Once a Hindu friend of mine asked me a question. Why do you follow Jesus who was born and belongs to another community and is 5000 miles away from our country? We have good leaders to follow why Jesus? When there are so many gods in India why do you have to follow a foreign God? What is special about that God whom you are following?
The answer I gave was Jesus loves everyone and he loves me and you and similarly he asked us to love our neighbours that is why we follow him. Then he said even the Hindu religion says you should love your fellow human beings what is different about it? Then I said in India there are good leaders to follow as role models but they don't love everyone they have preferential options to love based on their caste, status, and state they show their love. It is not just loving your neighbor who is nice to you or your family and friends but he asked us to love our enemies. And he showed us the way too how to love our enemies. He was surprised to hear that. Then the next question he asked me was do you follow that teaching of Jesus? If you are a follower of Christ then you should be doing that too he said. That was challenging. It was easy for me to say what Jesus said but the challenge is how to live as a follower of Christ in the world where we need to be a witness of Christ.
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Luke 6:27-38 gives those instructions where Jesus teaches his followers to love their enemies. Alongside the traditional Hebrew teaching to love God and to love your neighbor, the command of Jesus to love your enemy is a challenging one. It feels uncomfortable, unrealistic, idealistic, naive, almost impossible 'and certainly not the way of the world.
But the words are there, reminding us: love your enemy. It would certainly be easier to focus on loving God and neighbor, to pick and choose where to direct our affection and compassion, but that is not the way of Jesus. He says love your enemy ' and that isn't easy. Each of us here can probably remember occasions when we have been hurt by careless words, or done something against you. Loving those who hurt you is hard. Loving enemies not only applies to personal enemies but also applies to community, national, and international relationships, but humanity hasn't been very good at that, either.
Who are our enemies? Now what can you actively do to seek their good? That is the way Jesus is training his disciples to think.
Jesus says that we are not to just force a smile and mind our own business when we are hated and mistreated. We are to actively try to do good towards our attackers.
Jesus uses four very strong action words in these verses:
- Greek agape -- love your enemies
- Greek poime kalos -- do good to those who hate you.
- Greek eulogy -- to speak well of
- Greek prosenchyma -- to pray for, to intercede for.
None are in the passive voice. They don't just take care of themselves. They are active verbs describing deliberate action to do good to one's enemies.
How do I love my enemy? you ask with all seriousness. This isn't a matter of just thinking nice thoughts. We need Jesus to do a heart change within us.
There are steps we can take towards loving our enemy that will bring transformation within the person or community or it can bring healing for others, healing in relationships and ultimately healing for our own lives ' and they apply at both personal and community levels.
'Agape' is one of several Greek words for love. When the word 'agape' is used in the Bible, it refers to a pure, willful, sacrificial love that intentionally desires another's highest good.
Agapa' is a rare word in Koine Greek. It was developed almost exclusively in Christian literature to refer to the kind of love that doesn't serve itself but extends itself for the sake of another. The other Greek words for love are eros, erotic love, Philos, love for family, brotherly love, and stereos, natural affection. Agape love is a different category of love that the world hadn't seen in action until Jesus came along and infected his followers with it.
What does it mean to love one's enemies in actual practice? It turns out that Christians are not merely commanded to be reactive in a peaceful way and avoid retaliating against their enemies (as we see in Matt. 5:39), but are also to be proactive, seeking opportunities to show mercy to them. The Sermon on the Mount itself gives some specifics: bless them, do good to them, and pray for them (Matt. 5:44). Loving one's enemies also includes greeting other people, even those whom we would rather avoid (see Matt. 5:47). Paul offers a similarly concrete description of what is required: 'If your enemy hungers, feed him; if he thirsts, give him a drink' (Rom. 12:20).
1. Love your enemy starts with Forgiving
Loving our enemies means first and foremost forgiving them. Forgiveness is not ignoring evil denying wrongdoing or putting a false label on an evil action. Nor is forgiveness forgetting, in the sense of erasing from our memory the evil act. Forgiveness names evil as evil, but it eliminates the need to return evil for evil. Forgiveness releases the victim from the need for vengeance. When we forgive we determine to let go of the need to retaliate and execute judgment.
Only forgiveness can break the cycle of violence making redemption and reconciliation possible.
Mrs Staines and her husband Graham had spent quite 30 years working with leprosy patients in Baripada district within the eastern state of Orissa.
In January 1999 Graham and his two sons Philip, 10, and Timothy, eight, were burnt to death by a mob of Hindu fanatics who accused him of forcibly converting poor Hindus to Christianity.
The three were asleep in their jeep when the attack happened.
They tried to flee the flames but the mob - led by principal suspect Ravindra Pal, alias Dara Singh, and armed with axes - prevented them.
