Love Your Enemies
How do we go about loving our enemies as Jesus commands us to do? The Greeks have a word for it. It is called agape, which is not the sentimental, emotional type of love, but a universal love that seeks nothing in return. It is the love of God working in our lives, and when we choose to love on this level, we begin to love people, not because they are lovable, but because God loves them. There is great transformative and redemptive power in this kind of love. Jesus bids us to pray for our enemies, because we cannot pray for others and still hate them. We cannot go on hating in the presence of God. And we must not seek to defeat or humiliate them. Returning hate for hate only multiplies hate. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. There is a bit of goodness in the worst of us, and a bit of evil in the best of us, so the secret is to discover the bit of goodness in our enemy, and focus on that. God’s image is etched ineffably into all of us, and we might want to remember that God causes the sun to shine on both saint and sinner alike.
hart@gwi.net
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