Biblical Advice on How to Love Your Enemies

“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. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?” — Matthew 5:43-47

If you’ve ever wondered why many people refused to follow Jesus during this earthly ministry, you have to look no further than his command to love and pray for our enemies (see Matthew 5:43). For the entirety of their existence, the people of Israel had to fend off enemies—from their slavery in Egypt to their occupation by the Roman Empire. Expecting them to love and pray for their enemies was almost inconceivable. It would be akin to telling modern Christians to love and pray for those causing grave injustice and persecution against them.

Yet when Jesus gave the command to love and pray for our enemies, he knew it would one day require praying for people who would murder his own bride, the church. He made it clear that when we think of the people who hate us and wish us harm that we can no longer even see them as enemies. As John MacArthur explains, “We are not to be enemies of those who may be enemies to us. From their perspective, we are their enemies; but from our perspective, they should be our neighbors.”

But how do we do that? How do we pray for these neighbors who hate us? Such a task is difficult, but here are three specific ways to ease the process:

3 Ways to Pray for Our Enemies

1. Pray for their transformation

Like Jonah, we want those who have done evil to receive their just desserts, not mercy and forgiveness. Consider all the Christians who dutifully prayed for the Nazis in World War II. How would they have felt if they discovered that Hitler, prior to his death, had truly repented of his sins and was forgiven by God? Many would have felt cheated, as if it was unfair of God to forgive such horrific crimes. They would likely want to complain, as Jonah did when God spared the Ninevites, “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” (Jonah 4:2). But it is precisely because he is a gracious and compassionate God that we pray for our enemies to change their ways. How could we do anything less than ask God to show them the same grace he has shown to us?

2. Pray the evil they do is restrained

There is no dichotomy in praying for the good of our enemy and praying that their evil actions be restrained. It is to their benefit, too, that they be prevented from committing evil. For those who have hardened their hearts against God, it would be better that their lives are shortened than for them to continue to persecute his children. To protect the innocent from slaughter, it might even be necessary for human governments to take military action to restrain evil. But we should remember that while force might be the only effective way to restrain their actions, we should not rejoice in their suffering or death (see Proverbs 24:17).

3. Pray they will receive divine justice

Just as we seek justice on earth from duly established governmental authorities, we can seek out the divine justice of our holy God. Yet when asking that such justice be meted out, we have to be careful to guard our motives to ensure we aren’t trying to circumvent our duty to love our enemy. In the order of our prayers, this request is a “last resort” option, a plea for doing what is necessary for those who will neither turn to God nor turn away from doing evil.

As former enemies of God ourselves, we should be gracious and grateful we are even allowed to pray for our current enemies, secure in the knowledge that Jesus will hear us. We can be thankful enough for the gospel that we want even our enemies to hear the good news of God’s grace. But if they refuse and harden their hearts against the One who would spare them, then we can ask that they receive the divine retribution that is due to us all.

Practical Takeaway

Our obligation to pray for our enemies requires we seek their ultimate good, not overlook their current evil.

Drawn from the NIV Spiritual Habits Bible.

John MacArthur, “Praying for Enemies,” Grace to You, October 22, 2014, https://uk.gty.org/library/bibleqnas-library/QA0275/how-should-we-pray-for-our-enemies March 23/26