will advise a divorce.") You will have to learn how to love one another."
“Learn how to love?" They retorted almost simultaneously. "What do you mean learn how to love?"
The pastor then explained that love was not a feeling and that love was something that the Bible commanded. Husbands are told that they have to have feelings for his wife. They have to love their wives as Christ love the church and gave himself up for her.
“You mean I have to be willing to die for her?” asked Phil. “I could never love her like that.”
“Well, there’s still hope,” said the pastor. “The Bible tells you to love your neighbor as yourself. Perhaps you can start there at that level. This is the closest neighbor you have. So you can eat with each other and sleep with one another.”
The couple gasped. “Oh no.” they said. “We could never do that!” The pastor then replied, “I’m sorry to tell you this but there’s really no way out of this. For the bible says you must love your enemy. It doesn’t really matter how much you feel like you don’t like each other. You are still commanded to love one another.”
The couple couldn’t believe what they were hearing. They felt cornered. They had been caught quite off guard by this. But they soon came to realize that they had a responsibility before God to begin a new course of action. They soon realized that if God’s commands stretched that far--to that extent of loving your enemy, then they had a responsibility to begin working towards renewal and reformation.
As we come to our passage today, we might feel a little cornered as well. It is apparent from our passage that there is no escaping the command to love.
As Jesus closes Matthew 5, he tells us in perhaps the greatest possible way, just how far our righteousness must go to exceed the Scribes and Pharisees. As kingdom people we must be people who show love to everyone, even our enemies.
Now, your marriage may not be in the place that Phil and Emily’s is, but you may very well have someone in your life who you don’t want to love. Maybe you have an outright enemy who hounds you like nobody’s business. He takes every opportunity he can to say something or do something to make you miserable. Or maybe you just have someone in your life who you just rather avoid. They might not be an enemy, but you don’t want to get close enough to them to really find out.
Well that person is someone you must love. And the beautiful thing is that our passage today doesn’t just tell us to love them, but it tells us why we must love them and how we must love them.
I. Why must we love our enemies?
Let’s admit it; that’s not an easy thing. It’s not a natural thing. And you might not be ready to do it. Maybe there’s someone in your life right now who you are not willing to be all that loving towards.
And you are thinking, “You want me to what? You want me to love this guy?” That’s a tall order.
So what Jesus does is provide some motivation. He gives us 4 reasons why we should love them. Let’s run through them real quick. The first one is simply because that’s what Scripture requires.
A. Because that’s what Scripture requires [43-44]
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Now obviously, this Scripture tells us that we are obligated to love our enemies. Those are the words of Jesus that are laid down right here in God’s authoritative Word.
But we could go further than this. This isn’t the only place where it is mentioned. That’s where the Jews of Jesus’ day were wrong. God didn’t tell them to hate their enemies. God told them to love their enemies.
Maybe you can sympathize a little. There are places in the OT which talk about how they are to separate themselves from the Gentiles. There are Scriptures that talk about how they were to show no mercy during the Conquest. They were supposed to kill off every one of those Canannites. But the Conquest was one specific instance. God had declared judgment on those people.
There are other Scriptures that they missed.
Leviticus 19:34
The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself.
Deuteronomy 10:19
He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
Proverbs 25:21
If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink…
Psalm 7:4,5
If I have… plundered him who … was my adversary, let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it.
Exo 23:4
If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him.
Prov. 16:7
When a man’s ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Now you see that God called them to love people who were different from them. They were supposed to love even their enemies.
And that is just as true for us. Scripture speaks even more clearly in the NT about this. I won’t belabor the point. You have heard enough. It should be quite clear, just on the basis of what has been said so far, that Scripture calls us to this radical love that knows no bounds.
While that should be enough (Scripture’s authority should have enough weight to sway us), that’s not the only reason we have to love our enemies. We might also say that we must love our enemies because that’s what our kinship with God requires.
B. Because that’s what your relationship to God requires [45]
Look at verse 45. It says, “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
Jesus is talking about your relationship to God. You are a child of God. You’ve been brought into his family. And there is one particular way you can show that you are related to God. It is by emulating his love.
There’s no question that God shows love to people who are evil. The passage here is quite clear. He makes the sun shine upon them. He sends rain to water their crops and help them grow. These are just two examples of the general kindness he bestows upon people who are not in any ways friendly towards him.
