“Love Your Enemies”–A Radical Teaching That Leads Us to Perfection

Christ tells us to obey Him. We are to do what He tells us to do. He is our Lord, Master and Savior, after all. And then He gives us a seemingly impossible command: “Be perfect.”

And then the knee jerk response comes. “Perfect? That can’t be right. Nobody is perfect.” But why would Christ give us this command if it were impossible to obey it? Of course, that is the point. With man it is impossible, but “with God all things are possible.”

Still, Christ’s indelible words just won’t go away. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Matt. 5: 48). This is not a perfection according to shallow man’s wisdom, but we are to be perfect like our Father. To make sense of this paradox, we must dig down deeper into Christ’s words.

“Be ye therefore perfect” is the command. The word “therefore” means “for that reason,” or “as a result of all that was just said.” So what was He teaching in the previous forty-seven verses of Matthew 5? Christ was teaching agape love, the love from above. He was showing how human beings think and do when God, the Spirit of Love, dwells fully within them. “God is agape love,” says the apostle John (I John 4: 8). Love solidifies the fulfillment of the seventh apostles’ doctrine—perfection.

It starts with us being born of that Spirit of love. Christ is teaching us how we will be when He is fully manifested within us. He tells us, “Love your enemies” (v. 44). Very few of us have what it takes to love everyone, especially those who hate us. So Christ is speaking of a higher love, a love that far surpasses our original self-love that we are born with.

Christ is introducing a radical new teaching, far superior to man’s feeble and petty thoughts for self. Instead of loving your friends and hating your enemies, He commands us to “love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” He is telling us that when  we obey these commandments, we will be showing that we are the children of our Father, for we will be like Him.

Well, what is the Father like? Our Father “makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (v. 45). The Father opens the clouds of heaven with literal showers upon the farms of the hateful farmer and the loving farmer.

Our Father provides for both the evil and the good. That is the perfection of our Father. That is the Spirit of His perfection, the perfection that we are commanded to be like.

Understanding Why?

I know. His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways. We would not do it this way. It is difficult to grasp this with the natural mind, and we are tempted to just skip these chapters. The apostle Peter before the resurrection is an example of how natural man takes care of business. He got out a sword and commenced to hack off the guard’s ear. Peter loved his friends but hated his enemies. Not good. Not God’s way. Peter would have killed all the evil ones and let God sort it out. But Peter did not have the Spirit of agape love at that time. Later he got a hold of God’s thoughts and ways, and the rest is history, which now has become our future.

What are God’s thoughts toward evil people and things? Why does He put up with the evil? Why would He desire us to love our enemies? It does not make much sense when viewed with the wisdom of the world. But with God’s wisdom…

Understanding How to “Love Your Enemies”

It is perplexing. How do we love and forgive our enemies and thereby “be perfect,” the offspring of the Father? The key is understanding that God created both the light and the darkness. That includes the literal light of day and the dark of night, as well as spiritual good and evil. God created our enemies and our friends. “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things” (Isa. 45: 7). “And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.” There were no unexpected accidents in the script.

For all of us, good or bad, play a part in the drama that He has written, directed, and produced. Like a play, the script has been written by the great Author of our faith. He knows all about the protagonists and the antagonists; He created them. He has instilled in us, His sons and daughters, an unquenchable thirst for knowledge as to what this life is all about. His law of harvest states that we will reap what we sow. Those who seek will find out the answers to the mysteries of His interactions with man.

It is when we see life as God sees it that we will comprehend the need for evil to help us display the power of His love in dispelling darkness. For love, agape love, overcomes every dark and evil force on earth. God created it that way. And when that divine love surges through us, then God is glorified. When we through the power of His in-dwelling Spirit of agape love–when we love our enemies, then Love triumphs over hate, and God is glorified. Then God will have reproduced Himself in and through us.

The Father receives glory, not through us saying, “Glory to God!” He is glorified when we with His love inside overcome the darkness by loving the unlovable, by loving our enemies. We must understand that evil serves as a foil for the love within us in this drama. It is when we overcome evil with goodness, and hate with love, that we gain a critical knowledge of just who our Creator Yahweh is. We must never lose sight of His eternal purpose; it is written into the DNA of every living thing. He wants to reproduce Himself. When we love our enemies, God is multiplied. And the only place that He has ordained for that to happen is inside of us.

Moreover, if there is no evil for His children to overcome and surpass through His agape love, then God cannot be glorified. For good overcomes evil as light dispels darkness. In fact, agape love is matured within us by confronting evil.

I know that God is raising up a people who will understand all of the above. They are the Father’s chosen ones, His elect, His sons and daughters. They will reject the doubters who say, “It is impossible to be perfect.” For they will know that perfection means the completion of the spiritual growth within them. Perfection means that the Word has taken root in their hearts and has grown to full maturity and is bearing 100 fold fruit as Christ and His apostles did. For Christ did say, “Greater works shall you do than what I have done.” His word has taken root in their hearts; now that is a radical idea. It is fundamental and a sure foundation.

