Matthew 5:44 (and the surrounding verses 43–48) is the clearest and most direct statement. Jesus says:
“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.”
Luke’s parallel account (Luke 6:27–28, 35) expands it:
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you… But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”
Why we should pray for those who currently oppose us — the Saul/Paul argument
People like Bill Maher who were once our greatest critics are turning the corner. Lets bring them all the way over...
Saul of Tarsus was not a mild critic. He was an active, zealous persecutor of the early church. He approved of Stephen’s execution, dragged believers from their homes, threw them into prison, tried to force them to blaspheme, and pursued them even to foreign cities (Acts 8:1–3; 9:1–2; 22:4–5; 26:9–11; Galatians 1:13; Philippians 3:6). From the perspective of the first Christians, he was the enemy — the one hunting them down.
Then, on the road to Damascus, the risen Jesus confronted him. The man who had been “breathing out murderous threats” became the apostle Paul — the church’s greatest missionary, theologian, and advocate. The same energy and intellect that once opposed the gospel were redirected to spread it across the Roman world. Letters written by the former persecutor now form a large part of the New Testament and have shaped Christian thought for two thousand years.
This is not a soft story about niceness. It is a hard demonstration of what prayer and love toward enemies can unlock:
- People are not fixed in their opposition. Saul was sincerely convinced he was serving God. Many who oppose the faith, the church, or individual believers today operate from the same mixture of conviction, blindness, fear, or incomplete information. Prayer asks God to open eyes, grant repentance, and redirect that same intensity toward truth (see 2 Timothy 2:25–26 and Paul’s own later reflection in 1 Timothy 1:13–16).
- God specializes in radical reversals. The pattern is repeated throughout Scripture: enemies become family, persecutors become proclaimers. If the early church had only cursed Saul or prayed for his destruction, they would have been praying against the very instrument God intended to use for their growth. Prayer for enemies aligns us with God’s larger purposes rather than our immediate desire for vindication.
- It changes us as much as (or more than) them. Loving and praying for those who oppose us refuses the natural cycle of bitterness, retaliation, and tribal hardening. It keeps our own hearts soft, free from the poison of resentment, and positioned as true children of the Father who “is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” Jesus ties the command directly to reflecting God’s character.
- It is an act of faith, not naïveté. We do not pretend opposition is harmless or that justice never matters. We entrust justice to God (“Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” Romans 12:19) while actively seeking the good of the person. Feeding an enemy or praying for their repentance is not weakness; it is the strategic overcoming of evil with good.
The Saul-to-Paul transformation shows that the person who looks most permanently opposed may be the one God is preparing for the greatest usefulness. When we pray for those who currently stand against us — for their eyes to be opened, for mercy, for a genuine encounter with Christ, for their gifts to be redirected rather than destroyed — we are praying in the same spirit that the early church (knowingly or not) needed for Saul. We are participating in the possibility that today’s opponent could become tomorrow’s strongest advocate.
That is not sentimental idealism. It is the concrete, historically demonstrated logic of the gospel.