Think about it. Nature does not operate on its own. God, in his providence, controls the clouds and the temperature and the weather patterns. And the rain comes because God will sit. And it comes with regularity on people who provoke God to no end. Scripture tells us that God is angry with the wicked everyday. They daily provoke him by their sins. But yet, he still sheds this love upon them by allowing them to live and breath and enjoy life.
To be sure, their time is coming. There will be a time when God judges his enemies. But during this life he is not slow to bless and treat them not as their sins deserve.
And that should be the defining characteristic of everyone who is a child of God.
You know that every family has something that defines them. There’s something that is characteristic of each family because they are all together so much.
In the Timmons family, we like soccer. We play soccer. We watch soccer on the TV. We don’t get into American football too much. We also use the word “Actually” quite frequently.
So you can know the Timmons family by our distinctive traits. And the funny thing is, 3 of my children are adopted. It’s not even hereditary. It’s just something that has come about because of our deep relation to one another.
That’s what Jesus is saying here. Our adoption into God’s family should result into some kindred action. Our love should be just as profuse, just as prolific, and just as radical as our Heavenly Father’s love.
The third reason is found in verses 46-47. These verses tell us that we should love our enemies because we have a higher calling.
C. Because that’s what your higher calling requires [46-47]
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
Now Jesus here employs four rhetorical questions in order to drive home his point. And he’s making the point that normal, everyday pagans will treat the other pagans with whom they normally associate with with a degree of kindness and love.
For instance, a bunch of thugs (like tax collectors) will say hello to one another when they pass each other on the street. Now you understand that a tax collector was like a gangster. These guys were thugs. They were the Mafia or Mob members of the Jewish community. They robbed people for a living. It was legalized thievery.
Then he talks about Gentiles. These were supposed to be the uncircumcised, unclean, pig eating scum of the earth (at least that’s the way the Jews perceived them). And Jesus says, don’t they show common courtesy to their fellow pig eating scum.
What you find is that people normally have a regular circle within which they operate and it is no problem for them to show love and kindness to those who are like them. If you share the same little bubble, it’s natural to be somewhat tolerant of one another.
But Jesus is saying, “You’re not like that.” If you love those who love you, what reward will you have? In other words, you have a higher calling. You are called to be different than everybody else in this world. You are a Christian. You are supposed to be a part of the kingdom of God. So your love should be much more expansive. It should reach further. It should not have any boundaries. Your bubble is to be all inclusive because you are different.
So far we have three reasons why we must love our enemies. We must love them because Scripture requires it, your kinship requires it, and your calling requires it. The fourth reason for loving your enemies is found in verse 48. This last reason has to do with your goal in life.
D. Because that’s what your ultimate goal requires [48]
Jesus says, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Jesus says your life goal is suppose to be absolute perfection. And since this is to be your aim in life, you are under a profound obligation love those people.
Now some people complain that this is never going to be achieved. It is an impossible thing to be perfect as God himself is perfect. And some try to change up the wording. They’ll say that the word perfect can also mean complete. Which then means we only have to be as complete as God is.
But the real point is that this is to be what we are striving for. Our aim in life is to reach that supreme standard. God is perfect, and He demands nothing less from us. We ought then to make it our goal, not merely to be a cheap knock off or put in a little effort that might make some tolerable imitation. No. Our objective should be to emulate the same kind of radical love that God himself shows.
Yes, we are never going to be able to do that. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. If we are seeking to follow the Lord, we should be resolved to conform as much as we can in every possible way we can to his glorious character.
So Jesus lays out for us a pretty sound argument. He covers quite a few bases here and he lays out a pretty strong case. It’s really an impeccable case. And he shows us that there is no reason why we should act in an unloving way towards anyone. Even if they do have issues with us--and even if we have issues with them, let’s not paint this in any soft way--we can have a real beef with people sometimes. But the principle Jesus lays down is that we must love them.
But the question that then follows is how do we do that? How do we love our enemies?
II. How do we love our enemies?
Now, I want you to recognize that there is a textual issue in our text. If you have the KJV, you will have substantially more in verse 44 than what the ESV has. That’s because the KJV is based on a different source of manuscripts. There are some ancient manuscripts of the Greek text that have more verbiage here. But, lest you worry, the same words are found in the gospel of Luke. Luke records the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 6 of his gospel, and the same words are used there.
Now I could spend a great deal of time talking about what it says. It says, “Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” We could go into what it looks like to bless and do good.
And story upon story could be told to illustrate it. But what I want to do is focus on the one part that both the KJV and the ESV have in common.
One of the most fundamental things you can do for those with whom you are in conflict is pray for them. And by that I don’t mean praying imprecatory prayers. There is a place for imprecations, but I don’t know that Jesus is implying that here.
