How Does God View His Enemies?

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Pastor Foley

Part VII of our series on Doing Good

The book of 1 John begins with this verse:

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.”

One of the themes we come back to again and again  is that the Christian life is very physical.

We are here because God creates a physical world in which his glory may be manifested, and he creates human beings in his image to manifest his glory. Through the sin of the first Adam, human beings abandon their vocation; through the victory over sin of the second Adam, human beings recover their vocation, in him. And all of this happens in the physical world, as the spiritual world watches on, influences the action, and presses in on every side. But it is a physical calling to which we are called, and in the end we don’t abandon the physical and go to heaven; we sleep, and then we are resurrected physically to a new heavens and a new earth, where God makes his home among very physical human beings.

When Christ undertakes his earthly mission, he is in all ways physical like us. The one difference between he and us is that he did not sin. Because he did not sin, evil could not touch him. Look at how this played out in Luke 4:14-30.

First of all, he describes a very physical mission:

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”

“Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

And then look how they are unable to lay hands on him:

All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

In fact, in Luke 8:43-46, Jesus is genuinely surprised when someone–a woman with an issue of blood—is able to touch him:

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

“Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”

But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”

Listen carefully to how Jesus describes his coming crucifixion.

He teaches his disciples in Mark 9:31, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” (Note the statement of the Gospel there.) And again in Mark 14:41, in the Garden of Gesthemane, “Returning the third time, he said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners.’”

When Jesus is resurrected from the dead and when he appears in heaven in the book of Revelation (see Revelation 5:1-6, for example), he continues to bear the marks of his having been in the hands of sinners.

God gives Jesus as a gift to his enemies.  Jesus willingly accepts being handed over as that gift. And in that process, we learn something very important about the difference between how God views his enemies and how we view our enemies:

God is not threatened by his enemies.

God is not intimidated by his enemies. God is not frightened of his enemies. God is not worried about what his enemies will do to him.

Instead, God loves his enemies. Physically.

In our next post, we’ll look at how and why God commands us to do the same.

For now, comment below and share your thoughts about why God would be emphatic about loving his enemies physically.

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The Best Bible Story on Doing Good To Our Enemies That Most Christians Have Never Heard Of

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Pastor Foley

Part VI of our series on Doing Good

Since it’s no longer we who live but Christ who lives through us, it’s a good idea for us to search Scripture in order to see how Christ is going to respond through us as we encounter our enemies.

So let’s look at John 19:10-11, when Jesus is appearing before Pilate, who has just had him beaten:

10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”

11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

Pilate says to Jesus, “Don’t you see that there are only two people here—you and me—and I have all the power?”

And Jesus says, “Actually, there are two people here—you and my father—and I trust my father. He is giving you this power at the moment, but I can trust him and his love for me and you.”

So when we are attacked by an enemy, we need to say, “It is no longer me who is being attacked by an enemy; it is Christ Jesus living through me who is being attacked by my enemy. And he is trustworthy and will repay. But he may be doing something in this situation that I can cooperate with. In order to figure that out, the first thing I need to do is to not retaliate.”

Turn to 2 Samuel 16:5-14. This story takes place when Absalom, David’s son, rebels and runs King David out of Jerusalem. When David is leaving the city, Shimei, one of the people who was still loyal to the first king, Saul, took the opportunity to attack David.

Look at the difference between David’s and Shimei’s responses. David does not see the conflict as between him and Shimei at all. Instead, he sees God at the center of it all, and he responds accordingly:

5 As King David approached Bahurim, a man from the same clan as Saul’s family came out from there. His name was Shimei son of Gera, and he cursed as he came out. 6 He pelted David and all the king’s officials with stones, though all the troops and the special guard were on David’s right and left. 7 As he cursed, Shimei said, “Get out, get out, you murderer, you scoundrel! 8 The LORD has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. The LORD has given the kingdom into the hands of your son Absalom. You have come to ruin because you are a murderer!”

9 Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head.”

