The Command to Love loving lips of our Lord jesus.

fulness if we are to know Him as

, '
~ ..
OIU Entmtes and the These prayers signal alarm to all
He really is. He is, of course, the
Imprecatory Psalms who are still enemies of King
loving and merciful Savior who
A problem arises for some and
jesus. His prayers will be
forgives sin; but He also clearly
it is this: how is it possible to
answered! God's wrath is revealed
tells us that He is the one who is
harmonize loving our enemies and
upon all who oppose Christ.
coming in judgment on those v.:ho
praying the imprecatory psalms
Anyone who rejects God's way of
disobey the gospel, ll, Thes. 1:6f."-
with reference to our enemies?
forgiveness in the cross of Christ
Adams, pg. 4Of.
First, we must define and identify
will bear the dreadful curses of
God." - Adams, pg. 33.
The Prayers ofJesus for the
the imprecatory psalms. They are
Forgiveness of Sinners and for
those psalms which pray for the "All the enemies of the Lord
theJudgment of Sinners
curse and wrath of God to fall need to hear these prayers of
upon His enemies. These psalms Christ proclaimed today. They
These prayers, (imprecatory
include: Psalm 58:6-10; are not the prayers of a careless
psalms), then, for woes
59:12,13; 69:24-28; 55:15; 6:10; and com passionless tyrant, but
unutterable upon enemies, are the
83: 17. Should Christians who are the effectual prayers of the Lamb prayers of Christ Himself. But the
called to'love their enemies pray of God who bore the curse of God difficulty to many minds about
such psalms of imprecation?' for the sins of all who bow their this is that it seems inconsistent
Here are some with His
helpful
prayet for
comments on
enemies,
this issue by
'Father,
jamesE.
forgive them;
Adams from
for they bow
his book WAR
. not what they
PSALMS OF
do.' , .. That the
lliEPRINCE
two prayers
OF PEACE.
fell from His
Jesus and the
lips, we know;
Imprecatory
and thatthey
Psalms
represent two
The same
different
Christ who
thinj1:s which
issued the
He 'received as
, cdmtriand to love our enemies
a commission from the Father to
knee to Him. The wrath of the
do, we know. He has power on
also: prays ~ h imprecatory psalms.
psalms must be preached as the
earth to forgive sins, and He has
these psalms have historically
wrath of the Lamb of Cod. God's
power on earth to execute
been understood as being the
kingdom is at war!"- Adams, pg.
judgment upon enemies .... The
voice of Christ. Augustine wrote
on Psalm 58, "The voice of Christ
34.
Psalms themselves present both
and His Church'was well-nigh the
These "war psalms" which
sides of His Mediatorial character
only voice to be heard in the
Christ prays for God's vengeance,
and work in this respect." - james
Psalms .... We ought to recognize
must not dilute the force of
Dick quoted in Adams, pg. 38. '
His voice in aU the Psalms."-
Christ's command to love our 'Jesus is indeed the forgiving
Adams, pg. 32. "The Lordjesus
enemies. Is jesus' prayer for Savior, and we who have
Christ is praying these prayers of God's vengeance on His enemies a experienced His forgiveness
vengeance. The prayers that cry contradiction of His prayer oflove gratefully give Him the praise of
out for the utter destruction of the for their forgiveness and of His our being. But this does not
psalmist's enemies can only be command to love? NO! "We negate that He is also tlie
grasped when heard from the
must receive jesus Christ in His awesomejudge."- Adams. pg. 41.
4 .'f' THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon 'f' August, 1997
The Lavefor Our Enemies and
the Vengeance of God
There is never a place for
seeking personal revenge in the
lives of God's people, Rom.
12:19-21. However, God says,
"Never take your awn revenge,
beloved, but leave room Jar the
wrath oj God, Jar it is written,
'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,
says the Lord."'- Rom. 12:19. "All
of our vengeance must be given
over to the Lord. Every impulse
to gratify ourselves by avenging a
wrong done to us is surrendered
to the Lord as we truly
follow Him." - Adams, pg.
46.
