Contextual Tensions in Loving and Hating Enemies

The passages in question are Matthew 5:44, where Jesus commands, "love your enemies," and Psalm 139:21-22, where David says, "I hate them with a perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies." At face value, the two appear to contradict one another.

The resolution is not in redefining "enemies" as different kinds (good enemies vs. bad enemies), because the term itself is used broadly in both passages. Rather, the key is to recognize different contexts, different dispensational settings, and different divine programs in view.

The Sermon on the Mount: Kingdom Preparation

In Matthew 5:44, within the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructs:

"But I say unto you, 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."

This sermon is addressed to first-century Jews in the land, and functions as kingdom preparation. If Israel, hearing Jesus while He walked the earth, had received Him as King and lived the Sermon on the Mount, the kingdom would have been established. The sermon thus becomes criteria for the kingdom's establishment at that time.

Israel did not respond in faith. Consequently, the kingdom was not established, and that specific historical offer, with its criteria tied to Christ's earthly presence, was set aside. We are dealing with a prophetic contingency: "Had they done this, then that would have occurred."

Psalm 139 as a Prophetic Remnant Psalm

Psalm 139:21-22 says:

"Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies."

Psalm 139, read carefully, bears strong marks of a prophetic psalm of the future remnant of Israel. The psalmist speaks of God's all-encompassing knowledge, presence, and protection in a way that aligns well with end-time remnant preservation (compare Psalm 91).

In verses 19–22, the focus shifts:

"Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain."

Here the remnant identifies with God's cause against those who are thoroughly aligned with evil—prophetically analogous to the Antichrist, the false prophet, and their followers. The "perfect hatred" is a complete, principled opposition: refusing fellowship, compromise, or allegiance; refusing the mark; refusing cooperation with a system explicitly set against God.

In that last-days context, to "hate" such enemies with a "perfect hatred" is to side unreservedly with the Lord against His declared adversaries when the issues are ultimate and final.

Conflicting Criteria and Prophecy Reconsidered

If we tried to impose the Sermon on the Mount as the ongoing universal standard for all times, we would indeed collide with Psalm 139. In the tribulation context, the faithful remnant is not pictured as loving the Antichrist, but as utterly refusing him and his cause.

We therefore need to reconsider prophecy and the timing of these instructions. The Sermon on the Mount was a genuine kingdom offer for that historical moment. If Israel had received it, there would have been no "day of Jacob's trouble." Because they rejected it, the kingdom was postponed, and the day of Jacob's trouble will come. In that future period, the remnant must stand in complete opposition to the Antichrist and his system.

You cannot reasonably imagine Jesus instructing Israel in that future day, "When the one comes in his own name, whom you will receive, love him and cooperate with him." Rather, faithfulness then requires an uncompromising stance.

Similarly, earlier commands to destroy the Canaanites, including their children and animals, display that in certain historical and prophetic contexts the appropriate response to God's enemies is not "love your enemies," but judgment and separation. These are contextual instructions bound to specific phases in God's program.

Where Does That Leave Believers Today?

We must then ask: in which "speed zone" are we? Using the speed-limit analogy, a 75 mph interstate rule does not apply in a 15 mph school zone. The Sermon on the Mount fits first-century Jewish kingdom offer. Psalm 139:21–22 fits the tribulation remnant in the day of Jacob's trouble. Neither describes the present dispensation of grace.

We are not first-century Jews in Judea under the immediate kingdom offer, nor are we the future Jewish remnant resisting the Antichrist. Our direct ethical instruction comes preeminently from Paul's epistles, written to and about the body of Christ in this age.

Pauline Guidance on Enemies

Paul does not give us a new legal code, but he does give general patterns. For example, 2 Timothy 2:24-25:

"And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth."

This encourages gentleness, patience, and instruction toward those in opposition. Yet in the same letter Paul also says of a particular opponent, 2 Timothy 4:14:

"Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works: of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words."

So in one case, the servant is gentle and instructive; in another, Paul warns bluntly about a dangerous adversary. The present dispensation does not impose a rigid legalistic rule but calls for discernment: a Pauline ethos rather than a codified law.

We could say that, generally, the believer today should be disposed toward peace, patience, and instruction, while also being free to identify and warn against persistent, harmful opponents of the gospel. The Spirit, Scripture, and conscience together guide case-by-case judgment.

Summary of the Relationship Between the Texts

• There are not fundamentally different "types" of enemies in the lexical sense; the word simply means adversaries.
• Matthew 5:44 addresses first-century Israel in a unique kingdom-offer context.
• Psalm 139:21-22 speaks prophetically for the end-time remnant in the day of Jacob's trouble, in the presence of ultimate, God-hating enemies (e.g., Antichrist and his followers).
• Today we are in the dispensation of grace, distinct from both those contexts.
• Our pattern is drawn from Pauline instruction, which emphasizes gentleness, teaching, and patience, yet allows strong warnings and separation from certain enemies.

Thus the apparent contradiction dissolves when each passage is kept in its own dispensational setting. The ethic for believers today is not simply to merge "love your enemies" with "hate them with a perfect hatred," but to recognize that neither text was written as the direct rule for this age, and to follow the apostolic teaching given for the present time.

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