Despite the tragedy Mrs Staines stayed on in India together with her daughter, overseeing the completion of a hospital for leprosy patients in Orissa. She left for Australia only in 2003.
She announced her forgiveness of those who had murdered her family. due to these events, Christ has been proclaimed on the front pages of the newspapers in India. In the face of persecution, many are coming to Jesus from families that have rejected the gospel for years.
Gladys returned to India in June 2006, and in an interview underlined the importance of forgiveness. 'In forgiveness, there's no bitterness and when there's no bitterness, there's hope. This consolation comes from Jesus.'
Loving your enemy means forgiving them by showing love.
2. Do good to those who hate you
Secondly is to be open and honest in asking why people may not like us or may even distrust us. It is about identifying what is less than good within us, and, once conscious of it, to seek to change it. Step two is to look for the goodness in the other person, to personally appreciate it, and perhaps express gratitude for it, to strengthen the value that each person places on the other.
Gradually, we may then find that the practice of actively loving our enemies has a redemptive capacity. It can transform an individual; it can transform a relationship; and it can make for a better life for each of those involved. A life lived in looking for goodness in us and in others can bring more happiness than a life lived in suspicion.
But it's not easy ' Jesus never said it would be ' and the hardest part can be getting started. Generally, the bravest person is the one who starts the process of breaking the link of mistrust or hostility.
When Lincoln was campaigning for the presidency, one of his political archenemies was a person named Stanton. for a few reasons, Stanton hated Lincoln. He visited all types of extremes to degrade and humiliate Lincoln in the eyes of the general public, even caricaturing his physical appearance. Despite this Lincoln, of course, was elected President.
When Lincoln set about the task of choosing his cabinet, he unbelievably selected Stanton for the post of Secretary of War. There was an instantaneous uproar within the clique of Lincoln's advisors because the news spread of Stanton's appointment. Lincoln was advised by his most trusted associates, 'You can't do that. This man is your enemy. Remember all the horrible things he said about you. He will surely seek to sabotage your program.'
Lincoln told them, 'Yes, I'm conscious of the items he said about me. But, after surveying the requirements of our country, he's the simplest man for the work .' So Stanton became Lincoln's Secretary of War and rendered a useful service to his nation and therefore the President. Not a few years later when Lincoln was assassinated, many great things were said about him, but perhaps none stood out the maximum amount because of the words of Stanton, his former enemy. He said of Lincoln that he was one of the best men that ever lived which 'he belongs to the ages.'
Lincoln, through the facility of forgiveness, transformed an enemy into a lover.
Yes, loving your enemy is hard, but we have been shown the way. The ministry of Jesus was a demonstration of what it means in practice. For example, in the violence of his arrest in the garden he healed the wounded ear of the one who came wielding a sword; and on the cross, he offered forgiveness to the robber by his side, and died even for Judas ' that was truly love of his enemy.
3. Love that includes all.
Finally, the most powerful thing about loving your enemies is that it is a love that includes all. loving your enemies means no one is excluded. Loving your enemies can change people's hearts, and it can change the world.
Ultimately, we love our enemies, not to change them or convert them, but because God loves God's enemies. We love our enemies. We are God's children because we share the heart of God. God loves the very ones who ignore, reject, and scorn him and we are called to share his nature. Certainly, we pray and hope that our enemies will discover God's love for themselves and have a change of heart, but whether they do or do not, we love them because God loves them.
Love of enemies is not a sign of weakness, but rather an expression of moral and spiritual strength. Hate is born in fear and pride; love casts out fear and is nurtured through courage inner resilience and integrity. Love of enemies is not the abandonment of justice still must contend for justice equality and fairness. We still must defend the defenseless and champion the marginalized. Loving enemies does not mean that we become a doormat. At times we must stand our ground and not give in. But other times we become a target, letting the enemy aim and shoot without resistance. Always our response is governed by an ethic of love, not by regulations and laws.
That brothers and sisters is the Spirit of Christ; that is the Spirit of God's new world. Only love can defeat evil, not by destroying it, but by transforming it. Evil is not out there, it is in here, in every one of us. And this demon will not be expelled by the threat of damnation, but only by the redemptive power of love.
The call to love enemies has been central to the formation of Christian identity from the earliest times. It has also guided Christian response and action both at personal and social-political levels in various ways and at different times. The call to love enemies will continue to echo in history as the only true basis for genuine forgiveness and reconciliation at all levels of human existence whether personal, social, political, or spiritual. The challenge lies with Christians who must take the initiative and take the first step toward action.
May God in Jesus grant us strength to love our enemies by forgiving them and doing good to them. May the church be the model of Jesus' words in the community it is placed by coming out of our comfortable, conventional modes of being church and calling us to be a community of love, where there is compassion filled with justice for all. May God be with us as we transform our community by loving our enemies.
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