"To pray the imprecations
of the Psalms is to surrender
all rights for vengeance to
God. It means being
prepared to snffer and to
endure without personal
revenge or hatred as Christ did. It
involves being gentle and loving
even when I am reviled and
persecuted. It encompasses
acknowledging in all my ways that
God's cause is more important
than I am."- Adams, pg. 56.
Therefore, "where do we get
the idea that it is wrong to ask
God to bring judgment upon the
wicked?" - Adams, pg. 47.
"Righteous retribution is one of
the glories ofthe divine character.
If it is right that God should desire
to exercise it, then it cannot be
wrong for His people to desire
Him to exercise it.' - Dabney in
Adams, pgs. 47-48.
"We should pray that our
enemies be converted and become
our friends, and if not, that their
doing and designing be bound to
fail and have no success and that
their persons perish rather than
the Gospel and the Kingdom of
Christ. Thus the saintly martyr
Anastasia, a wealthy, noble Roman
matron, prayed against her
husband, an idolatrous and
terrible ravager of Christians, who
had flung her into a horrible
prison, in which she had to stay
and die. TIlere she lay and wrote
to the saintly Chrysogonus
diligently to pray for her husband
that, if possible, he be converted
and believe; but if not, that he be
unable to carry out his plans and
that he soon make an end of his
ravaging. Thus she prayed him to
death, for he went to war and did
not return home. So we, too, pray
f01: our angry enemies, not that
God protect and strengthen them
in their ways, as we pray for
Christians, or that He help them,
but that they be converted, if they
can be; or, ifthey refuse, that God
oppose them, stop them and end
the game to their harm and
misfortune." - Martin Luther
quoted by Adams, pg. 62.
The Struggle Between the
Kingdom of Light and the
Kingdom of Darkness and the
Command to Love Our Enemies
"The church that is conscious
of the life and death struggle
between the two kingdoms will
not exclude hatred for Satan's
kingdom from its love for God's
kingdom. The church is
compelled to show love unto all
men and to pray for their
conversion. At the same time,
with her eye fixed on the promise
of the coming of the day of the
Lord in which all God's enemies
will be crushed eternally, the
church prays for the hastening of
the day of judgment." - Harry
Mennega in Adams, pg. 50.
"God's kingdom cannot come
without Satan's kingdom being
destroyed. God's will cannot be
done in earth without the
destruction of evil. Evil cannot be
destroyed without the destruction
of men who are permanently
identified with it. Instead of being
influenced by the sickly
sentimentalism of the present day,
Christian people should
realize that the glory of God
demands the destruction of
evil. Instead of being
insistent upon the assumed,
but really non-existent;
rights of men, they should
focus their attention upon
the rights of God. Instead of
being ashamed of the ImpreCatory
Psalms. and attempting to
apologize for them and explain
them away, Christian people
should glory in them and not
hesitate to use them in the public
and private exercises of the
worship of God."- Johannes G.
Vos in Adams, pg. 50.
The Enemies of God's People
According to the Pharisees
The Pharisees perverted the
Scriptures, misinterpreting those
Scriptures to teach that there is
justification for hating anybody
they did not like, as their enemies.
In so doing they destroyed the
great principle oflove so clearly
taught in God's Law. Your enemy
could be JUSt about anybody,
whether he was God's enemy or
not. Included among those
identified as the enemies of the
Jewish people were the oppressive
non-Jewish overlords in control of
the civil government, whom the
August, 1997 :j: THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon :j: 5
Jews were taught to hate.
Furthennore, there was hostility
between the GOOD Israelites,
who were devoted to the
traditions of the scribes and
Pharisees, and the BAD Israelites,
who were not so devoted to thei.r.
traditions. And then there were
racial and ethnic hostilities .
between Jews, Samaritans and
Gentiles. This environment bred
hatred between people.
"It was in the midst of this
intensely narrow-minded,
exclusivistic, and intolerant
environment that Jesus carried on
His ministry. All around Him
were those walIs and fences. He
came for the very purpose of
bursting those barriers, so that
love---pure, warm, divine,
be able to flow
straight down from the bean of
God; hence from His own
marvelous hean, into the hearts of
men. His love overleaped all the
boundaries of race, nationality,
patty, age, sex, etc." - Hendriksen
The Way to Love OUT Enemies
Jesus said we are to love olir
enemies by "doing good" to tbj:m
when they hate us, and to "bless"
those who curse us, and to "pray
for" those who mistreat us.
