Introduction
The world is a hateful place. Who can deny it? As Paul says,
For we ourselves
were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and
pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one
another (Titus 3.3, ESV).
Quite possibly, this is what Paul meant in
Ephesians 2.3 when he described the pre-Christian life as a time when we were
by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.[1]
In Titus, Paul contrasts our hatred of
others to the goodness and lovingkindness of God our Saviour (Titus 3.4), and
in Ephesians our wrath as sons of disobedience following the prince of the
power of the air contrast with God’s mercy and love (Ephesians 2.4). To pray for our enemies is to move from malice,
envy, hatred, and wrath to God’s goodness, lovingkindness, mercy, and love.
A Complete Ethic
Jesus prayed from the cross for His enemies: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do' (Luke 23.34). This was a culmination of His ministry of God's forgiveness and mercy. He also told His
followers to pray for their enemies. He
said,
43 “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, 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. 46 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? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father
is perfect (Matthew 5.43-48).
Jesus provides
us with several reasons to pray for our enemies. They produce a ‘complete’ ethic in regard to
the ‘other’. A complete ethic will address
issues that cover what a (1) character (2) does (3) toward certain goals
(consequences). A person’s character is
defined by his virtues and vices. A
person’s moral actions are either good or bad.
A person’s goals are either right or wrong, and actions have consequences
(rewards and punishments).
Praying for Our Enemies
This applies to
what Jesus says about praying for our enemies.
First, the specific moral act in view is prayer, but it is an example of
a more general call to do good to all The
disciples are to pray for all, including their enemies, even as God causes the
sun to rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and unjust (vv.
45b). Second, our doing good and God’s
doing good to all is both also a character ethic: the disciples are to be like
God the Father (vv. 45a, 48). Third, it
is a consequentialist ethic: what reward do people have from God if they merely
love those who love them and only greet their brothers (vv. 46-47)? These three
dimensions of a complete ethic cover the ethical spectrum of character,
actions, and goals. They are bound
together not only in forming a complete ethic but also in imitation of God. By imitating God’s character, actions, and
goals, I am formed increasingly into His likeness.
Our character,
actions, and goals define one another.
Depending on the goals that I set, my actions will be of one sort or
another. Equally, my character
determines what sort of goals I set and what actions follow. Yet my repeated actions of one sort produce
habits, which produce character (as Aristotle taught in his Nichomachean Ethics). This works negatively, when my bad actions
produce vices, or positively, when my good actions produce virtues of
character. Once the actions produce a
character, I may be said to have a ‘disposition’ of a certain sort. Jesus speaks of this in terms of ‘love’ and ‘hate’
(Matthew 5.43). Love is not a feeling
toward or an affirmation or acceptance of another; it is first and foremost a
disposition that evokes certain acts rather than others, like prayer for an
enemy. Before I may be said to have a
loving disposition, I may begin by engaging in acts like prayer for my enemies.
To act contrary
to nature by praying for my enemy is a difficult challenge. Jesus acknowledges this, saying that loving
those who love you is something even (sinful, wicked, unjust) tax collectors do
(v. 46). The worst Nazis had people who
loved them and whom they loved. To love someone
who loves you is not an ethical act.
Perhaps the most difficult person to love is someone closest to
you. The Jews struggled to love their
Samaritan neighbours in Jesus’ day (cf. the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke
10.25-37). Sometimes, our enemies are people
who claim to be Christians and are not, or they are Christians but very
difficult persons for one reason or another.
Sometimes our enemies are in our own household. Those who are closest can be our most
difficult enemies.
Character is not
only an individualistic matter; it is also communal. This is demonstrable as we think a little
more about ‘our’ enemies in Matthew 5. People
who ‘revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you
falsely’ (Matthew 5.11) are doing so against followers of Jesus. Jesus says that they do these things against
you ‘on my account’. They hate the
Christian community for being Christians, disciples of Christ. Jesus is telling His disciples that
they, as individuals, should pray for their enemies and that they, as a
community, should be known for how they respond to their enemies.
Responding to a Culture of Hate
In the
post-Christian society into which we have been thrown in just a few decades,
the ‘enemy’ has come to be described differently. The enemy is no longer the opponent of a
centuries-old, Christian civilization that was established with great
difficulty in pagan Europe and then the world beyond. The ‘enemy’ in Western society is now the
Christian. The ‘enemy’ has been
redefined in the Great Reversal of our time.
Christian care for the vulnerable is transformed into a concern for
those dubbed ‘victims’. Who, though, are
these ‘victims’ in a post-Christian society?
They are now described by society as persons living against their biological genders instead of
those living according to nature, women instead of men, women with unwanted
pregnancies instead of the most vulnerable in every society—the unborn
children, people of colour instead of all people—especially whites, any
non-Christian instead of Christians, and the sexually perverse emerging from a
so-called prudish society instead of the sexually pure ridiculed by fallen humanity. Post-Christian society has invented an ethic that defines victims in such a way that Christians are hated. We have more enemies--more enemies for whom to pray.
Not only has the
enemy been redefined, but the way in which the enemy is engaged has changed as
well. Christians have followed an ethic
of love that reaches out to the vulnerable in society, whereas post-Christian
society has followed an ethic of hate that favours the ‘victims’ and cancels
and destroys their assumed oppressors.
The key to the post-Christian ethic is that the world is defined in
terms of tribal groups that fight each other.