And I don’t that we should be praying out of our angst towards them. A lot of times when we pray, it is more a venting of our hurt and anger to God than an actual supplication.
Sometimes you find this when I talk with people. I ask them what they’ve done to deal with the problem, and they respond that they prayed about it. I ask them, “Well, how have you prayed about it? What exactly have you said?” What you come to find out is that people get a little ashamed to share because they recognize that their prayers have been more like complaining to God than a real entreaty to God for that person’s welfare.
But one of the most basic and most important things you can do is pray for them. As a matter of fact, if you cannot speak to God about them in a civilized way, then you will probably never be able to speak to them in a loving way.
I would think that we will not be in a place to do good to them and bless them if we are not first able to bow our heads and ask the Lord to show forth his mercy to them and provide for them.
I think that one of the greatest expressions of prayer is found in what Christ does on the cross. Think about this: While on the cross, Jesus had very limited amount of strength. His ability to breath was restricted, let alone the amount of effort it took to talk. But while on the cross, Scripture records that he uttered 6 things. One of those things was, “Father, forgive them.”
What a radical thing. As Jesus was dying, he made intercession for them. And the one thing he chose to pray for was their pardon. Now that is just amazing. He was in such a frame of spirit that he wanted their sin against him pardoned.
And this is where we may remember that he ultimately was praying for us. For we were part of that sinful, raging crew that yearned for his death. We were the God haters who nailed him to the cross. Yet, while we were enemies, Christ died for us. And there in his greatest misery, he also prayed for us. He asked the Father to pardon us.
Christ himself loved his enemies, of whom you and I were chief. And ultimately he gave his life so that we might be reformed and be able to love our enemies as well.
Let us then take that to heart. And let it be, not just the pattern for how we ought to treat our enemies, but let it also be the greatest of all the reasons why we ought to love them.
After having explained their situation, Phil, the husband, said: "Well, I suppose that it has been a long time since you've heard a story like that pastor. And, while we don't agree on many things, I must say that Emily is absolutely correct when she claims that there is nothing left to our marriage—every drop of love that I once had for her has drained away." They both sat back in an uneasy confidence, knowing down deep that divorce was wrong, but sure that they had spoken the last word on the issue. After all what else could the pastor advise if there was no more feeling, no more love, nothing left?
"I am truly sorry to hear about your difficult times and the sorry state in which you find yourselves at present. I can understand why you have come for help. When a marriage has gone sour and you find that all of your own efforts to try to sweeten it again fail, then there is only one thing to do. ("Here it comes" they thought; "He will advise a divorce.") You will have to learn how to love one another."
“Learn how to love?" They retorted almost simultaneously. "What do you mean learn how to love?"
The pastor then explained that love was not a feeling and that love was something that the Bible commanded. Husbands are told that they have to have feelings for his wife. They have to love their wives as Christ love the church and gave himself up for her.
“You mean I have to be willing to die for her?” asked Phil. “I could never love her like that.”
“Well, there’s still hope,” said the pastor. “The Bible tells you to love your neighbor as yourself. Perhaps you can start there at that level. This is the closest neighbor you have. So you can eat with each other and sleep with one another.”
The couple gasped. “Oh no.” they said. “We could never do that!” The pastor then replied, “I’m sorry to tell you this but there’s really no way out of this. For the bible says you must love your enemy. It doesn’t really matter how much you feel like you don’t like each other. You are still commanded to love one another.”
The couple couldn’t believe what they were hearing. They felt cornered. They had been caught quite off guard by this. But they soon came to realize that they had a responsibility before God to begin a new course of action. They soon realized that if God’s commands stretched that far--to that extent of loving your enemy, then they had a responsibility to begin working towards renewal and reformation.
As we come to our passage today, we might feel a little cornered as well. It is apparent from our passage that there is no escaping the command to love.
As Jesus closes Matthew 5, he tells us in perhaps the greatest possible way, just how far our righteousness must go to exceed the Scribes and Pharisees. As kingdom people we must be people who show love to everyone, even our enemies.
Now, your marriage may not be in the place that Phil and Emily’s is, but you may very well have someone in your life who you don’t want to love. Maybe you have an outright enemy who hounds you like nobody’s business. He takes every opportunity he can to say something or do something to make you miserable. Or maybe you just have someone in your life who you just rather avoid. They might not be an enemy, but you don’t want to get close enough to them to really find out.
