Love Your Enemies – Declaring Enemies

Greetings Dear Reader,

I think it is very important to understand what Jesus thinks of as an enemy.  The word he uses here and elsewhere does not mean enemy the way we think it does.  It is exclusive to those who oppose God.  More specifically it can refer to those who oppose God in their thoughts.

That makes the pool for declaring enemies quite specific.  I am not saying that it is limited just specific.  In the mind of Christ enemies are those who oppose God.  The word is also closely related to hatred. 

This means that the statement to hate your enemy is to hate those who hate.  It becomes quite clear that the problem is hatred.  If I am to love my enemies I cannot hate them.  If I am to declare someone an enemy it must be because they opposed to God.

The quandary is that the moment I declare someone an enemy I must love them.  That means that I cannot hate them and, therefore, they are no longer my enemy.  They may think they are and may say so. 

The moment they declare that they are my enemy I must love them.  This again makes the state of enemy a one way street.  I cannot consider someone an enemy from my perspective.  I must love them. 

If I am going to declare enemies then I must realize what I am doing.  I am placing someone in a very specific state.  To obey Christ the moment I declare them an enemy (the moment I hate them), I must love them.  It becomes evident, therefore, that someone being my enemy is a very temporary thing from my perspective. 

I really must assure that I am not collecting enemies unless it is in pursuit of the opportunity to love them.  If that is my goal then I can just simply skip the enemy stage and truly try to love them as Christ does. 

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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