Love Your Enemies

2 Kings 5:1 KJV

Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.

It would be an understatement to say that the circumstances between Israel and Syria were tense. These two had been locked in battle and would be again. Though there were seasons in which they united to battle against Judah, I suspect that in every case it was as much because Israel was under submission to Syria as it was that any friendship had developed between them.

• The text tells us that Syria had recently invaded Israel and that Naaman had possessed a little maid from there as a slave.
• The next chapter immediately returns us to the conflict between these two nations.

There is no friendship here. Naaman's letter to the king of Israel must have been one of authority and not a friendly request.

This makes the gracious words of this slave girl and then the grace of God in healing Naaman that much more impressive. Though she had been taken as a slave she cared for her captor. Though Syria was a heathen nation still, when one of them sought God, He was quick to hear.

We may take the girl's actions as an example for ourselves. Though we often feel like captives on this planet, those who oppress us are as equally the objects of God's love as we and are in truth as equally captives. To love them is why God has placed us in their paths.

We may take God's grace to Naaman as encouragement that the same grace may extend to us. If we have been in the company of evil doers and have perhaps done evil ourselves yet if our heart leads us to know the Lord God will hear and be gracious.