Textual Emendation

“you have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’” Matthew 5:43

Enemy – Who said that?  Who said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy”?  If you look at the reference in Leviticus 19:18, you won’t find the second part of this citation.  In fact, you will find an entire section devoted to care and concern for your neighbor.  There is not a word about hating your enemy.  In fact, if you search Leviticus for verses about an enemy (Hebrew ‘oyev), you will find most of them in chapters 26 and 27, the discussion is about what will happen with enemies when the people are obedient and when they are not.  While there are descriptions about pursuing enemies when God is with the people, there is nothing about hating enemies.

Now you know why Yeshua doesn’t say, “It is written.”  He comments on what has been taught about enemies, not what is written in God’s Word.  Some popular teaching and the accumulation of folk wisdom distinguished between love for a neighbor and hatred for an enemy.  The common interpretation of the relationship to enemies emended the text.  It added “and hate your enemy.”  Yeshua rejects this folk wisdom as incompatible with God’s actions toward enemies.  If we are to emulate the behavior of the Father, we will do what He did – love our enemies and do good to those who reject and disparage us.  In other words, Yeshua points away from the common understanding and toward the deeper principle of the Torah.  That deeper principle is based in the character of God.  When we express God’s character, we fulfill the requirements of the Torah.

Of course, loving your enemies is not a “reasonable” thing to do.  In a world where self-interest predominates, doing good to those who intend to harm you is simply crazy.  Who would ever do such a thing?  Our natural inclination is self-protection and retaliation.  But the principle underlying Torah is the denial of self-interest and abandoned trust in God.  As we have already seen, this does not entail allowing evil to have its way.  Justice matters.  But it does entail setting aside our self-absorbed view of life.  God’s plans are bigger than our plans and we cannot base our decisions on what we think best.  Yeshua is not suggesting acquiescence.  He is asking us to re-evaluate our motivation.  He is asking us to make ethical decisions on the basis of God’s agenda, not our own.

The line between self-motivation and godly obedience is often very thin and sometimes nearly invisible.  Only the one deciding can really tell the difference.  But the difference is important enough to be illuminated by Yeshua’s commentary.  The resulting action might not look any different.  That doesn’t matter here.  What matters is a thorough examination of the reason we take action.  Dependence, humility and obedience always come before categorizing another as an enemy.  Lines drawn in the sand aren’t always drawn with God’s finger.  Knowing when they are drawn with my finger prevents me from overstepping God’s point of view.

Who are your enemies?  What is your obligation toward them?  Who draws the line for you?

Topical Index:  enemy, hate, ‘oyev, Matthew 5:43, Leviticus 19:18

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carl roberts

-When we express God’s character, we fulfill the requirements of the Torah.- Amen! and Amen!

Love G-d. Love each other.

And.. the end of the commandment is __________? (Hint: it is a four-letter word!) The goal of our instruction is love that flows from a pure heart, from a clear conscience, and from a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1.5)

Let us love our God supremely, let us love each other, too;
Let us love and pray for sinners, till our God makes all things new.
Then He’ll call us home to Heaven, at His table we’ll sit down;
Christ will gird Himself and serve us with sweet manna all around.

So good today brother Skip!, – G-d is Love!! The law of the LORD is perfect. -Praises to the Name above all other names. He is worthy!

Drew

Good tidings to all,

Perhaps it should be added that the way to love an enemy from a Biblical perspective is not an emotional proposition. As Skip points out … it is a matter of treatment. The treatment is defined as applying the Torah. It is with Torah that we love our enemies and apply the principle of being no respecter of persons.

One could surmise that such an approach would also remove the large gray zone we have in determining enemies versus friendlies!

How better things would be for us if we could always view things through the eyes of our Master … then we would be always capable of separating the persons from the influences that control a person … influences that we are at war with … the powers and principalities!

Always more conditioning and molding needed … yes? YES … and I suppose this is why it is a path and at best we are a never ending work in progress! Let us lift up our praises to the one Who who has blazed through the wilderness and given us a map of the path … along with an invitation to come and join Him. Praise Yeshua!

Drew

This I will consider Skip … admittedly however this would just amount to “more in the personal queue”! Much prioritized collateral to review and generate … but thanks for the reminder!

Michael

Romans 12:18 “Do all you can to be at peace with everyone. Never try to get revenge; leave that my friends to God’s anger.

Romans 12:19 As scripture says: “Vengeance is mine—I will pay them back” the Lord promises.

Romans 12:20 But there is more, “If your enemy is hungry, you should give him food and if he is thirsty, let him drink. Thus you heap red hot coals on his head.

Romans 12:21 Resist evil and conquer it with good.

Hi Skip,

I tend to associate “Vengeance is mine” with Jesus and Njals Saga rather than with Paul.

But I guess Paul should get some credit for communicating this most important point 🙂

As I recall (from ’78 or ’79) the huge impact Paul’s statement above had on Western Civilization can be seen very clearly in Njals Saga.

Njals Saga is an Icelandic epic from the 13th century which describes how everyday life revolved around a series of blood feuds, a la the Hatfields and McCoys, until the Christian conversion in 999 when the priests implemented the new ethic, “vengence is mine” and replaced the old “code of revenge.”

From Wiki:
Njáls saga (also known as “Brennu-Njáls saga” or “The Story of the burning of Njáll”) has a deservedly high reputation as the greatest Icelandic saga.