Don’t Rejoice Over Your Enemy

“Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him.” – Proverbs 24:17-18

As a Dallas Cowboys fan who grew up in Philadelphia, my second favorite thing after watching the Cowboys win is watching the Eagles lose. I have not had much football joy these past few years. Spiritually speaking though, God is convicting me that even in a light-hearted-rivalry-fashion, this may not be the healthiest mindset.

Granted, sports is a zero-sum competitive field, even more so than business or politics. Giving the other team their turn with the ball or trying to reach a compromise is not good sportsmanship, it’s how you get benched. Your reaction to an opposing player’s injury, however, triggers a question of character. The loss is more human, more tragic, touching on factors that transcend a game.

This proverb is not imagining two enemies locked in a closely refereed game of rock-paper-scissors. It has to do with the German word schadenfreude, meaning “pleasure at someone else’s misfortune.” Victimized Christians (all Christians) must walk a knife’s edge here: How can you yearn for justice but reject sadism?

It will not suffice to categorize certain events as acceptable consequences of justice, whereas others are twisted tragedies. This proverb implies that your enemy’s downfall has come because he’s reaping what he’s sowed. Justice is being served. And yet…there’s a call to guard our response at the deepest level—to not even let your heart be glad.

God detests gloating. So much so it might rank as a worse offense than whatever your enemy did to you in the first place. Jesus pushes us to lift our standard of grace higher. “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). Jesus died for us while we were enemies (Romans 5:8).

The practical question here, one that’s never felt more pressing is: how do you love your enemy while obeying the biblical command to hate, yes hate, what he stands for (Amos 5:15; Romans 12:9)? You should want to see the agenda of evil destroyed, root and branch, but should never rejoice at the downfall of your enemy.

The difference lies in the separation of ideological versus personal. We have to recover if this distinction if we want to grow as Christians or experience revival as a country. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, even when it’s well deserved (Ezekiel 33:11). The command for Christians is to pray for your enemies. That type of prayer works change on our hearts. It’s a matter of seeing your enemy more as your neighbor, in the Good Samaritan sense of that word (Luke 10:25-37).

Think about an extreme version of the parable of the Good Samaritan. What if your neighbor gets beat up but he deserved it? He was hanging out with thieves and murderers. How should you respond? When they rob him and leave him for dead, you can still be sad. You can still care for your neighbor and want to see him restored, and that doesn’t mean you approve of his choices. As a Christian, you want Jesus to do whatever it takes to save people, including your enemy. If your enemy falls, your hope is still his salvation, not destruction.


How do you stop a fight before it starts?

The Banner, the official magazine of the CRCNA, just published an article related to my upcoming book: “When Being Authentic Isn’t Enough”

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