Love Your Enemies Without Calling Evil Good
A Personal Pearl on Loving Our Enemies Without Compromising Truth
Jesus said something that is easy to repeat and much harder to live:
“Love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!”
— Matthew 5:44
I believe we should love everyone.
Believers.
Unbelievers.
People who agree with us.
People who reject us.
People who insult us.
People who persecute us.
Even people who have committed terrible evil.
But the longer I have thought about this command, the more I have realized that biblical love cannot simply mean being nice to everyone, accepting everything, refusing to confront evil, or protecting wicked people from consequences.
That would not be love.
If someone murders, rapes, abuses, exploits, or deliberately destroys another person, loving that sinner does not require pretending that what he did was anything less than evil.
And loving the sinner certainly does not require abandoning the victim.
Christian love must be able to do several things at the same time:
Love the sinner.
Condemn the evil.
Protect the innocent.
Seek justice.
Pray for repentance.
Refuse personal vengeance.
And leave final judgment in the hands of God.
Those things are not contradictions.
They are part of the balance Scripture gives us.
Loving Someone Does Not Mean Approving Them
Jesus loved sinners.
But Jesus never loved sin.
He never called wickedness harmless so that sinners would feel more comfortable around Him.
He forgave.
He showed mercy.
He ate with sinners.
He touched people society rejected.
But He also said:
Repent.
He exposed hypocrisy.
He confronted pride.
He warned about judgment.
He condemned exploitation.
He spoke plainly about sexual immorality, greed, hatred, unbelief, and the condition of the human heart.
Love never required Jesus to lie about evil.
That should teach us something.
The world often defines love as approval.
If you love me, approve of me.
If you love me, never confront me.
If you love me, never tell me I am wrong.
If you love me, protect me from consequences.
But biblical love is much stronger than that.
Sometimes love comforts.
Sometimes love forgives.
Sometimes love feeds.
Sometimes love protects.
Sometimes love warns.
And sometimes love says:
What you are doing is evil, and you need to stop.
Paul wrote:
“Love does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.”
— 1 Corinthians 13:6
Love and truth are not enemies.
Justice Is Not the Same as Revenge
Romans 12 tells believers:
“Never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God.”
— Romans 12:19
But the very next chapter explains that governing authorities have a legitimate role in restraining and punishing evil.
That distinction matters.
God forbids personal vengeance.
He does not forbid justice.
If someone commits murder, reporting the crime is not hatred.
If someone rapes another person, testifying truthfully against him is not hatred.
If someone abuses a child, removing that person from access to children is not hatred.
If someone commits violence, supporting lawful consequences is not hatred.
Justice can actually be an expression of love.
Love for the victim.
Love for future victims.
Love for the community.
And even, in a difficult sense, love for the offender because allowing a person to continue destroying others without restraint is not mercy.
Sometimes consequences are the very thing God may use to break pride and force a person to confront what he has become.
Forgiveness Does Not Mean Removing Every Consequence
This is another place Christians can become confused.
Forgiveness does not mean:
Nothing happened.
It was not serious.
You can do it again.
I immediately trust you.
You deserve access to me.
The law should ignore what happened.
The victim should forget.
Forgiveness means I refuse to make personal hatred and vengeance my master.
I give ultimate judgment to God.
But earthly consequences may remain.
The thief on the cross is a powerful example.
Jesus forgave him.
Jesus promised him paradise.
But Jesus did not remove him from the cross.
Grace saved his soul.
His earthly sentence remained.
That distinction matters.
A murderer may truly repent and be saved.
He may also appropriately spend the rest of his earthly life in prison.
Those truths do not contradict each other.
Pray for the Wicked
When Jesus commands us to pray for our enemies, that does not mean every prayer must sound like:
“Lord, make their life comfortable.”
For someone actively committing evil, love may pray:
Lord, stop them.
Expose the truth.
Protect the innocent.
Break their pride.
Bring them to repentance.
