Being counter-cultural in Matthew 5 – Love your enemies

Let’s read Matthew 5:43-48
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, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Of all Jesus’ counter-cultural instructions in this chapter, this is perhaps the one that if put into practice will look the most surprising of all to other people – at least in the current moment.

In 2024, the English-speaking world is very deeply divided. Politically, ideologically, culturally – any way you look at it, our societies are getting more and more fractured all the time. Some people might even say they’re falling apart. Even if you don’t pay much attention to politics you can’t escape it.

How did this happen?

What do you identify as? What innate characteristics or choices define who you are a person?

There are so many different ways to answer that question. Many people self-identify on the basis of their gender or their race or their nationality or their social class or their sexual orientation – things about themselves which may be a source of great pride but which they didn’t choose and can’t change. Other people might focus more on things over which they do have some control: their religious commitments (or lack thereof) or their political views or their chosen friendship groups or their job or their favourite sports team or player.

Unfortunately we live at a time when identifying with one or any of these can cause you to find yourself at odds with people who identify differently. Wherever you turn, many people will claim that some identity groups have privilege over others, or are guilty of oppressing others. For example, some people will claim that men are privileged over women, white people are privileged over other ethnicities, straight or cisgender people are privileged over LGBT people, Christians are privileged over other religions, etc.

On the other hand, some people may claim that it’s the other way round, that government initiatives to ‘level the playing field’ have in fact given unfair advantages to those who were once considered to be marginalised or disadvantaged, that such people are now unfairly over-represented, and that anyone who complains will be shot down as a ‘racist’ or a ‘misogynist’ or other such terms.

This is of course by no means entirely a modern phenomenon. Disputes, grudges and rivalries between different communities have been going on for decades and even centuries. Yet this is the form that seems most likely to lead to genuine hostility and violence in our time.

It’s probably fair to say that people on all sides of such arguments probably have at least some genuine grievances. No one group is entirely right or entirely wrong.

Even so

However, for many people it’s difficult to accept that. In recent years we’ve seen significant unrest, violence and even death as a result of ideological and political divisions in Western societies.

I write these words only days after former US President Donald Trump was non-fatally shot at a political rally in Pennsylvania. Whatever you think about Donald Trump – and I am not here either to criticise or defend him – this is only the most recent and most high-profile example of an ongoing culture of hostility and violence in the West. Unfortunately I see no reason to suppose that things are going to get better any time soon.

If you are a Christian, your responsibility is to show our divided culture a better way. While Jesus called on you to love others, it’s not sufficient to show love only to those within your own community or those you perceive to be ‘on your side’ or those you perceive to be helpless victims.

Jesus taught that you should show love even to people whom you hate or who hate you – even to those who are actively trying to oppress or harm you.

Love isn’t just an emotion.

The ‘love’ that Jesus wants you to show your enemies is not simply a feeling in your heart. It’s not just a case of trying to re-program your emotions so that you feel positively towards those who hate you, or so that you can use kinder words when talking about them. It means taking action to demonstrate that love in a practical way.

What might that look like in our current situation?

As we saw last week, sometimes the Christian response to a dispute is to let the other side win – in this case even if you feel ‘the other side’ already has access to privileges and resources that are denied to you – or to allow yourself to be mistreated.

It could mean reaching out to those who hate you when they fall and helping them recover, even at your own cost.

For the Christian, true peace and justice and happiness are not going to be reached by political rallying or by protest or legislation. Human beings aren’t capable of achieving that by ourselves. Only God can – and it won’t happen until Jesus returns to the earth from heaven.

It’s very easy, however, for a Christian to fall into the trap of becoming part of the political or cultural divides in our world. Feeling a great deal of concern for the rights or struggles of a particular group of people can easily lead to finding yourself aligned with them and fighting for their cause, defending their rhetoric and supporting their actions when they go up against their political enemies. It can very quickly lead to compromising your principles and your loyalty to Jesus.

But Jesus taught that you need to show practical, active expressions of love not only to those with whom you empathise or to those by whose plight you are moved, but with those with whom you disagree or who are actually trying to hurt you.

They may not understand what you’re doing or even be willing to accept your love. Loving one’s enemies is always a counter-cultural thing to do. It’s one of the few virtues that is possibly unique to Christianity, and it’s in short supply in our world.

As Jesus pointed out, there’s no real virtue in looking out for those who are already on your side. Everyone does that. It’s human nature to do that. Yet it goes against human nature to love your enemies.

There are probably Christians on just about every side of every political or cultural debate in 2024. That shouldn’t be the case. Our shared faith in Jesus should enable us to transcend all loyalties and group preferences in this world. When Christians start dividing over politics, a change of priority is urgently required.

Are there genuine concerns surrounding oppression of the marginalised or mistreatment of the despised? Of course there are. But we can work to help these people without getting involved in whatever political struggles surround their situation. The Christians who lived in the Roman empire in the early years of the church did just that, and were (in)famous for doing so.

For the Christian in 2024, the solution to the messed-up state of the Western world is not an electoral victory for Labour or the Conservatives or the Reform party or Donald Trump or Joe Biden (or whichever parties or individuals are running for power where you live) – the only solution is the return of Jesus Christ.

While we wait for him to return, our responsibility is to prepare others for that day, and to do what we can to follow his teachings and care for those in need without getting drawn into the conflicts that divide this world – even if you are totally convinced that one side is right and the other side is wrong. Our task is not to disassociate ourselves from this world completely, but to live in it counter-culturally, to show this world a better way, to show them what Jesus is like and to promise them he is coming again.