Well that person is someone you must love. And the beautiful thing is that our passage today doesn’t just tell us to love them, but it tells us why we must love them and how we must love them.
I. Why must we love our enemies?
Let’s admit it; that’s not an easy thing. It’s not a natural thing. And you might not be ready to do it. Maybe there’s someone in your life right now who you are not willing to be all that loving towards.
And you are thinking, “You want me to what? You want me to love this guy?” That’s a tall order.
So what Jesus does is provide some motivation. He gives us 4 reasons why we should love them. Let’s run through them real quick. The first one is simply because that’s what Scripture requires.
A. Because that’s what Scripture requires [43-44]
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Now obviously, this Scripture tells us that we are obligated to love our enemies. Those are the words of Jesus that are laid down right here in God’s authoritative Word.
But we could go further than this. This isn’t the only place where it is mentioned. That’s where the Jews of Jesus’ day were wrong. God didn’t tell them to hate their enemies. God told them to love their enemies.
Maybe you can sympathize a little. There are places in the OT which talk about how they are to separate themselves from the Gentiles. There are Scriptures that talk about how they were to show no mercy during the Conquest. They were supposed to kill off every one of those Canannites. But the Conquest was one specific instance. God had declared judgment on those people.
There are other Scriptures that they missed.
Leviticus 19:34
The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself.
Deuteronomy 10:19
He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
Proverbs 25:21
If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink…
Psalm 7:4,5
If I have… plundered him who … was my adversary, let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it.
Exo 23:4
If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him.
Prov. 16:7
When a man’s ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Now you see that God called them to love people who were different from them. They were supposed to love even their enemies.
And that is just as true for us. Scripture speaks even more clearly in the NT about this. I won’t belabor the point. You have heard enough. It should be quite clear, just on the basis of what has been said so far, that Scripture calls us to this radical love that knows no bounds.
While that should be enough (Scripture’s authority should have enough weight to sway us), that’s not the only reason we have to love our enemies. We might also say that we must love our enemies because that’s what our kinship with God requires.
B. Because that’s what your relationship to God requires [45]
Look at verse 45. It says, “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
Jesus is talking about your relationship to God. You are a child of God. You’ve been brought into his family. And there is one particular way you can show that you are related to God. It is by emulating his love.
There’s no question that God shows love to people who are evil. The passage here is quite clear. He makes the sun shine upon them. He sends rain to water their crops and help them grow. These are just two examples of the general kindness he bestows upon people who are not in any ways friendly towards him.
Think about it. Nature does not operate on its own. God, in his providence, controls the clouds and the temperature and the weather patterns. And the rain comes because God will sit. And it comes with regularity on people who provoke God to no end. Scripture tells us that God is angry with the wicked everyday. They daily provoke him by their sins. But yet, he still sheds this love upon them by allowing them to live and breath and enjoy life.
To be sure, their time is coming. There will be a time when God judges his enemies. But during this life he is not slow to bless and treat them not as their sins deserve.
And that should be the defining characteristic of everyone who is a child of God.
You know that every family has something that defines them. There’s something that is characteristic of each family because they are all together so much.
In the Timmons family, we like soccer. We play soccer. We watch soccer on the TV. We don’t get into American football too much. We also use the word “Actually” quite frequently.
So you can know the Timmons family by our distinctive traits. And the funny thing is, 3 of my children are adopted. It’s not even hereditary. It’s just something that has come about because of our deep relation to one another.
That’s what Jesus is saying here. Our adoption into God’s family should result into some kindred action. Our love should be just as profuse, just as prolific, and just as radical as our Heavenly Father’s love.
The third reason is found in verses 46-47. These verses tell us that we should love our enemies because we have a higher calling.
C. Because that’s what your higher calling requires [46-47]
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
Now Jesus here employs four rhetorical questions in order to drive home his point. And he’s making the point that normal, everyday pagans will treat the other pagans with whom they normally associate with with a degree of kindness and love.
For instance, a bunch of thugs (like tax collectors) will say hello to one another when they pass each other on the street. Now you understand that a tax collector was like a gangster. These guys were thugs. They were the Mafia or Mob members of the Jewish community. They robbed people for a living. It was legalized thievery.
Then he talks about Gentiles. These were supposed to be the uncircumcised, unclean, pig eating scum of the earth (at least that’s the way the Jews perceived them). And Jesus says, don’t they show common courtesy to their fellow pig eating scum.
What you find is that people normally have a regular circle within which they operate and it is no problem for them to show love and kindness to those who are like them. If you share the same little bubble, it’s natural to be somewhat tolerant of one another.