Do whatever is necessary to turn them toward You.
And if they refuse repentance:
Judge perfectly.
That is not hatred.
It is recognizing that God is both merciful and just.
As long as someone lives, repentance remains possible.
Paul himself once persecuted Christians.
He hunted believers.
He supported Stephen’s death.
If we had met Saul before the road to Damascus, we might have considered him one of the enemies of the Church.
Jesus saw the apostle Paul.
That should make us cautious about declaring any living sinner beyond redemption.
Condemn the Evil Without Pretending to Know the Final Heart
Christians sometimes become afraid of the word condemn because Jesus warned against unrighteous judgment.
But Scripture constantly identifies evil as evil.
We can say:
Murder is wicked.
Rape is wicked.
Abuse is wicked.
False teaching is wrong.
Exploitation is evil.
Hatred is sin.
We are allowed to judge actions according to what God has revealed.
What we should hesitate to do is claim perfect knowledge of another living person’s final spiritual condition.
God knows the heart.
We do not.
So we can say:
What you did is evil.
We can say:
If you die rejecting Christ, you remain condemned.
But while that person still breathes, we can still pray:
Lord, save them.
The Wicked and the Ordinary Lost
This brings me to something else I believe Scripture teaches.
Everyone who dies apart from Christ remains condemned.
That does not mean every condemned person is necessarily judged in the exact same measure.
Jesus repeatedly speaks about greater accountability.
In Luke 12, the servant who knew his master’s will and deliberately disobeyed received greater punishment than the one who acted with less knowledge.
Jesus also said that judgment would be more tolerable for some cities than others.
And Revelation says people are judged according to their deeds.
So I believe final judgment is perfectly individual.
God knows:
what we knew,
what we ignored,
what we intended,
how much light we received,
what harm we caused,
what opportunities we were given,
what truth we rejected,
and whether rebellion became something we deliberately loved.
There may be different degrees of judgment.
But there are not different Saviors.
That distinction matters.
The respectable unbeliever and the violent criminal may both remain outside Christ.
But God's judgment is not blind to the difference between their lives.
Perfect justice sees everything.
Hell Will Not Be Filled Only With Monsters
This is also why I believe hell will contain many more ordinary people than most people imagine.
When people think of hell, they often imagine:
murderers,
rapists,
dictators,
abusers,
and people who deliberately embraced horrific evil.
But Jesus described the broad road as traveled by many.
Most people are not murderers.
Most people are not violent criminals.
Most people consider themselves decent.
They love their families.
They work.
They help people.
They may be generous.
They may even be religious.
The frightening truth of the Gospel is that being “nice” does not reconcile someone to God.
You do not need to become a monster to remain lost.
You only need to remain without Christ.
That does not mean kindness is meaningless.
Kindness is better than cruelty.
Justice is better than injustice.
Faithfulness is better than betrayal.
But none of those things remove sin.
That is why every person needs Jesus.
Why Do We Need the Law If Jesus Forgives?
This question naturally follows.
If salvation is by grace, why did God give the Law?
If Christ forgives us, why do commandments matter?
One answer is simple:
The Law exposes sin.
Paul wrote:
“For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.”
— Romans 3:20
The Law is like a mirror.
A mirror can show me that my face is dirty.
It cannot wash my face.
The Law reveals the problem.
Jesus provides the solution.
Without God's standard, human beings naturally create our own standard.
We say:
“I am not that bad.”
“I never murdered anyone.”
“I am nicer than him.”
“I give to charity.”
“I take care of my family.”
Then the Law exposes something deeper.
The standard is not other people.
The standard is God.
Jesus Took the Law Into the Heart
Jesus made this even clearer.
A person could say:
I never murdered anyone.
Jesus takes the command deeper and confronts hatred and contempt in the heart.
Someone could say:
I never committed adultery.
Jesus confronts lust.
Suddenly righteousness is no longer simply:
“I avoided the worst outward action.”
God sees the heart.
