Love Your Enemies

"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 the children of your Father in heaven;..."  Jesus. Mt. 5:43-45

This is a most amazing and wonderful teaching from our Lord. This is one of  many of His sayings that reveal to us that He is indeed the Messiah; and that He spoke, and continues to speak, the very Truth of God, the Creator of the universe. Someone has written a popular book about John 3:16. I wish someone would write a book about Matthew 5:44.  In fact, I wish this verse, this command of Christ, could be written on billboards, newspaper headings, book and magazine covers--I wish the whole world could hear or see this message over and over again until it became a reality in the hearts of everyone in the human family. Then we would have a more heavenly life on earth. Then His will would be done on earth as in heaven, like our Lord taught us to pray [Mt.6:10].  We know that Jesus not only talked about this love:  He lived it. He prayed for the forgiveness of those who falsely accused, betrayed, denied, abandoned, tortured, mocked and crucified Him. He walked the walk. And we have His spirit in us to empower us to walk it also--better and better each day. 
Many people in the world are still living in the darkness of hatred. They are spiritually blind, as Jesus indicated in His prayer from the Cross [and elsewhere]. "They don't know what they are doing." But if we hate those who hate us, we enter into the same blindness. Hatred and revenge have never proven victorious. Hatred feeds hatred--it never overcomes it. Only love, grace, forgiveness and good will overcome hatred. Hatred is the natural, knee-jerk reaction to hatred. When we are hurt or mistreated, we want to hurt back, sulk, or withdraw our love. [And it is important to withdraw physically from abuse--to protect ourselves.] But protecting oneself from abusive or dangerous people is not the same as hating them or returning evil against them.  We are commanded not to return evil for evil, nor to be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good [Rm 12:17,21].
Each of us must practice this in our daily living. When someone frustrates us with bad behavior, we can express that frustration in loving or evil ways. We can confront evil with  punitive anger; or with a patient desire to help someone become better. Even if one has become so absorbed in evil that he must be eliminated from earthly existence [like some tyrants and sociopaths] we must not hate those persons; and we must maintain adequate hope for their transformation, conversion or enlightenment.
We do this from the standpoint of strength, not weakness. Christ was strong in His submission to human suffering. He made it clear to His disciples that no one was taking His life from Him; He laid it down voluntarily [Jn. 10:18].  He spoke courageous Truth to blind and arrogant persons who had the power of earthly life or death over Him. He was not intimidated by evil; but He did not return evil to those who were lost in it. To their face His countenance was hard as steel to hopefully penetrate their militant blindness.  But from the Cross He had compassion for them, realizing their dreadful lostness. So must we also be, but with the added humility of knowing that we also have been blind and perpetrators of evil--not just victims of it. We must add to Jesus' prayer "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do"  this statement: "And forgive me also, for I have not walked in perfect obedience to You. I have succumbed to the temptations of criticism, vengefulness, judgmentalism, and returning evil for evil in a myriad of ways." 
In our every day living we can practice kindness, compassion and self-restraint with those who are difficult to love in ways that are not patronizing and do not feed their pathology, but rather encourage their maturity. This is a great opportunity and challenge that is immensely satisfying.

Lord please help us to love our enemies. Amen