After Jesus gives the beatitudes in the Gospel of Luke, he makes a demand of his followers that is, quite frankly, counter-intuitive: Love your Enemies.
This is difficult but not impossible. Many times today the term "love" is synonymous with a feeling, either feelings of good will toward someone or an index of how one feels in someone's presence.
But, this isn't the way Jesus is using this term. He uses the "agape" type of love in this context to refer to an act of the will, not a feeling. And, he gives specific ways to show love towards others, especially those who are our enemies:
1. We are to do good to those who hate us. We return good for evil, regardless of how we feel. We may feel upset, angry, and so on, but we are still expected to do good if we are a follower of Jesus.
2. We are to bless those who curse us. We are to speak good about and to the person who curses us.
3. We are to pray for those who abuse us. Sometimes an offense against us can be so grievous that we cannot even be in the same room as that person. But, that does not remove the requirement to show love to that person through praying for him. We can always pray for others - even our enemies - as an act of love.
Notable Quote:
Now, every one of those, the image of non-resistance, the idea of giving alms to everyone (I mean, that’s crazy, right? What are they going to do with my money? They might use it to do something bad), the idea of lending to someone who you know isn’t going to pay you back; those all seem irrational at first glance, but what Jesus is saying to us is that “it’s not irrational (he wouldn’t have said it this way, but this is how I am articulating it), it’s super-rational.” It’s kind of like the blessings and the woes. It seems irrational, earlier in the sermon, for Jesus to say, “Blessed are you who mourn. Blessed are you who are hungry. Blessed are you who are poor.” No, no, no. Those are the people who are cursed. Those are the people who are punished. Those are the people who are suffering. But no, there’s a paradox built into this. It’s unexpected; it’s surprising. It seems irrational, but that’s because it’s not operating according to the logic of this world. It’s the logic of the kingdom of heaven. It’s the logic of the Son of God, who comes into this world to be struck on the cheek in his Passion, and not to fight back. Who comes into this world, who is rich, but became poor for our sake, so that we might be saved. Who gives to everyone; who gives his life for everyone, even the ones he knows are going to reject him and not give him a return. Who will not accept the gift of salvation; he still gives it to them. It’s the logic of the kingdom; it’s the logic of the cross. That’s what Jesus is talking about here with “love your enemies”.
You can also check out Dr. Pitre's Bible study on the Gospel of Matthew where he covers the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew:
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