Commentary: Remembering the persecuted and praying for them is a biblical imperative, it’s something the Apostolic church was particularly zealous for, but the really interesting thing to me, is that here and elsewhere we aren’t told to pray for the saints, or the persecuted, but for the persecutors.

Notice there that Jesus acknowledges that only those who are part of his body of Christ will do this, because only they can exercise that selfless, Agape love. Those outside the body Christ can love friends and brothers, but only those who have been born again will love their enemies. And what a difference this can make! How? Well let me give you some examples.

Mosab Hassan Yousef, is the eldest son of Sheikh Yousef, a founder of the Islamic terror group Hamas. He was walking away from an Israeli jail prison where he had served time for trying to buy automatic weapons with which to kill Israelis when someone who didn’t know him invited him to a Christian bible study. He attended and the gave him a copy of the New Testament he writes in his biography: "I began at the beginning [in the Gospel According to Matthew], and when I got to the Sermon on the Mount, I thought, Wow, this guy Jesus is really impressive! Everything He says is beautiful! I couldn't put the book down. Every verse seemed to touch a deep wound in my life. It was a very simple message, but somehow it had the power to heal my soul and give me hope. Then I read this: `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 sons of your Father in heaven.' (Matthew 5:43-45)....I was thunderstruck by these words. Never before had I heard anything like this, but I knew that this was the message I had been searching for all my life." He went on to talk about he immense difference between that message and what Islam taught which was “fight against, kill and subdue your enemies.”

1) You may not actively hating and desiring to repay the evil that is done to you or your brethren with evil, but are you responding to it with good? Are you repaying evil with good? That is hard, but it is necessary. John Calvin, who himself had more enemies during his lifetime than most, wrote about this verse: “Arduous is this, I admit, and wholly opposed to the nature of man; but there is nothing too arduous to be overcome by the power of God, which shall never be wanting to us, provided we neglect not to seek for it. And though you can hardly find one who has made such advances in the law of the Lord that he fulfills this precept, yet no one can claim to be the child of God or glory in the name of a Christian, who has not in part attained this mind, and who does not daily resist the opposite disposition.

I have said that this is more difficult than to let go revenge when any one is injured: for though some restrain their hands and are not led away by the passion of doing harm, they yet wish that some calamity or loss would in some way happen to their enemies; and even when they are so pacified that they wish no evil, there is yet hardly one in a hundred who wishes well to him from whom he has received an injury; nay, most men daringly burst forth into imprecations. But God by his word not only restrains our hands from doing evil, but also subdues the bitter feelings within; and not only so, but he would have us to be solicitous for the wellbeing of those who unjustly trouble us and seek our destruction.”

If you have trouble with that, remember that Paul was a persecutor of the church, he had stood approving while Stephen, the first martyr of the New Testament church, was stoned to death, for that matter so was I, so were some of you.

2) But still it’s hard to do that. Our nature rebels against loving our enemies, we make excuses for not doing it: How can we learn to love them, well here I have had a lot of help from something Eric Liddell. You’ll remember Liddell as the Scottish Runner and Missionary from Chariots of Fire who wouldn’t run on the Lord’s Day. Liddell went to China as a missionary and was captured by the Japanese and placed in an internment camp. The prisoners were horribly mistreated and neglected, and indeed Liddell himself died in the camp. But during his time there he was invaluable help to his fellow prisoners:

“During one small group discussion, he read aloud the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:43: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Then he asked if this was merely an ideal or something practical they could actually do. Could they love the guards in camp and the Japanese people as a whole? Most thought it was only a lofty goal. “I thought so too,” Eric said, “but then I noticed the next words, ‘Pray for them that despitefully use you.’ When we start to pray,” he said, “we become God-centered. When we hate then we’re self-centered. We spend a lot of time praying for people we like but we don’t spend much time praying for people we don’t like and people we hate. But Jesus told us to pray for our enemies. I’ve begun to pray for the guards and it’s changed my whole attitude toward them. Maybe you’d like to try it too.” – Eric Lidell

3) But perhaps even now, Christian brother, Christian sister, you are saying yes, but you don’t understand what my enemies have done! There are some things that cannot be forgiven, or even if I could forgive them, I could never bring myself to pray for their blessing! Well, if any Christian on earth had a right to say that, I believe it would be Gladys Staines. Gladys and her husband Graham who are Australian were missionaries to India. On the night of January 22, 1999 her husband Graham had attended an annual gathering of Christians with their sons Phillip and Timothy aged 10 and 6 who were on holiday from school. That night as Graham and the boys slept in their vehicle they were attacked by a mob of Hindu fundamentalists, who doused the vehicle in gas and set it alight and then prevented them from escaping.

Your husband and your children killed by demon worshippers for doing good? Surely she could never forgive them? Well let me read her words from an interview that was done over more Christians were killed in Kandhamal in India:

Staines remembers her husband and sons calmly, with tenderness. "During these ten years, there have been times of sadness, I feel sad that I do not have my husband to support me, to guard me, but these are just momentary emotions of sadness which also fill me with great hope, the hope of heaven and of being reunited with my husband and children in paradise and seeing the Father face to face. This guarantee fills me with consolation.

"I cannot express that how I felt when I got the news of my husband and sons being burnt alive. I told my daughter Esther that though we had been left alone, we would forgive and my daughter replied, 'Yes, we will'."

"I forgive the other, because I have first received forgiveness from Jesus Christ - I have encountered the presence of Jesus in my life and this is the spirit I share. When we forgive, there is no bitterness and we live our lives and continue the task entrusted to us - with His grace and peace. These Kandhamal widows have also been touched by Jesus. All Christians who have known the intervention of Jesus in their lives will have this gift to forgive and to be the witnesses of His peace and presence. Support them with your solidarity and prayer.”