2
This
is how the Christian is to respond
when he is insulted by others
beCause of Christ. His command
to us here is to return benevolent
actions fot spiteful actions, retum
kin(f words for bitter words: And
when we are being cruelly '
persecuted by our enemies
because we are Christians, we
milSt sincerely ptay fot those who
persecute us. "We must get on
our knees, and talk to ourSelves .
before we talk to God. Instead of
being bitter and harsh, instead of
reacting in these tenns of self and .
ina desire to get our own way, we
must remind ourselves that in
everything we do we <\reunder
God, and before God. Then We
muSt say, 'Well now; why should
this person be behaving like this?
What is it? Is it someth!ngin me?
Why do they do it? It is because of
that hOrrible, sinful nature, a
nature which is going to lead
them to helL' Then we should go
on thinking, until we see them in
such a way that we become sorry
for them, until we see them as
going to their terrible doom, and
at last become so sorry for them
that we have no time to be sorry
for ourselves, until we are so sorry
. for them:, indeed, that .. We begin to
pray for them."- pg.
307
But notice what Jesus does
NOT command us to do. He
commands us to love our
enemies, but not necessarily to
like them. There is a difference
between lOving and liking. "We '
are not called UPOllto like
eveiybOdy. Wedmnot do so. But
we can be commanded to love. It
is ridiculous to command anyone
to like another person.. It depends
upon the physical constitution,
temperament, and a thousand and
one other things. That does not .
matter. What does matter is that
we pray for the man whom we do
not like. That is not liking but
loving him. .-- What God
commands is that we should love
a man and treat him as if we do .
like him. Love is much more than
feeling or sentiment. Love in the
New Testament is very practical---
'For thists the love of God, that we
keep His commandments.' Love is
active. If, therefore, we find we do ,
not like certain people, we need
not be worried by that, so long as
we are treating them as if we did
like them. That is loving." -
Lloyd-Jones, pgs. 307. .
6 "'THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon '" AuguSt, 1997
(6:29-38) The Exttlided
DescripLidn of Christian
Love for Enemies
(6:29) The Command Not
to Retaliate
"Whoever htts you on the cheek,
offer him the other also; and
takes away yoUr do not
withhold your shirt from him either."
The Principle ofJusttce. and
the Principle of Love
. Jesus wisely commands His
disciples not td retaliate when
insulted by those who have the
power to do them harm. The
prindples of justice which govern
the decisions and actions of a dvil
court and dvil government are not
the principles by which the
diSciple is to act in his relations
with that coun or with others in
his everyday life. "Romans 13:4
stands. Butthe very God who
placed the dvil and criminal law
and its execution where they
belong, in the hands of the
government, by sp doing places
another law and its execution, the
law oflove, intq the heans of
Christ's diSciples. This law
reqUires patience, forbearance,
willingness to forego our rights
and to suffer wrong in order to
overcome the evil with good; that
the counsmay not need to step
in, andthat we may honor the
. riame of our Lord. on the other
hand, those mlsUndetstartdJesus'
meaning who regard Him as
teaching the doctrine of absolute :
'nonresistance' which would .
ignore and overthrow all justiCe
and all righteousness. The law of
love is not intended to encourage
lawlessness nor to open the
floodgates of c:rt1elty and crime."-
Lenski
The Misuse of this Command
To uSe thiS verse to defend
pacifidsm, the refusal to resist
evil, or self-defence when our
well-being is threatened, is a
misuse of this verse. A slap in the
face or the demand for our coats,
may be insulting, humiliating and
inconvenient, but it is not a threat
on our life. It is an insulting
experience, but not a
life-threatening experience. It
may cause us discomfort and
inconvenience, but not real injury.
The EJ(:ample ofJesus
tnJohn 18:22,23
Jesus is commanding love that
acts wisely, courageously and with
intelligent purpose. "Rather than
to give way to anger when he is
snuck unjustly on the cheek or
even to strike back in anger as
natural right dictates, the disciple
who has this love in his hean will
offer the other cheek for a second
blow that would otherwise not be
struck. A false literalism would
make a farce of Jesus' precept.
