“Love your enemies,” Jesus says. Sure. If we do everything else Jesus said, we won't have any. We will love everyone equally, no matter what they do for or against us. Yikes!
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.”
This is one of the hardest of all Jesus’ challenging teachings. Or is it? It comes with its own E-Z-Bake instructions – “Pray for those who persecute you.” That is something we can do, no matter how much we fear or loathe someone. We can always pray for them. And that often results in a big change of perspective. Many enemies have become allies through that kind of prayer. Why? Because it re-humanizes them.
“Enemy” is a label, and labels tell only part of the truth. The person who may in real life be our personal or national enemy is also a son or daughter, a friend to someone, good at some things and lousy at others – in other words, a flesh and blood person. And Paul reminds us that our fight is “not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers of this dark world.” Even when that flesh and blood person means us very real flesh-and-blood harm.
In our polarized climate, the idea of “the enemy” is alive and well, constantly fanned by strident fundraising emails and social media posts. Christ-followers are called to a higher standard. That means that, horrified and disgusted as I am at, say, climate change deniers, or people who gun down teenagers for playing loud music and hide beyond “Stand Your Ground” laws to excuse murder, I am not to see them as the enemy. I am to see them as people in the grip of evil – and thus to pray for them.
And more: I am supposed to find a way to love them. Not what they represent, not what they do, but the human being underneath all the lies and distortions. Ouch.
Jesus says it’s too easy to love the ones we find easy to love. “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?”
Let’s go for it today: Think of a person or kind of person you consider an enemy or close to it. In your imagination, envision them surrounded by the light of Christ. Ask God to bless that person, and to show you a glimpse of the humanity you’re having trouble seeing. If it’s difficult, imagine sitting next to Jesus and bringing that person into the room, to sit between you on a couch or something. What do you feel or say? Sit with it a while.
We who walk with Jesus need to develop our capacity to love. Those muscles don’t get much of a workout with people we naturally care for. Let's consider this command “extreme fitness” training. If we can love those whom we truly loathe, we will have learned to love in a way that God can use. And believe me, God will use us.
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