When Christians remember 9/11, we also need to remember 5:44. Jesus said, “Love your enemies…do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).

Someone may object that this sounds like doing nothing in the face of evil. But Jesus did not call us to passivity. Scripture gives government the responsibility to restrain evil and bear the sword (Romans 13:4). The state bears the sword; the church bears the cross. There is a difference between opposing evil and becoming like the evil we oppose.

Luke 9 shows how easily that can happen. When a Samaritan village refused to receive Jesus, James and John asked, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” (Luke 9:54). Jesus rebuked them. They were following Jesus physically, but in that moment they were not thinking like Jesus. Their loyalty to Him had become an excuse for hostility toward others.

Paul later wrote, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). Evil does not overcome us when it attacks us. It overcomes us when it reproduces itself in us. If hatred makes us hateful, hatred has won. If cruelty makes us cruel, cruelty has won. We may defeat an enemy and yet be overcome by taking on our enemy’s attitude and actions.

So as we remember September 11, let us remember those who died, honor those who ran toward danger, grieve the destruction hatred produced, and call evil what it is. But let us also pray. Pray for those caught in the grip of hatred. Pray for the people of Iran. Pray for those committed to destroying innocent life. Pray for those trapped in bitterness, fanaticism, racism, vengeance, and darkness—not because evil does not matter, but because Jesus came to save people from it.

The question is not only, “How do we defeat evil?” It is also, “How do we keep evil from defeating us?”

Don’t let hatred teach you how to hate. Don’t allow darkness to determine how you live. Do not let evil decide who you become.

We can take up the prayer of Jesus, who from the cross prayed, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”

On 9/11, remember 5:44. Following Jesus changes our attitude—even toward our enemies.