Love your enemies

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You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father 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. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Matthew 5:43-48 Now, for every Christian, this is the hardest part of the journey, the part requiring from us that which we wish to avoid, that which if we are patient shall also pass requiring nothing from us. “Who is our neighbor?” we ask, but should we not also ask, “Who is our enemy?” Is it the one who disagrees? Is it the one who works against you, speaks to impugn your character? Is it the one who manipulates and steals from you? Is it the narcissistic bully whose need it is to diminish you, so he does not have to face his own insecurity? Is it the one for whom we hold prejudice? You know, the one who is different, and therefore judged. Or perhaps envy? The one who we desire to have something bad happen to them. Is it the person who subtly asks of you to be less than you are, who tempts your lesser desire? Is not your enemy the one to whom you reserve your anger? And how close this brings our enemy to us, even the desire within us to direct our anger.

For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and unjust.

Yes, God loves your enemy, too. And while you hate your enemy, hold your anger within, can you love God, be Christlike? Can Christ say, I knew you? Never is the answer to the truth God cannot bear a nature so opposed to His own. For what He sees in your enemy is the same He sees in you, that image of Him He created in you, the one He works to nurture, to bring you to possess a heart of mercy for your enemy, a mercy you have received and withheld. In every enemy lies such a goodness, hidden though it often is. Doesn’t our enemy need grace, and are we perhaps the vessel by which grace could appear? Christ asked us to first pray for our enemy. When we pray for him, are we not praying for ourselves, asking God to rid from our heart the enmity we hold?