And armed with this knowledge, they will see that “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). It will dawn on these princes and princesses of God that “no idle word” proceeds out of the mouth of God. They’ll take this admonition to heart: “Let us go on unto perfection” (Hebrews 6:1-2). And they’ll learn that there is so much more to God’s spiritual house than the first two apostles’ doctrines–“repentance from dead works and faith toward God,” which are the first steps of “newborn babes in Christ.”

They’ll realize that they have received in their hearts the seed of perfection.  Christ is that Seed.  And now that Seed is growing, for “one plants and another waters, and God gives the increase.”  This growth is likened to a planted seed of wheat or corn.  It comes up, “first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.”  And then harvest will come when He will have been perfectly reproduced in us.  And we then in full maturity will have completed the life cycle of God.  And that is perfection.

God’s elect will realize this in the command: “Be perfect.”  For they will see these two words as His challenge to “overcome all things” and walk on down His road to the Heavenly City.  They will answer the challenge and embark on this quest for perfection.  Because He said, “Be perfect.”                 Kenneth Wayne Hancock

How God Uses Evil to Perfect Us

Most Christians are painfully aware of the world system’s heavy thumb pinning them down with oppressive taxes, intrusive regulations, and the invisible chains of political correctness.

However, we as God’s children here on earth must understand how our Father has set up and ordered the operation of the world system. Code name for the world system: Mystery Babylon the Great.

The prophet Daniel, a captive in Babylon, is enlightened by God in a “night vision.” You know the story in chapter 2. King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and could not remember it, much less its interpretation. Daniel’s vision not only gave the dream and interpretation for the king of that era, but also instructs us about the world system in our day.

First, we learn from Yahweh’s prophet that He is sovereign, for “wisdom and might” are His, and His name is blessed forever. He “changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding. He reveals the deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him.” It is through this that God “has made known…the king’s matter” (2: 20-23).

That is some weighty knowledge right there. We need to stop a moment and meditate on this. Sometimes we are all like butterflies flitting from flower to flower, sampling knowledge like nectar. We are so busy in this Information Age that we rarely pause to savor the knowledge.

What did Daniel learn from the night vision? He learned that God is sovereign; He can do anything He wants with His creation and creatures. God puts some of His human beings on thrones, and He overthrows some of those kings that He has ordained to rule over others. God does that. God is the source of all wisdom and might, and He gives wisdom and knowledge to some. He reveals secrets and mysteries—even the mysteries of what is taking place right now in this present evil world. He reveals secrets about His government and how the world system, which is Satan’s kingdom, interacts with His kingdom.

Some readers recoiled at “Satan’s kingdom.” But those are not my words; they are Christ’s words. “If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?” (Luke 11: 18). Satan is the “god of this world” (2 Cor. 4: 4). Or could we say, “The king of this world system”? Satan is a little “k” king. And one of the things that we have just learned from Daniel is that Yahweh sets up kings, and He takes them down. Satan is one of the kings that our Father is taking down. But Satan is also one of the kings that God has set up.

The Revelation Contained in Daniel 2

The king’s dream and the interpretation thereof shows God setting up and removing Satan, the king of this world system. The dream’s interpretation shows “what shall be in the latter days” (Dan. 2: 28). “Thou, O king, saw and behold a great image” with a golden head, chest and arms of silver, with thighs of brass and iron legs. “Thou saw till that a stone was cut out without hands which smote the image…and the stone…became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” All of these body parts represent world empires that will all come down in the latter days. The stone kingdom is the Kingdom of God headed by the Stone that the builders rejected.

“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever” (2: 44).

God is in the process of setting up His kingdom and will bring down the world system and establish Christ as King upon the throne of the Kingdom of God. This is what it is all about.

But Why Must We Have a Satanic World System?

Many Christians do not understand that God creates evil. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil…Isa. 45: 7. He has a purpose for the trials and tribulations that we endure in this life—globally, nationally and personally. So we are not to think that our trials and hardships are a strange thing that is happening to us (I Peter 4: 12).

All this is explained in the parable of the tares in the field. The tares are the children of the devil in the earth, and we are to let them grow up with the wheat, the children of God. At harvest time God will gather up the evil ones (Matt. 13: 24-30, 36-43). But in the meantime, we need to understand that evil is part of His plan. I know; it is a tough one. But God said that His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor His ways our ways [For more on this, read the following: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/parable-of-the-tares-in-the-field-exposing-the-rulers-of-the-darkness-of-this-world-part-i-conversations-with-the-seer/ This is in Chapter 35 of my new book The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect available free with free shipping to those who send me your mailing address to wayneman5@hotmail.com ].

