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How to Handle People Who Hate You
Do You have Enemies?
How to Handle People Who Hate You
Hello, everybody! Lately, I've been reading the book of Luke. I'm in Luke chapter six right now, and I'm having a really hard time with it. Luke, Chapter six, verse 27, it says, “But I say to you, who listen, love your enemies, do what is good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”
That's really difficult for me. I like to win, and when I come across an enemy, my first thought is to beat them. My first thought is for me to win the argument, to be smarter, to prove that they're wrong, and that I'm right. That's how I treat my enemies. But here Jesus is saying no, do good to those people. Bless them, pray for them. He goes on to say, “If they hit you in the face, turn your face and let them hit you again, and if they ask for your coat, give them your shirt, too.” He even continues on to say, “is it really a big deal if you love people that you like? It's a much bigger deal to love the people that hate you.”
So Jesus is saying that to live in His way, to live in the way of Jesus, we must love our enemies. Jesus demonstrates this Himself when He lays His life down on the cross for the people who persecute Him. And he even asks for for their forgiveness. He prays for those people while he's on the cross. And Jesus is asking me to live the same way.
Jesus is saying that to live in His way, to live in the way of Jesus, we must love our enemies.
That's really difficult. There are people that I know, people that I see on the internet, people that I encounter through the media who I don't like. I feel like they're an enemy. I want to combat them. I want to fight against them. I want to go at them. I want to be right. I want to win. There are times where I even say, “God, I'm doing this for You.” Like, now I'm trying to win this fight You, God. But Jesus is saying, “no, My way is to lay down your life for an enemy.”
How do I lay down my life for an enemy? They're an enemy that just doesn't make sense in my flesh. So I pray by the Spirit that God would reveal how this works to me. Funny enough, you keep reading and Jesus just tells us. Jesus talks about not judging people in verse 41 of the same chapter. He says, “Why do you look at the splinter in your brother's eye but don't notice the beam of wood in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, Brother, let me take out the splinter that is in your eye when you yourself don't see the beam of wood in your eye? Hypocrite. First, take the beam of wood out of your eye and then you will see clearly to take out the splinter in your brother's eye.” So, it didn't take me long for God to tell me how to not hate my enemies. You see, what Jesus is saying is this: We spend so much time judging the lives and the worlds of the people around us. We spend so much time saying, “Well, that person got it wrong and that person's messing up. I should go help them out – let me win this argument and help them out – let me show them the right way.” But the whole time we have no introspection. We don't look inside of our own lives first. You see, we're living in pride. And that's why it's so hard to not judge people. That's why it's so hard to not hate our enemies; because I'm coming from a place of pride that I have the right answer, that I know the right way. But here Jesus reminds us, just as James reminds us later, that we should be looking in the mirror of our lives first. You see, when I look in the mirror, I recognize that even though I have changed so much by the power of the Spirit since I gave my life to Jesus, there's still a lot to be done. I am not complete in my faith yet, and I'm really trying to live in the way of Jesus right now. I'm trying to lay down my life to Jesus every day, but there are still things, still areas, still places, still emotions and feelings and thoughts and perspectives that don't belong to God. And so if I really want to love my enemies, I need to start looking in the mirror and realizing that in a lot of ways my sin nature is still the number one enemy.
...when you feel attacked by them, remember the grace and mercy that God is continually showing you and give that same grace and mercy back in the way that you treat them.
I ask and pray that God gives me grace and mercy; and He does, by the blood of Jesus. So I should take that same grace and mercy, and I should give it back out to the people around me. I'm not saying that all of their decisions are good or right or that we should cheer for them when they make bad choices. What I'm saying is this: when you feel attacked by them, remember the grace and mercy that God is continually showing you and give that same grace and mercy back in the way that you treat them.