The faCt that anything of this kind
is excluded we see in the action of
Jesus Himself when He was struck
without cause in John 18:22,23,
. where He furnishes us the
commentary on this precept."-
Lenski.
The Control of Anger by Love
The point Jesus is making is
that LOVE CONTROLS ANGER.
If the civil government, with its
"power of the sword" acts as the
enemy of your filmily, and tries to
insult and intimidate you, and to
make demands on you, (regarding
your coat), which ii has no right
to demand, do not argue with
your enemy over your rights, take
the insults and overbearing
demands, out oflove for your
family. Don't make your enemy
angry so that he will try to do
serious harm to you or your
family; do whatever is possible to
get him away from your door. Be
more concerned with your
DUTIES than your RIGHTS.'
The Necessity of the
Denial of Self
The spirit of retaliation is a
deadly one. To practice this
command ofjesus we must repent
of such spirit; and we can do that
only when we deny ourselves. To
be the kind ofloving disciples
Jesus demands, we must become
dead to ourselves. I must have a
proper attitude to my self, so that
I won't want to take revenge on
those who insult or embarrass me;
and a proper attitude toward my .
possessions so that I won't want to
take revenge when unjust
demands are made on them by
civil government. "It is not that
our Lord is giving us here a
complete list of what we have to
do in every circumstance and
condition which we are likely to
meet in life. He tells us first that
we have to die to self. What does
this mean? This paragraph, Mat.
5:38-42, shows us how we can do
that; it shows us some ways in
which we can test ourselves as to
whether we are dying to self or
not."- Uoyd-Jones, pg. 280.
"We must rid ourselves of this
constant tendency to be watcbing
the interests of self, to be always
on the look-out for insults or
attacks or injuries, always in this
defensive aUitude. That is the
kind of thing He has in mind. All
that must disappear, and that of
course means that we must cease
to be sensitive about self. This
morbid sensitiveness, this whole
condition in which self is on.'the
edge' and so delicately and
sensitively poised and balanced
that the slightest disturbance can
upset its equilibrium, must be got
rid of. The condition which our
Lord is here describing is one in
wbich a man simply cannot be
hurt. ''':'- A statement which the
great George Muller once made
about himself seems to illustrate
this very clearly. He writes like
this: 'There was a day when I
died, utterly died, died to George
Muller and his opinions,
preferences, tastes and will; died
to the world, its approval or
censure; died to the approval or
blame even of my brethren and
mends; and since then I have
studied only to show myself
approved unto God.' That is a
statement to be pondered deeply.
I cannot imagine a more perfect or
adequate summary of our Lord's
teaching in this paragraph than
that."- Uoyd-Jones, pg. 291f.
The Relation of Love and the
Concern fOT the Maintenance of
Law and Order
''What our Lord says is that I
am not to be concerned about
myself, my own personal honor
and so on. But that is a very
different thing from being
unconcerned about the
maintenance oflaw and order, or
about the defence of the weak and
unprotected. While I must and
should be prepared to suffer any
personal insult or indignity that
man can ever inflict upon me, I
should at the same time believe in
law and order." - Uoyd-Jones, pg.
282f.
The Rewncilation ofJe5US'
Command and Jesus' Example
How do we reconcile such'
Biblical teachings as Luke 6:29;
Matthew 5:39f with John
18:22,23; Matthew 18:15-11; Acts
16:37? "Our Lord here in the
Sermon on the Mount seems to be
saying that invariably you must
tum the other cheek, or if ever
you are sued for your coat you
August, 1997 '" THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon '" 7
must throw in your cloak as well.
But He Himself, when He is
smitten on the face, does not tum
the other cheek, but registers a
protest. And the apostle Paul
insisted upon the magistrate
coming down to release Him. If
we accept the original principle,
there is no difficulty at aU in
reconciling the two sets of
statements. It can be done in this
way. These instances are not
examples and illustrations of
either our Lord or the apostle
insisting upon personal rights.
