LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you.”  (Luke 6:27-28 Today’s English Version)

Monday, August 26, 2024

Friends:  It is obvious that we live in a deeply divided society, politically, religiously, racially and culturally.

Jesus also lived in a deeply divided society where there were deep political divisions between those Jewish leaders who supported the Roman occupation, like the Jewish tax collectors who worked for Rome, and those Jewish leaders who opposed Roman occupation, like the Jewish Zealots who assassinated Roman soldiers.

Jesus also lived in a time when there were deep religious divisions between the Sadducees, the Pharisees and those who followed the teachings of Jesus.

It was in this setting of deep political and religious divisions that Jesus made this amazing and counter cultural statement:

“Love your enemies, do good to them…bless them…and pray for them.”

It was not easy to follow the teaching of Jesus on loving your enemies in the time of Jesus and it is not easy today. But it is what the faithful followers of Jesus are called to do, then and now.

This means that Jesus calls us to love, do good, bless and pray for persons who are in a different political party than we are or who made a different decision than we made about staying with or disaffiliating from The United Methodist Church. It is abundantly clear that Jesus calls us to love, do good, bless and pray for persons who make different political or religious decisions than we make.

Jesus not only taught us to love and pray for our enemies, but he also practiced it. When Jesus was dying on the cross, he looked down at those who had conspired together to kill him and prayed:

 “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”  (Luke 23:34 NRSV)

During the Civil Rights movement, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was hated and criticized by millions of people and persecuted by political leaders and officials, he wrote a book entitled Love Your Enemies, which was a collection of his sermons on that topic.

Dr. King wrote: “Jesus said ‘love your enemies’ because love has within it a redemptive power that eventually transforms individuals…There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive and there is something about love that builds up and is creative. So, if you want to change the world, love your enemies.”

If someone hates us and we hate them back, we have just increased the amount of darkness and hatred in the world. But if someone hates us and we love them back and pray for them, we increase the amount of Christ’s light and love in the world.

The truth is that many of us (including myself) who claim Jesus as our Lord and Savior fail to practice the teachings of Jesus in our daily lives to love our enemies, pray for them and do good to them.

May God forgive us and renew in us a deep desire to practice the teachings of the one who lived, died and rose again that we might have eternal life.

Grace and Peace,

Dr. Kent Millard
President
United Theological Seminary