love of enemies

one

Love of enemies – the height of Christian Charity

The Gospel, and especially the Sermon on the Mount, is full of radical demands – demands that, when you stop to think about them for a second, seem to totally fly in the face of common sense.

Turning the other cheek. When someone asks for one piece of clothing, just out of the blue, you give them two pieces of clothing. Walking twice the distance someone asks you to walk. Forgiving seventy times seven times.

But the height of radicality is when Jesus tells us that there’s nothing particularly praiseworthy about loving those who love you. Even the gentiles, even the non-believers do that, He says. “But I say to you, Love your enemies. Do good to those who persecute you.”

Now that, that is a wild demand. That’s tough.

The consensus is that this is the height of Christian love of neighbor. This is the ultimate test of a true Christian’s love

So, are you following the Lord’s commands? Are you actually striving to love your enemies?

two

Do you actually have any enemies?

The funny thing is, probably most Christians don’t worry about this command to love our enemies at all.

We think, “Wow, that command sounds really hard. Oh well. Fortunately, it doesn’t apply to me. Because, fortunately, I don’t really have any enemies. So I don’t have to worry about loving them!”

Are you sure? Are you sure the Lord’s teaching about the perfection of Christian charity doesn’t apply to you? Are you sure you don’t have any enemies? Are you sure you can get off the hook that easily? The thing is, you do have enemies. And an enemy isn’t someone who hates you, or who wishes you evil. An enemy is someone you are tempted to hate. It’s someone you are tempted to wish evil upon. Someone whose happiness causes you to get irritated.

And there are people like that in your life. And you are going to need God’s grace to love them.

three

Those who represent causes you oppose

We can divide our enemies into two camps. The first group of enemies are the people who stand for things we oppose. These are the people who belong to the opposite political party. The people who are our enemies in war. Or the people who are trying to drive us out of business. Or the people on the other side of a lawsuit. Or, most importantly, the secular world that makes war on the Church herself.

These people are clearly our enemies – maybe not in person, but in policy. And it’s incredibly hard not to rejoice when something bad happens to our opponents, especially when our cause is just

When a major figure on the other side of the political spectrum, or on the other side of the culture wars, says something stupid, or is taken down by a scandal, or even gets sick and dies – well, the truth is there’s a temptation to celebrate, to joke about it, to be happy about it.

And to be happy about another’s misfortune – that means we’re happy about evil happening to our enemy. And that means we’re hating our enemy, not loving him.

We can celebrate the defeat of an evil cause. We can be happy when the plans against the true and the good and the godly are frustrated.

But we must never slip, even for a second, into the vindictive mindset that says, “Serve them right” about children of God whom Christ died trying to save.

When Christ died, He said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

Can we ask less for our enemies, who have hurt us so much less than Christ’s enemies hurt Him?

four

Those who are supposed to be on your side

The hardest kind of enemy to love is the person who is supposed to be on your side. Who is supposed to be close to you. It can be easier to forgive and pray for the people who, perhaps just by being misguided, are fighting against you openly.

But when a family member is selfish – when a coworker is nasty – when someone in authority over you is cowardly and lacks integrity. That’s when there’s the greatest danger of resentment getting deep, deep into the soul and never getting out.

When someone we trust, someone who is supposed to be close you – when these people hurt us, the danger of hate is very near.And remember, we may say we love them, we may act like we love them – but if we get irritable around them, if we are eager to spread rumors about them, or criticism them, or get back at them in little passive-aggressive ways.

That means we are tempted to hurt them, to do evil to them. And that means, to that extent, we are hating them and treating them as enemies. Loving your enemies is often the hardest to do when your enemy – who, remember, just means someone you’re tempted to resent – is a child or a spouse or a best friend. And that’s precisely when it’s most important to love them.

five

Framing a loved one as an enemy can help

Oddly enough, it may make it easier to love people by framing them as your enemies.

It can be really hard to love a priest who doesn’t act like a priest should, or a president who doesn’t act like a president should. It can be really hard to love a child who doesn’t act like a child should act, or a friend who doesn’t act like a friend should act. But if you think to yourself, “You know, they may not be the best priest or president or child or friend – but for an enemy, they’re not that bad. They’re not even out to get me most of the time! Shoot, if these are my only enemies, I’m pretty lucky! I can love them!”

So, consider who your enemies are. Who are the people you are tempted to resent. And then remember how good they are, and how much God loves them. And ask God for the grace to love them too.