Jesus showed what perfect righteousness actually looks like.
He obeyed outwardly.
He obeyed inwardly.
He loved perfectly.
He submitted perfectly.
He never sinned.
He fulfilled the Law.
And in doing that, He exposed how far every one of us falls short.
Jesus did not come to make sin less serious.
He showed how deep sin really goes.
And He showed why we desperately needed Him.
Jesus Did What We Could Never Do
Jesus lived the life none of us could live.
Perfect obedience.
Perfect love.
Perfect holiness.
No hypocrisy between the heart and the action.
That is why He could become the perfect sacrifice.
He did not die because He owed a debt.
He died because we did.
And when we trust Him, His sacrifice does not pretend our sins never happened.
We really sinned.
We really were guilty.
We really deserved judgment.
But Christ bears the condemnation of those who belong to Him.
Scripture says:
“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.”
— Romans 8:1
That is stronger than saying Jesus merely keeps God from punishing people who remain condemned.
The believer is justified.
Forgiven.
Reconciled.
Cleansed.
Our sin is real.
But our condemnation has been answered by Christ.
The Law Still Matters
Jesus fulfilled the Law.
He did not teach us that God's holiness became obsolete.
Christians are not justified by keeping the Mosaic covenant.
We do not earn salvation through commandments.
And many ceremonial and covenant requirements given specifically to Israel find their fulfillment in Christ.
But God's moral character did not disappear.
Murder did not suddenly become acceptable.
Adultery did not become acceptable.
Idolatry did not become acceptable.
Hatred did not become acceptable.
Lying did not become acceptable.
The Law still teaches us about God's holiness and reveals our sin.
It shows us why we need grace.
It teaches us what righteousness looks like.
And Jesus brings that righteousness all the way into the heart.
So the Law is not our Savior.
It points us toward the Savior.
Confession Is More Than Saying Words Out Loud
This brings me to another biblical word I think is often reduced to a surface-level definition:
confession.
God already knows what I did.
He does not need me to inform Him.
So why confess?
Because confession is not merely supplying God with information.
It is agreeing with God.
Instead of saying:
It wasn't really wrong.
I say:
God, You are right. It was sin.
Instead of hiding:
I bring it into the light.
Instead of defending myself:
I admit that Your judgment of this is right.
That can happen aloud.
It can happen quietly before God.
The important thing is not whether God heard a sound come from my mouth.
The important thing is that my heart stops fighting His truth.
Before I can truly repent, I have to stop defending the sin.
Repentance Begins With a Changed Mind
Repentance is another word people sometimes reduce too quickly.
Repentance involves turning.
But before I truly turn, something inside me has changed.
I once said:
This is fine.
Now I say:
God is right. This is wrong.
I once defended it.
Now I grieve it.
I once loved it without conflict.
Now I want freedom from it.
That is a changed mind that begins producing a changed direction.
So there is a spiritual progression:
Conviction.
Confession.
Repentance.
Changed direction.
Not perfection.
Not instant victory over every struggle.
But movement.
The sinner first agrees with God.
Then he begins turning toward Him.
This Is Why the Holy Spirit Is Essential
None of this is merely academic.
We can see that clearly in the apostles.
Before the Holy Spirit came upon them in power, they believed Jesus, followed Jesus, and loved Him.
But they were still weak.
Confused.
Fearful.
Peter denied Him.
The disciples scattered.
They misunderstood things Jesus told them repeatedly.
Then Pentecost came.
The Holy Spirit filled them.
And these same men became bold witnesses.
They preached publicly.
They confronted authorities.
They endured persecution.
They suffered.
And many eventually gave their lives because they would not deny what they knew was true.
The difference was not that they suddenly earned advanced degrees.
The difference was the Spirit of God working in them.
The Holy Spirit is essential.
He gives life.
He convicts.
He teaches.
He reminds.
He strengthens.
He shapes.
He gives courage.
He produces fruit.
He helps us understand spiritual truth as spiritual truth.