What our Lord did was to rebuke
the breaking of the law and His
protest was made in order to
uphold the law. He said to these .
men, in effect: 'You know by
striking Me like this you are
breaking the law.' He did not say:
'Why do you insult Me?' He did
not lose His temper or take it as a
personal affront. He did not
become angry, or show concern
about Himself. But He was
concerned to remind these men of
the dignity and honor of the law.
And the apostle Paul did exactly
the same thing. He did not make
a great protest about having been
thrown into prison. His coucern
was that the magistrates should
see that by throwing him into
prison like that they were doing
something that was illegal and
were Violating the law that they
had been appointed to carry out,
So he reminded them of the
dignity and honor of that law.
The Christian is not to be
concerned about personal insults
and personal defE;Ilce. But when it
is a matter of honor and justice,
righteousness and truth, he MUST
be concerned and thus he makes
his protest." - Lloyd-Jones, pg.
284f.
(6:30) The Command to Give
Without Demanding a Return
"Give to everyone who asks of
you, and whoever takes away what is
yours, do not demand It back.
we have two commands
in one: (1). if anyone asks
something from you, and you give
it, do not demand it back; and (2).
if anyone takes away something
from you, do not demand it hack.
The Constant Readiness
of Love to Help
"Love will always be ready to
help, to give without expecting a
return. But it need not be said
that Jesus could not inculcate
indisCriminate giving such as
fosters shiftlessuess and other
evils."- Lenski. Passages such as I
John 3:17,18, Deuteronomy
15:7-10 and Proverbs 21:26
reaffirm this command; and
passages such as II Thess. 3:lO,
Exodus 22:25-27, 11 Chronicles
19:2, Proverbs 11:15; 17:18;
20: 16 and Proverbs 28: 17 reveal
the limits and conditions to this
command.
Of course, this again could be
interpreted in a mechanical and
literal manner so as to make it
ridiculous. But what it really
means can be put in this form. It
is this denial of self once more. It
is jIlst our Lord's way of saying
that the spirit which says, 'What I
have I hold, and what is mine is
mine; and I cannot listen to the
request of those other people
because ultimately I may suffer: is
completely wrong. He is rebuking
the wrong spirit of those who are
always considering themselves,
whether they are being struck on
the face, or whether their coat is
being taken, or whether they are
compelled to carry the baggage or
to give of their own goods and
wealth to help someone in need.
Let us now go immediately to the
qualification, realizing that that is
8 '1= THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon '" AllgliSt, 1997
the principle. Our Lord does not
encourage us here to help frauds
or professional beggars or
drunkards."- Lloyd-Jones, pg.
288. (to be continued)
'An excellent book on the
imprecatory psalms and their role in
the prayers of the Christian is WAR
PSALMS OF THE PRINCE OF PEACE:
LESSONS FROM THE IMPRECATORY
PSALMS hy ja'1les E. Adams, (1991,
Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing
Co., Phil1ipsburg, New jersey).
lThese imperatives are in the
present tense denoting continuous
the entire lives of true
disciples of Christ. just as the usual
and continous behavior of our enemies
is to keep on hating, cursing and
mistreating, 50 the usual and
continuous behavior of beliefs toward
these people is loving, doing good,
blessing and praying for them. "1hey
may go on in their wickedness toward
us, we, too, will go on in our love and
loving treatment of them; they shall
never outdo us." - l..enski
'Martyn Uoyd-jones makes a
helpful comment on Matthew
whoever shaII force you to go
on. mU., go with him two." He writes:
"This compelling to go a mile is a
reference to a custom which was very
common in the ancient world, by
means of which a government had a
right to commandeer a man in a matter
of porterage or transport. A certain
amount of baggage had to be moved
from one place to another, so the
authorities had the right to
commandeer a man at any place and
they would make him carry the
baggage from that stage to the next.
Then they took hold of someone else
and made him take it to the next stage,
and so on. This, of course, was a
power that was especialIy exercised by
any c.ountry that had conquered
another I and at this time Palestine had
been conquered by the Romans. The
Roman army was in control of the life
of the jews, and they very frequently
did this sort ofthing."- THE SERMON
ON THE MOUNT, Vo\. I, pg. 286,
(London, Inter-Varsity Press, 1966).