10 But the king said, “What does this have to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the LORD said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who can ask, ‘Why do you do this?’”

11 David then said to Abishai and all his officials, “My son, my own flesh and blood, is trying to kill me. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone; let him curse, for the LORD has told him to. 12 It may be that the LORD will look upon my misery and restore to me his covenant blessing instead of his curse today.”

13 So David and his men continued along the road while Shimei was going along the hillside opposite him, cursing as he went and throwing stones at him and showering him with dirt. 14 The king and all the people with him arrived at their destination exhausted. And there he refreshed himself.

Later in the story, David returns to Jerusalem, and Shimei realizes he has made a big mistake! And then even later in the story, David’s son gets to deal with Shimei. In each of these cases we learn about letting God (and not us) take revenge.

So when you are attacked by an enemy, think about it this way:

  • Christ is present.
  • Your enemy is actually attacking Christ.
  • Christ will repay.
  • But Christ does good to his enemies, and he is doing something you can’t see or understand.
  • Your job is not to try to think of something good to do to your enemy. Instead, your job is to stay focused on Christ. Trust him. Let him act instead of you.
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Your Enemy is Actually Attacking Christ – Not You. And Christ Still Does Good to Them — Through You.

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Pastor Foley

Part V of our series on Doing Good

Check out the story of Stephen, one of the earliest martyrs in Christian history, in Acts 6 and 7. Look what happens right after he gives a speech to the Jewish ruling council, the Sanhedrin:

54 When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

Notice that when Stephen is attacked by his enemies, he does not think, “I am being attacked by my enemies. I want to protect myself, but I’m supposed to love my enemies. I think I will bake them a cake–as soon as they stop throwing stones at me.”

Instead, he says, “Where’s the father? Where’s Jesus? Oh, there they are! Everything is going to be OK, because I can trust them.” That’s what we see in Acts 7:57:

59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

Any time we have a conflict with our enemy, the most important person in the room is not us or our enemy. It’s God.

He is really there, actually present, watching over you. You can trust him. He’s doing something. He is, in the words of Jesus in Matthew 5, “sending rain on the righteous and the unrighteous”—that is, he is taking care of both you and your enemy, even if we don’t exactly see or understand what he is doing.

That’s what Peter says in 1 Peter 4:12-19. Look at the first couple of verses:

12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

What Peter is saying here is amazing: when an enemy attacks you, there are indeed two people in the room. But the two people are not you and your enemy. The two people are your enemy and Christ!

Paul explains why in Galatians 2:

20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

And Paul understood this very, very deeply because he had experienced it personally before he became a Christian. At that point you may remember that he was persecuting Christians. Then Jesus appears to him and says, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4)  Paul came to see that when we are baptized into Christ, it’s no longer just us who is living as us; it’s Christ!

Which means anyone who attacks us is actually attacking Christ, whether they (or we) know it or not.

And so Peter and Paul have some very specific advice about how we are to think about such a situation. First, let’s look at 1 Peter 4:12-19:

14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15 If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. 16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And,

“If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

19 So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

That last verse is key. Peter says, “If an enemy attacks you, maybe it is because you did something wrong. But maybe not. Maybe the enemy is opposing God and, in the words of Stephen and in the words of Jesus on the cross, the enemy doesn’t know what they are doing. In this case, rejoice because you are blessed! Commit yourself to your faithful creator. He is doing something even if you can’t see it. And continue to do good.”

Paul says the same kind of thing beginning in Romans 12:19:

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.

Paul is saying, “When an enemy is attacking you, they are actually attacking Christ, because it is no longer you who live but Christ who lives through you. Since your enemy is attacking Christ, not you (whether they realize it or not), it is not your decision how to respond. Instead, it is God’s decision.

“And God will repay…but if he is not choosing to repay now, you need to respect that. And you need to join him in doing the good to your enemy that he is doing.

What enemies of yours might you need to hand over to God for repayment even as you join him in doing good toward them?  

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