He does not merely improve our vocabulary.
He changes us.
Knowing the Words Is Not the Same as Knowing God
This is where I believe Christians need humility.
A person can understand Greek.
A person can understand Hebrew.
A person can study manuscripts.
A person can know church history.
A person can explain ancient cultures.
A person can have multiple academic degrees.
And those things can be valuable.
I respect scholars.
I respect elders.
I respect pastors and believers who have spent years studying Scripture carefully.
God uses other Christians to sharpen us.
I need that fellowship too.
But academic knowledge is not the same as spiritual understanding.
A person can accurately translate a biblical word without knowing the God who inspired it.
A person can lecture about repentance without ever repenting.
A person can explain grace while still trusting his own righteousness.
A person can describe Jesus historically while refusing to follow Him.
Knowledge is useful.
But knowledge alone does not regenerate the heart.
The Holy Spirit Does Not Make Us Independent
The opposite mistake is also dangerous.
Someone can say:
I have the Holy Spirit, therefore I do not need teachers, context, history, correction, or anyone else's help.
That is not humility either.
The Spirit gives gifts to the Church.
Teachers matter.
Elders matter.
Fellowship matters.
Correction matters.
Scripture shows believers correcting one another.
Apollos was taught more accurately.
Peter was corrected.
Churches were instructed.
Timothy learned from Paul.
The Bereans examined Scripture carefully.
So the Spirit should make us more teachable, not less.
The healthy pattern is:
Scripture.
The Holy Spirit.
Humility.
Fellowship.
Correction.
Not human scholarship without the Spirit.
And not spiritual pride that refuses scholarship or correction.
No Human Being Holds the Whole Mind of God
No pastor does.
No pope does.
No theologian does.
No scholar does.
No denomination does.
No Christian writer does.
And neither do I.
Truth exists.
God's Word is true.
Jesus is truth.
But knowing truth does not mean any one human being has exhausted the mind of God.
Paul said:
“How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!”
— Romans 11:33
We can know God truly without knowing everything God knows.
That distinction should destroy spiritual arrogance.
We should be able to say:
This is what Scripture clearly teaches.
And also:
I may not understand everything about how it works.
That is not weakness.
That is humility.
Scholarship Should Serve Scripture
I am thankful for people who study:
languages,
history,
manuscripts,
archaeology,
philosophy,
theology,
and difficult questions.
Those things can help tremendously.
But they should remain servants of Scripture.
The moment scholarship becomes a way of saying:
You ordinary believers cannot understand God without people like me,
something has gone wrong.
God did not hide salvation behind a language that only academics can decode.
The thief on the cross did not study Greek.
He did not understand church councils.
He did not know systematic theology.
He understood something much more important.
He was guilty.
Jesus was righteous.
Jesus was King.
And he needed mercy.
That was enough for him to cry:
“Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
— Luke 23:42
Jesus answered:
“I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
— Luke 23:43
The Gospel is not shallow.
It is simple.
There is a difference.
A child can step into the water while the greatest scholar can spend a lifetime trying to measure its depth.
God Did Not Hide Himself Behind a Code
I do not believe God gave humanity salvation and then buried it beneath centuries of technical arguments that only specialists could decode.
God wants people to seek Him.
He wants people to hear.
Jesus repeatedly said:
Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.
That does not mean physical hearing alone.
It means spiritual receptivity.
A willing heart.
A person prepared to receive truth rather than constantly defend himself against it.
And for the believer, the indwelling Holy Spirit becomes essential to deeper spiritual understanding.
The Spirit who inspired Scripture will never lead someone into an interpretation that contradicts the Scripture He inspired.
That is our safety.
If I believe the Spirit told me something but it contradicts God's Word, the problem is not God's Word.
The problem is me.
Assurance Is Not Arrogance
People sometimes say:
How can you be so sure you are going to Heaven? Isn't that arrogant?
I see it almost exactly the opposite.
