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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