But Jesus is saying, “You’re not like that.” If you love those who love you, what reward will you have? In other words, you have a higher calling. You are called to be different than everybody else in this world. You are a Christian. You are supposed to be a part of the kingdom of God. So your love should be much more expansive. It should reach further. It should not have any boundaries. Your bubble is to be all inclusive because you are different.
So far we have three reasons why we must love our enemies. We must love them because Scripture requires it, your kinship requires it, and your calling requires it. The fourth reason for loving your enemies is found in verse 48. This last reason has to do with your goal in life.
D. Because that’s what your ultimate goal requires [48]
Jesus says, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Jesus says your life goal is suppose to be absolute perfection. And since this is to be your aim in life, you are under a profound obligation love those people.
Now some people complain that this is never going to be achieved. It is an impossible thing to be perfect as God himself is perfect. And some try to change up the wording. They’ll say that the word perfect can also mean complete. Which then means we only have to be as complete as God is.
But the real point is that this is to be what we are striving for. Our aim in life is to reach that supreme standard. God is perfect, and He demands nothing less from us. We ought then to make it our goal, not merely to be a cheap knock off or put in a little effort that might make some tolerable imitation. No. Our objective should be to emulate the same kind of radical love that God himself shows.
Yes, we are never going to be able to do that. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. If we are seeking to follow the Lord, we should be resolved to conform as much as we can in every possible way we can to his glorious character.
So Jesus lays out for us a pretty sound argument. He covers quite a few bases here and he lays out a pretty strong case. It’s really an impeccable case. And he shows us that there is no reason why we should act in an unloving way towards anyone. Even if they do have issues with us--and even if we have issues with them, let’s not paint this in any soft way--we can have a real beef with people sometimes. But the principle Jesus lays down is that we must love them.
But the question that then follows is how do we do that? How do we love our enemies?
II. How do we love our enemies?
Now, I want you to recognize that there is a textual issue in our text. If you have the KJV, you will have substantially more in verse 44 than what the ESV has. That’s because the KJV is based on a different source of manuscripts. There are some ancient manuscripts of the Greek text that have more verbiage here. But, lest you worry, the same words are found in the gospel of Luke. Luke records the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 6 of his gospel, and the same words are used there.
Now I could spend a great deal of time talking about what it says. It says, “Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” We could go into what it looks like to bless and do good.
And story upon story could be told to illustrate it. But what I want to do is focus on the one part that both the KJV and the ESV have in common.
One of the most fundamental things you can do for those with whom you are in conflict is pray for them. And by that I don’t mean praying imprecatory prayers. There is a place for imprecations, but I don’t know that Jesus is implying that here.
And I don’t that we should be praying out of our angst towards them. A lot of times when we pray, it is more a venting of our hurt and anger to God than an actual supplication.
Sometimes you find this when I talk with people. I ask them what they’ve done to deal with the problem, and they respond that they prayed about it. I ask them, “Well, how have you prayed about it? What exactly have you said?” What you come to find out is that people get a little ashamed to share because they recognize that their prayers have been more like complaining to God than a real entreaty to God for that person’s welfare.
But one of the most basic and most important things you can do is pray for them. As a matter of fact, if you cannot speak to God about them in a civilized way, then you will probably never be able to speak to them in a loving way.
I would think that we will not be in a place to do good to them and bless them if we are not first able to bow our heads and ask the Lord to show forth his mercy to them and provide for them.
I think that one of the greatest expressions of prayer is found in what Christ does on the cross. Think about this: While on the cross, Jesus had very limited amount of strength. His ability to breath was restricted, let alone the amount of effort it took to talk. But while on the cross, Scripture records that he uttered 6 things. One of those things was, “Father, forgive them.”
What a radical thing. As Jesus was dying, he made intercession for them. And the one thing he chose to pray for was their pardon. Now that is just amazing. He was in such a frame of spirit that he wanted their sin against him pardoned.
And this is where we may remember that he ultimately was praying for us. For we were part of that sinful, raging crew that yearned for his death. We were the God haters who nailed him to the cross. Yet, while we were enemies, Christ died for us. And there in his greatest misery, he also prayed for us. He asked the Father to pardon us.
Christ himself loved his enemies, of whom you and I were chief. And ultimately he gave his life so that we might be reformed and be able to love our enemies as well.
Let us then take that to heart. And let it be, not just the pattern for how we ought to treat our enemies, but let it also be the greatest of all the reasons why we ought to love them.