Wounds that Heal - Week #9

Last week we looked at the issue of forgiveness in the light of the cross. (Thanks to Joan for the great job of standing in for me on chapter eight!) Stephen Seamands’ treatment of this topic is wonderful; forgiveness is absolutely imperative to experiencing true healing, so it is worth reading and rereading this chapter, if need be.

This week’s reading is on chapter nine, Love Your Enemies. The author says at the start that “It is not enough to just forgive our enemies; Jesus calls us to love them as well. (Luke 6:27,28) By ‘enemies’ I particularly have in mind those who have inflicted emotional pain and injury on us. We may never have viewed them as enemies before. In most cases they have been parents, siblings, spouses or close friends…In many cases, their ‘friendly fire’ was far deadlier than any enemy fire, so the command to love our enemies is particularly appropriate to them.”

Jesus practiced what He preached about loving our enemies. I Peter 2:18-25 and Romans 12:14-21 are two portions that help us learn how to do this. In Peter we see how Jesus showed love for His enemies while on the cross; in Romans we see what it means for us to love our enemies.

When He was Abused (I Peter 2:18-25)
Writing to Christian slaves who were being treated wrongly, Peter points to Jesus as an example of right enduring of suffering:

1. “When he was abused, he did not return abuse” (vs. 23). Throughout the Passion ordeal, Jesus underwent intense and ongoing verbal abuse (Luke 22:65; 23:11; Matthew 27:29,30; Mark 15:29; 15:31, 32). Isaiah 53:7 tells us that the verbal abuse failed to arouse retaliation from Jesus.
2. “When he suffered, he did not threaten” (vs. 23). Jesus could have called on angelic help and yet did not even threaten to take advantage of His powers.
3. “…he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly” (vs. 23). Jesus left justice in the hands of His Father.
4. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross” (vs. 24). Beyond the example He set for us in His suffering, Jesus atoned for sin. “As he hung on the cross, Jesus took on himself the punishment for our sins…However…he did more than set us free from the negative consequences of our past sins…Peter goes on to spell out three positive benefits of the cross for our lives now":
o Righteous living: “free from sins, we might live for righteousness” (vs. 24)
o Healing: “by his wounds you have been healed” (vs. 24)
o Restoration: “now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls”

On the cross Jesus provided a whole new opportunity of life for His enemies! “Christ’s example on the cross in bearing evil and blessing evildoers becomes the basis for what we are commanded to do in relation to those who have injured us.”

Bearing Evil (Romans 12:14-21)
So what does bearing evil mean for us in practical terms?

Seamands makes a point of saying that bearing evil doesn’t mean “disregarding or glossing over the evil done to us.” According to the passage in Romans 12, not only are we to not repay evil and to overcome evil, we are also told to hate evil. So we are to both love and hate; in fact, it seems that for love to be genuine, we must have a hatred for evil.

The author quotes John Stott: “Whenever love is ‘sincere’…it is morally discerning. It never pretends that evil is anything else or condones it. Compromise with evil is incompatible with love. Love seeks the highest good of others and therefore hates the evil that spoils it. God hates evil because his love is holy love; we must hate it too.”

The desire for vengeance in itself is not inherently evil. What is evil is when vengeance is wrongly done and wrongly timed.

Romans 12:17 says, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.” This, as well as I Peter 3:9 and Matthew 5:39, stresses that bearing evil means refusing to retaliate…Martin Luther King Jr. says, “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate…Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that…”

By refusing to retaliate we actually “break the chain reaction of evil in the world, and we also lessen evil’s influence in our own lives.”

The Lord says later in Romans 12 (verse 19) that vengeance belongs to Him, so while the desire for justice and revenge is not inherently evil, we are forbidden the role of executioner, according to Scripture. God will repay; He alone knows all that’s involved and can make the proper judgment.

Blessing the Evildoer
Verse 21 of Romans 12 tells us that we overcome evil by doing good, so what should that look like? The author suggests that doing good to those who have committed evil against us involves both words and deeds, speaking words of blessing but also serving.

In this section of the chapter, Seamands underscores a very important point about what doing good may often look like: it will often mean walking in tough love rather than in sentimentality. He gives the example of doing good by standing up to a dictatorial father who insists on controlling his grown children or refusing to make decisions on behalf of a weak and indecisive mother so that she has to make her own decisions.

The author quotes Dan Allender and Tremper Longman III in their book on bold love: “In many cases, (such) bold love will unnerve, offend, hurt, disturb, and compel the one who is loved to deal with the internal disease that is robbing him and others of joy.”

In my own experience of learning to stand up straight before the Lord (in contrast with bending into other people to please them), I have discovered that when one person in a relationship starts to fear the Lord rather than man, it forces the other(s) to make some kind of decision, because they can no longer manipulate you. “Returning good for evil often surprises and stuns our enemies…the unwelcome exposure is actually a gracious gift to them…”

God’s Way will Work
Stephen Seamands ends this chapter with an amazing story of Jacob DeShazer, a bombardier in the US Army, who through a series of events during WW I, was taken captive by the Japanese and tortured. He hated the Japanese. But while a POW, he encountered the Lord Jesus and gave his heart to Him. In his reading of the Scriptures, he discovered the truth of forgiveness and loving one’s enemies and set his heart to go God’s way, resulting in the power of God being released in him to forgive and even love his captors. This radically changed his hatred into genuine care for the Japanese, and after the war and his release, he dedicated 30 years to missionary service to Japan, leading many to the Lord. Captain Mitsuo Fuchida, who had commanded the Japanese air squadron that bombed Pearl Harbor, got hold of DeShazer’s testimony that had been put into leaflet form and eventually became a Christian and a friend of DeShazer, traveling with him at times to witness and preach the Gospel.

Seamands makes a statement at the end that I believe is so important to grasp: “He (Christ) never asks us to do anything without providing the power to do it. As we choose to love our enemies, Christ’s love for them will be imparted to us.”

This is supernatural love and power that flows through us to our enemies when we make the choice (the emotions follow later) to love those who have injured us. May the grace and power of the Holy Spirit through the work of the cross rest on us as we open our hearts to walk His way, whether it be in relation to major injuries or those that seem small. The small ones, if not dealt with, can accumulate and become major in time.

Have a blessed week in Him! Next week we’ll finish this book with chapter ten, Radiant Scars. The following week we’ll start a new book, Enjoying God, by S.J. Hill.