Praying for your enemies

Jesus said..“But I tell you, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27)

When I originally planned this series I intended that the next article after “Pray for one another” should be “Pray for your enemies.” It is no co-incidence that it has taken me so long to get around to writing it. Obedience to Jesus’ command that we pray for our enemies and do good to those who hate us is surely one of the most difficult tests of our discipleship.

Who is my enemy? As a child I naively thought that all Christians were ‘nice’ people, and nice people should not have any enemies. I’ve since discovered that sadly neither of these are true. While it may be true that inoffensive people don’t make many enemies, we are not called to be inoffensive. We are called to follow Christ. If Jesus, the best person who ever lived, had many enemies, we should also expect to have enemies. Those who hate Christ will hate us too.

What’s more, it’s not just the rampant atheist and other fanatics who may wish us ill. Our enemies may be those closest to us.The psalmist speaks of “friends” who soothe us with insincere words before going out and slandering us. (Psalm 41:6-9). Jesus said our worst enemies would come from within our own household (Matt 10:36). He himself was betrayed by a disciple and sent to his death by the leaders of his own people.

We should be careful, however, not to label as ‘enemies’ those who simply irritate us, annoy us or let us down. In The Cost of Discipleship Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote “Our enemies are those who harbor hostility against us, not those against whom we cherish hostility.” Certainly we should pray for the well being of those we find difficult to love, but our lack of love and patience towards them is our problem, not theirs. Jesus bore no hostility towards the disciples who deserted him in his trials.

Why should we pray for our enemies? Quoting Proverbs 25, Paul wrote that by praying for our enemies we would “heap burning coals on their heads.” This is sometimes taken to mean that our purpose in praying should be to make our enemies uncomfortable and shame them into changing their behaviour. (The Good News Bible even translates this phrase as “you will make him burn with shame.”) Yet there seems to be a subtle sense of revenge-seeking about this that contradicts Paul’s previous statement that revenge belongs to God. And in practice, how often is an enemy shamed by a Christian’s prayers? It happens, but by no means consistently.

Perhaps Paul’s next sentence “Do not let evil defeat you, instead conquer evil with good” suggests that he has in mind the purifying coals of the temple or the transforming coals of the smelter. In a chapter that deals with our own inward transformation, praying for our enemy’s transformation would certainly be evidence of our progress towards this goal.

We face two obstacles in praying for our enemies. The first is that we simply don’t want to do it. It goes against our human nature, which prefers to seek revenge whenever it’s safe to do so. We need the sort of inward transformation that Paul speaks about.

The second obstacle is that, if we do pray for our enemies, we can become smug about it. Like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable, we can imagine that we’re somehow gaining favour with God when we pray. “Lord, I thank you that I’m not like this enemy of mine - look, I even pray for her.” Again, an inward transformation is required.

The source of this transformation, this change of heart, is our recognition that we too were once enemies of God, yet he has not dealt with us as we deserve. Jesus calls us to treat our enemies as we ourselves have been treated by God, with love, compassion and forgiveness. In this way we will become sons and daughters of God. Such a transformation is not merely the result of reflection, but a work of the Holy Spirit upon our spirit.