First lesson: Not everything you might hear about the Bible is true.

In Matthew 5:43-45 (NIV), Jesus said, “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…”

No biblical command actually instructs anyone to hate an enemy. The Jewish people developed that idea from passages like Deuteronomy 23:3-4, where God told Israel that “No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, not even in the tenth generation. For they did not come to meet you with bread and water on your way when you came out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim to pronounce a curse on you.” That passage does not instruct Israel to hate, it only proposes justice, in essence saying, “Those folks didn’t want anything to do with you when you needed help, so don’t let them be part of your nation now.” From that foundation, the Jews developed the idea that they should hate their neighbors.

That “us versus them” attitude survives in our culture. Us the political elite vs. them the smelly Walmart shoppers. Us the 99% and them the 1%. Us the woke and them that close their eyes and remain ignorant. Us the white folks and them that aren’t. Us the Christians and them, the worldly. “Us versus them” comes naturally!

In his book, Who Is This Man, John Ortberg tells about a psychological study where researchers divided summer campers into “X” and “W” groups. Then they took one boy from each group and then selected a third, supposedly neutral, boy from one of the groups and gave him some money, instructing the neutral boy to give some money to the boy from Group X and some to the boy from Group W. The researchers intended to then introduce some friction into the groups to see how much tension would develop before an unfair division of the money occurred. The answer: None. Before the study even began, the “neutral” boy always gave more money to the boy from his own team; i.e., if the “neutral” boy was from Group W, then he favored Group W in the distribution. Us versus them.

Jesus doesn’t approve of an “Us vs. Them” division. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy,” Jesus said in Matthew 5:43f, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven…” Don’t misunderstand: Jesus doesn’t command us to LIKE all of our enemies or come to an agreement with them, but we are supposed to love them. Jesus isn’t commanding our feelings, just our actions, explaining in Luke 6:27-31: “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

Jesus doesn’t ask us to do anything he doesn’t do. Jesus points out that God “causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” God’s blessings are available to everyone. People who stomp on God’s standards and despise His word still breathe His air and enjoy the life He gives. God is good, even to His enemies. In fact, one of the most significant verses in Scripture, Romans 5:8, reads, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Following God’s example isn’t easy, but it keeps us from the poison of hatred and the burden of revenge. Doing good to our enemies “heaps coals of fire on their heads” (Proverbs 25:22), giving our enemy something to think about and a reason to change his attitude. And then, if our enemy still needs to be punished, doing good to our enemies gets us out of the way and leaves “room for God’s wrath” (Romans 12:19).