Loving our enemies

“You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour 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.” (Matthew 5:43–45, NRSV)

“‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” (Luke 6:27–28, NRSV)

These are two of the most difficult sayings of Jesus and passages of Scripture. Christianity.com has a nice short article on this topic, including Scripture references related to this that go beyond the two sayings of Jesus. I invite you to read it.

Loving our enemies is not easy. Nor does it seem to be practiced very often. Even by Christians. It seems rather that Christians, of all people, are more bent on punishing their enemies and getting revenge on their enemies and dehumanizing their enemies, rather than loving their enemies. I’m not sure how else to explain the vitriol that I observe from Christians. Christians in politics seem more concerned with pleasing the god of certainty and being right, rather than loving their enemies and opponents.

This stems from a variety of things. One of them being a firmly held belief that the basis of faith is right belief. Belief and faith are related to each other, but they are not the same thing. Faith is what God gives us. It’s not in our control. It’s…