If I said:
I am going to Heaven because I am good enough,
that would be arrogance.
If I said:
I kept enough commandments,
that would be confidence in myself.
If I said:
My church, religious works, sacraments, knowledge, obedience, or achievements earned my place,
then I would be pointing toward myself.
But my confidence is not in me.
It is in Jesus.
Scripture says:
“I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.”
— 1 John 5:13
I do not believe I am worthy of Heaven.
That is the entire point.
I need Christ because I am not worthy.
My assurance says:
I cannot save myself.
Jesus can.
I trust Him.
That is not placing myself above God.
It is placing myself exactly where I belong:
beneath Him.
Works-Righteousness Can Hide Pride
There is something ironic about calling assurance through Christ arrogant while trusting human performance as humility.
The Gospel says:
I contributed nothing that could purchase my salvation.
Works-righteousness says:
Something I did helped qualify me.
The Gospel says:
Jesus is enough.
Religion can sometimes say:
Jesus plus my obedience.
Jesus plus my institution.
Jesus plus my rituals.
Jesus plus my achievement.
Jesus plus my understanding.
One places the glory in Christ.
The other always leaves at least a little room for human pride.
The proper order is:
God above us.
Jesus as Savior.
The Holy Spirit within us.
Scripture as truth.
We are the ones being saved, taught, corrected, and transformed.
That order produces both reverent fear and love.
The Spirit Does Not Make Us Experts in God
He makes us dependent upon God.
That may be the most important distinction of all.
The more I grow with Jesus, the less interested I become in pretending I understand everything.
I want to know Scripture.
I want to learn.
I want to listen to mature believers.
I want to receive correction.
I want to understand difficult things better.
But I never want knowledge to replace dependence.
No amount of scholarship can save me.
No amount of biblical knowledge can substitute for the Spirit.
No religious institution can regenerate my heart.
No teacher can take the place of Jesus.
Everything good should point back toward Him.
It All Comes Back to Love
And that brings me back to where this thought began.
Love your enemies.
Why?
Because that is what God did for us.
Paul says we were God's enemies and were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son.
Jesus did not wait until we deserved mercy.
He came for sinners.
That means loving my enemy does not mean approving evil.
It means remembering that I once needed the same Savior.
I can protect the innocent.
I can seek justice.
I can condemn evil.
I can establish boundaries.
I can testify truthfully.
I can support consequences.
And still pray:
Lord, save this person if he will turn to You.
Because if the murderer truly repents, Jesus can save him.
If the rapist truly repents, Jesus can save him.
If the liar repents, Jesus can save him.
If the religious hypocrite repents, Jesus can save him.
If the proud scholar repents, Jesus can save him.
If the ignorant sinner repents, Jesus can save him.
And if I repent and place my faith in Christ, Jesus can save me.
There are different sins.
Different consequences.
Different degrees of earthly harm.
Different degrees of final judgment.
But there is only one Savior.
Jesus Christ.
So love does not mean surrendering justice.
Justice does not require hatred.
Truth does not require cruelty.
Grace does not require pretending sin is harmless.
Scholarship does not replace the Spirit.
The Spirit does not make Scripture unnecessary.
The Law does not save us.
The Law shows us why we need the One who does.
Confession agrees with God.
Repentance turns toward Him.
Grace saves us.
The Holy Spirit changes us.
And Jesus remains at the center of everything.
That is where I want to remain.
Not above God.
Not above Scripture.
Not above other believers.
Not pretending I possess every answer.
But beneath Jesus.
Learning.
Repenting.
Forgiving.
Seeking justice.
Speaking truth.
Loving people.
Trusting the Holy Spirit.
And remembering that when everything else has been stripped away, the most important question has never changed:
Do you know Jesus Christ?
Because at the end of all these arguments, all these doctrines, all these questions, all this knowledge, all this justice, all this sin, and all this mercy—
I still just want to see you in Heaven.
Test everything against Scripture. Keep what is true.