A spirit of hatred has possessed Western culture. People are born into their tribes, and the
most hated tribe of all is the white, heterosexual, male who is a
family-affirming Christian who honours women and marriage.
Jesus’ direction
to His disciples is to pray for our enemies.
In this way, we can break out of this hate-affirming cycle in today’s
culture. Instead of tribal groups at war
with one another, we are to recognise a creation ethic in which God makes the
sun rise and the rain fall on everyone alike.
Some confused Christians have turned this ethic of love toward the enemy
into an ethic of affirming our enemies, either by becoming haters of ourselves (the
self-loathing of white males in society, for example, or the embarrassed Church
apologizing for evangelizing Africa) or by preaching a doctrine of ‘inclusion’
that removes the notion of sin altogether (as in the Church blessing homosexual unions).
Jesus’ ethic of love towards the enemy, however, continues to identify people
as good and evil, just and unjust. The
Christian response is to pray for enemies, not to join them or affirm them.
A Creation and Redemption Ethic
On this point,
when Christians pray for those in authority (1 Timothy 2.1-7), it is not
because they are supporters of what the authorities are doing. They recognise that it is more likely than
not that those in authority are self-serving, abusive, and unjust. Christians know that the world is a sinful
place. The reason for praying for those
in authority is so that Christians may ‘lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly
and dignified in every way’ (v. 2).
Prayers for government in church services are, sadly, left as generic
prayers, which allows the government to suppose that Christians have their back
and are their supporters. Rather,
Christians are to pray that these abusive persons with power would somehow—by
God’s grace—act justly despite themselves.
Paul adds the
same reasoning that Jesus gives to pray for our enemies. He says that God our Savior ‘desires all
people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a
ransom for all’ (1 Timothy 2.4). That
is, the Christian creation ethic and redemption ethic apply to all people, not
some tribal element within humanity. The
goodness of creation is for all, and salvation is offered to all. By praying for our enemies, we acknowledge
that we were once God’s enemies ourselves (Ephesians 2.3), and we proffer in
prayer the same offer of salvation that we have received.
Therefore, praying
for our enemies is an ethic that first imitates God in the good of creation for
all and second in the good of Christ’s death for all. Jesus’ very name was chosen because He would
save His people from their sins (Matthew 1.22).
He did this by dying on the cross as a sacrifice once for all. As Peter wrote,
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the
unrighteous, that he might bring us to God (1 Peter 3.18a).
This forgiveness
of sins through Jesus Christ is a forgiveness that His followers are to extend
to others in like manner. Jesus says,
‘For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you’ (Matthew 6.14). The
Christian ethic of prayer for one’s enemies is an expression of the heart of
the Gospel: that we are forgiven sinners through the sacrificial death of Jesus
Christ. In this, we follow Jesus to the
cross.
Contrast, for
example, the religion of Islam. Islam
denies that Jesus died on the cross and therefore that He died for our
sins. The incarnate Christ is reduced to
a mere prophet in Islam, thus removing God to the stratosphere and reducing him
to an unpredictable (even mercy is unpredictable) judge. The religion of submission (of ‘peace’
through an oppressive submission, if you like) lives in constant jihad against its enemies. Or, contrast the West’s new, post-Christian
cancel culture. Those associated with
the wrong tribe are to be punished, silenced, and even incarcerated. What the West’s newly formed, Marxist culture
has in common with Islam is its tribalism working by means of oppression and
suppression, not grace and forgiveness.
An Eschatological Ethic and Gospel Witness
As a
consequentialist, ethic, praying for our enemies is a way of repaying ‘no one
evil for evil’ and of never avenging ourselves but leaving it to God’s wrath
(Romans 12.17-19). God will, indeed,
bring justice—He is just and brings His justice in due time (12.19). Knowing that God will do so gives us the
space to show kindness even toward our enemies.
That is a space that the Gospel occupies. As Paul says, quoting Proverbs 25.21-22, ‘if your
enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for
by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head’ (12.20). The moral consequence we seek is to shame and
thereby transform the enemy, not inflict final punishment on him ourselves. Thus, Paul adds, ‘Do not be overcome by evil,
but overcome evil with good’ (12.21).
Finally, praying
for our enemies is a way of using an action ethic to form our character. Our natural and just response to our enemies
is to fight and conquer them. Even so, can
replace that response with prayer for them.
When we respond with rage towards an enemy, we may well act justly, but
what sort of character is formed in us as we do so? The danger we face is to become angry,
hateful, and revengeful. Jesus’ warning
is that we should not have one part of our character that is loving towards our
friends and another part of our character that is angry and vengeful towards our
enemies. By praying for our enemies, we
extend our character of love not only towards our friends but also towards our
enemies in an act of love that has the loving goal that they might find the same
salvation and transformation that we, once enemies of God, have found in
Christ. To pray for our enemies is a moral act of the Gospel.
Conclusion
The simple act
of bowing in prayer for an enemy is unique to Christianity. It is a complete ethic in that it engages character,
acts, and goals. It is creational,
redemptive, eschatological, and evangelistic.
It is a response in kind to the mercy that we, once enemies of God, have
received. It is a transforming
initiative in ourselves, a witness to others of God’s character and grace, and
a way to move from wrath and hate to grace, mercy, and love. As the Great Reversal in our culture progresses and sees the Christian as its enemy, we increasingly need to appreciate the importance of praying for our enemies.
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