Skip to main content

Going the Extra Mile with Your Enemy


Have you ever wondered why Jesus said that we should turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us?

The Old Testament says, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” (Leviticus 24:20). That response feels natural to us, and it also seems just. Yet Jesus calls us to something far deeper. He commands us not to resist the one who is evil, but instead to overcome evil with kindness, mercy, and love.

Jesus says in Matthew 5 that we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us so that we may be children of our Father in heaven. God shows kindness to both the good and the evil. He causes the sun to rise on the just and the unjust alike. Then Jesus says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

I think loving our enemies and praying for them is part of what it means to become children of our Heavenly Father, who is loving and kind toward all people. And that is exactly what the perfect Son, Jesus Christ, did for us.

Jesus loved us and demonstrated His love for us while we were still His enemies by dying for us. He was struck for our sins, and yet He prayed for those who persecuted Him. Many leaders say profound and weighty things, but their lives do not reflect their words. Jesus, however, led by doing exactly what He asks us to do.

When He tells us to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect, He is not merely giving us an impossible command. He is revealing the very heart of God through His own life, death, and resurrection.

I think becoming children of God and growing into that perfection comes through continually reminding ourselves of the Gospel — that Christ loved and died for us while we were His enemies, and that He still intercedes for us even now.

His love and constant intercession are slowly chipping away at our stony, obstinate, proud, selfish, and unyielding hearts — hearts around which we have built fortresses and strongholds to protect ourselves. Yet those very ways of self-preservation often stop us from experiencing the life God intended for us to live: a life like little children, quick to forgive and quick to love.

I am not there yet. In fact, the law is still very dominant within me. But just as the Gospel did not end at the cross, but continued in the resurrection, my hope is that the love of our risen Lord would reign in our hearts.

I pray that the Spirit would have dominion over me and over all of us, and that through Jesus’ unrelenting intercession, the walls around our hearts would collapse like the walls of Jericho. May His love come flooding in, leading us into love and prayer even for our enemies. And may our stony hearts continue to melt through coals of kindness and love, empowered by the Holy Spirit, so that many may become true children of God.




Comments

  1. Anonymous19 May 2026 at 03:17

    Beautiful Shweta. May God continue to speak to you through His Spirit.... "That the walls around our hearts would collapse like the walls of Jericho. May His love come flooding in, leading us into love...."

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Longing for forever!

 Being in the lockdown, I have come to appreciate the stillness, something I am not used to. Life gets so busy and it's like a monotonous routine. I almost felt like a hamster on a wheel. This period of rest has enabled me to slow down and appreciate the things I wouldn't notice because of busyness such as the birds outside my window, the sounds of them chirping every morning. Moreover, me wondering and reflecting as I used to when I was a child, I was so easily amazed at what I was learning. Growing up I somehow lost that and I feel like God is bringing me back to that place where I can be in awe of Him. In one of my conversations with my dear friend I mentioned- " Do you ever wonder why we say best friends Forever or I love you Forever? You know it's not strange that we long for Forever cause it is God who created us with that longing. In Ecclesiastes 3:11 it's written: God has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of...
Post a Comment
Read more

Out of nothing...

  In the beginning, before anything, when there was nothing— You were. Before time, Your Spirit hovered, hovering over the void, over empty space. Then You spoke— O, You spoke and said, “Let there be light,” and piercing the darkness, light came. Such was the world without You; such is the landscape of our hearts— empty, without form, and void. It was nothing. But You spoke again: “Let there be light.” This time, the Word that existed in the beginning became flesh— the Word incarnate: Jesus, the true light for all, Immanuel, God with us. He dwelt among us. He became like us yet without sin. He became curse for us, and was pierced for our sin. Yet we did not recognize Him. Searching for Him in the law, we missed Him. But the law was fulfilled through His perfect love and sacrifice— and still, we did not comprehend. We thought He deserved it. He sees all our thoughts, the motives of our hearts— dark, devoid of love, formless without Christ, nothing but self. Yet He died and took our ...
3 comments
Read more

The King We Didn’t Expect

  They expected You to come as a military King to rescue them from Roman oppression. But You came as a Servant King, riding on a humble donkey. Your mission was to rescue us  from the sin and selfishness that oppress our souls. But we are still looking for a Saviour to rescue us from the circumstances we are in, but not the oppression within. I am no different from them. I quickly forget and, like Thomas, declare: “I will never believe until I touch His nail-pierced hands and side.” Oh my soul, how quickly you forget how humbly He entered my heart as He entered Jerusalem on a lowly colt. I celebrated and rejoiced when He came and did miracles, singing Hosanna in the highest, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” But when the night came and He submitted to the Father’s will, I find it hard to surrender, thinking it is mine. Seeing God pierced and crushed and chastised, I wonder, Where is His strength? I forget that my sin on Him was laid, that His blood and water c...
5 comments
Read more