Thou Hast Rewarded Me Good

As he walked among men the Savior gave this incredibly difficult commandment: “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” (Matt. 5:44).  He exemplified this, and throughout the scriptures I think we see examples of mortals who both succeeded and failed at following this counsel. 

One example in the Old Testament was David as it relates to his relationship to Saul.  As David was gaining more and more power and clout among the people, Saul became very jealous.  Eventually Saul couldn’t take it anymore and he told his servants “that they should kill David” (1 Samuel 19:1).  David was forced to flee as he tried to escape Saul’s attempts to kill him.  As Saul sought for David he even sought to hurt those who so much as helped David: “And the king said unto the footmen that stood about him, Turn, and slay the priests of the Lord; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not shew it to me” (1 Samuel 22:17).  Saul did not catch David, though, and eventually David had an opportunity to slay Saul.  Saul was in a cave and David and his men came upon him.  His men encouraged him, “Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee.”  But David did not slay the man who was trying so hard to kill him: “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord” (1 Samuel 24:4-6).  David then confronted Saul in an attempt to convince the king that he was not trying to harm him.  Saul responded, “Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil” (1 Samuel 24:17).  David did good to him that hated him, and I believe the Lord rewarded him for that.  Unfortunately that same attitude did not stay with David his whole life. 

There are of course many other scriptural characters besides David that also showed their ability to love their enemies; in Helaman 1 we have an interesting contrast between the son of Moroni and a son of Pahoran in this regard.  When Paanchi failed to obtain the judgment seat in the contest with his two brothers, he “was exceedingly wroth; therefore, he was about to flatter away those people to rise up in rebellion against their brethren” (Helaman 1:7).  He was prepared to fight his “enemy” who had won the judgment seat, and his followers eventually did kill Pahoran after Paanchi was condemned by the law for his actions.  In contrast to that, we have the story of Moronihah who was the leader of the Nephite forces when the Lamanites came upon the city of Zarahemla and took it over.  After the Lamanites slayed many people including women and children, Moronihah was able to defeat his enemies and recapture the city.  What he did after that showed his true character: “Moronihah took possession of the city of Zarahemla again, and caused that the Lamanites who had been taken prisoners should depart out of the land in peace” (Helaman 1:33).  Like his father, he had no desire to harm his enemies even though they sought to kill the Nephites.  In contrast to Paanchi, Moronihah showed true love for his enemies despite seeming justification to do them much harm. 

What’s interesting to me is that these two both had faithful fathers who had fought valiantly in the previous war in defense of liberty and who had both showed great reluctance to fight against their enemies.  I don’t know why Paanchi and Moronihah turned out so differently, but it highlights their individual agency to choose how they would deal with their fellow man.  They did not by default inherit the goodness of their fathers.  We all face similar choices in our own lives as we interact with others—will we love and do good and bless our fellow man no matter what their actions are towards us?  When others reward us evil, can we reward them good?  That, I believe, is the sign of a truly great man or woman.