Knowing that God is using Satan and the evilness in the world to perfect His children is a gigantic piece of knowledge that will open up the scriptures to us.

We simply must understand how our Father has set up and ordered the world system’s operations. God is sovereign and controls the darkness and the light for His own purpose. And that purpose is to reproduce Himself. This is the theme of the new book mentioned above.

Many get angry with the world system. They get mad at the school board, the teachers, the mayor and city council, the police and sheriff, and even state and federal officials. The anger and frustration is vain and ill-conceived. For all of these offices are part of the world system which has been ordained by our Father.

Of course, the world government is not righteous; it is not the Kingdom of God. However, when we resist their authority over us—that God has ordained—we are resisting God. “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves” (Rom. 13: 1-2 NIV). Paul understood God’s sovereignty and that He was in complete control.

He urges us to pay our taxes and “owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law” (13: 8). Christ said that He came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it (Matt. 5: 17). He does that by sowing the seed of agape love into our hearts. And through His love in us, we no longer break the 10 Commandment Law (Rom. 13: 9-14).

Yet, some begin to despise the “powers that be,” and then it turns into the purple shroud of vengeance. And some young Christians become infected and are overcome in the spiritual struggle, not knowing how low they have fallen. And they have forgotten the admonition, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12: 21). It is this overcoming evil that develops His love and forgiveness in our hearts. As we grow in agape love within, then Christ’s Spirit grows and matures in us, “until Christ be formed in us.”

We are the sons and daughters of God. We are destined to be exactly like Him. Hence, our Master’s words: “Love your enemies” and pray for them. For when a Christian gets caught up in condemning another, he forgets the truer lesson here. He forgets that God is the supreme Power. It is God who allows rulers in the world system to rule over us—for now. God has given the various rulers of the world system power to create debt, and they dictate how much we own and at what interest rate.

On a personal level, it works the same. When we don’t forgive our wife, husband, children, relatives, friends and neighbors for slighting us, then they rule over our spirit. Until we forgive, they are our master. But when we forgive, agape love develops in us, and we are one step closer to being like Christ.

God wants us to be like Him. “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do,” Christ said. He spread love to his enemies as well as to His friends. He likened it to the Father raining down the life-giving showers of love upon the just and the unjust (Mt. 5: 43-48).

When we love and forgive all, we are fulfilling the Law by loving our neighbor as our selves. When we walk in this love, we awake out of a spiritual sleep. Paul likens this to throwing off the works of darkness” and putting on “the armor of light” (Rom. 13: 12). Flowing agape love to others becomes a shield that protects us from the arrows of deception hurled at us by the “god of this world.” However, the devil is not to be feared; he is just doing his sinister job. He has but a short time left. I think the devil still doesn’t know that he is helping us “go on unto perfection” (Heb. 6: 1).            Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Write the Vision–Read the Letters

I have always considered articles published here my letters to the body of Christ. Like epistles, they are didactic in form and purpose, a teacher’s love distilled into lines of light. They are for your edification and instruction.

But they can serve an even higher purpose. They can be shared, literally read to the body of Christians near you. The scriptures encourage us to do this. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. I Thes. 5: 27. Also, Paul tells the church of the Colossians to not only read these teachings of the Holy Spirit to the church there, but to also share it abroad. And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. Col. 4: 16.

If you believe that the articles found here on Immortality Road are true, then they’ve come from only one source–the Spirit of Truth. Once received, He will guide us into all truth and will abide with us forever. He will show us who the Savior really is (John 16: 13; 14: 16).

Reading a letter to the body of Christ when  you meet is scriptural. You don’t have to have a formalized preacher standing up front in a church building.  You do need the truth. And when you find it written down and dedicated to you and yours, share it with the body of Christ.

Remember this: The vision of God is to be written down and read by those who are running the race with patience, which is endurance. It is a race that entails much chastening of God, much hardship, and much suffering on the road to perfection/maturity. Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry (Hab. 2: 2-4; Hebrews 12).

The vision of God shows us His plan to carry out His purpose.*  It includes the manifestation of the sons of God. These offspring of God will be the fully matured Christians just like Christ who will arise at the time of the end. The vision explains how God will reproduce Himself in those He has chosen during these last days.

All this was not for Habakkuk’s day, but it is for ours. And this vision is the truth, and “it shall speak, and not lie.” Wait for it. But when it arrives, we better open our arms and hearts to receive the vision, for “it will surely come…When the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth.” Here is a sign to show us who has the Spirit of truth: If they write and speak about the vision of God reproducing Himself, then we better “take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” (II Peter 1: 19).

My brothers and sisters from all over the earth, I write these letters with great hope that they edify you and those you love. Read the vision written herein. Read it aloud to yourself and your group. Share them, and you will have fed His lambs and sheep.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

*  [Pages 103-135 of my new book details the vision.  Send for a free  copy of The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect with free shipping. Send your mailing address to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com ]