Love Your Enemies

by John Piper

From 1971–1974 John Piper attended the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in München for doctoral work. In choosing a dissertation topic he decided to explore Jesus’s command in the Synoptic Gospels to love one’s enemies, and its relationship to similar ethical exhortations in the epistles (the Early Christian Paraenesis).

Using a “history of traditions” approach, Piper begins by examining each New Testament reference to Jesus’s command in an attempt to place its origin within the broader paraenetic tradition. Piper moves on to survey similar exhortations for enemy love in the environment of the early church, then analyzes this particular command of Jesus within the broader context of his whole message. He investigates the theological significance of Jesus’s love command in the paraenesis and finally concludes by focusing on the Gospel tradition’s use of the command, particularly in Matthew and Luke.

First published by Cambridge University Press in the Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series, this repackaged edition features a new, extensive introduction. A serious work of Christian scholarship by a long-time respected author and pastor, this will be of interest to scholars, students, and lay people who have training in New Testament studies.

Genres: Theology, Christian Living, Nonfiction, Christian

273 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 1980

About the author

John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as senior pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

He grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and studied at Wheaton College, Fuller Theological Seminary (B.D.), and the University of Munich (D.theol.). For six years, he taught Biblical Studies at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1980 accepted the call to serve as pastor at Bethlehem.

John is the author of more than 50 books and more than 30 years of his preaching and teaching is available free at desiringGod.org. John and his wife, Noel, have four sons, one daughter, and twelve grandchildren.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The rating is mostly my fault for not realizing I was about to read a doctoral thesis. That said, I struggle to understand the fruit in 150 pages of dense content focused solely on the question “are commandments in the epistles about loving enemies directly inspired by Jesus’ command to love enemies.” The amount of what appears to be excellent research and exegesis given to come to a conclusion Occam’s razor could have sliced up in a sentence (the epistles are rooted in the teaching of Jesus and subsequent but consistent inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so probably yes?) makes me tired and wish a fraction of the energy could be dedicated to “how do we love our enemies?”

Alas, this is why I will probably never be a doctor.

[Daniel]

Certainly cool to read Piper’s doctoral thesis. But as expected, very academic, lots of German, and not exactly the most exciting read in the world!

[Clay Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was fine, but don’t read it unless you’re ready to read a doctoral dissertation on a New Testament subject. Because that is what it is. There is quite a bit of untranslated Greek and even some untranslated German (Piper did his doctoral studies in Germany). So I know I missed some things. But overall it was interesting enough that I didn’t give up. He looks at the similarities and differences between the command of enemy love as it is presented in the gospels vs how it is presented in the epistles and shows that all of it is rooted in the words of Jesus. Honestly, the whole exercise seemed kind of pointless for a Christian who believes that every word of scripture proceeds from the mouth of God. Piper has said on record that if he were to do this again today, he would take a different (less critical?) approach. But he never made me feel that he was advocating for anything unorthodox. There were a couple of moments of disagreement I had but they must not have been too serious because I don’t remember what they were.

[Tim Franks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fascinating having the opportunity to read a published version of John Piper’s dissertation before I was even born. I really enjoyed thinking on the deepest level about how the motif of loving our enemies came about. Very hard to follow at times because of the technical verbiage. Having so much German mixed in as well was difficult for comprehension. I really enjoyed John’s vigor in defending the words of Jesus and the writings of the apostles on this important topic.

[Matt Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is early Piper. Written per his doctoral supervisors request. Enemy love is one of those easy to say but hard to do teachings of the Christian faith. Yet Piper handles it wonderfully. Admittedly, this volume is his first. It is very academic and not very devotional. Greek parsings are very present. So are the histories of interpretation. But everything is based in Scripture. This is early Piper, before he got the voice he is known for. An excellent read on a troubling command.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a professional theologian and I found this book difficult to read/follow. There are quotes in German and some other languages that I didn't recognize (for the English version of the book). I was hoping for something a bit more practical on how to 'love your enemies'. However, it is a good theological study for college students.