Loving My Enemies – What is Love?

Greetings Dear Reader,

I will avoid the temptation to lighten the mood with a nineties dance hit.   It is vital, however, that if we are going to love our enemies that we understand what king of love Jesus is commanding.  This particular word has some very clear meaning as it relates to humans.

Thayer defines this word as “to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly.”  So when Jesus tells us to love our enemies he is saying that we need to think this way about anyone who self-identifies as an enemy.  This makes most of our natural responses to attack and hatred untenable.  The desire to strike back and gain vengeance is not in line with a command to love dearly.

The first obvious advantage of this is that one cannot argue with someone who will not participate in the argument.   One cannot hate and love at the same time.  One cannot avenge out of love.  One cannot kill out of love.  War is never an act of love.

This is only the tip of the requirement.  It is not enough to have the mind to love an enemy.  One must remember that this word is a verb.  It requires action.   It is not enough to feel love for one’s enemies.   One must welcome and entertain.  One must participate in actively being good to those who call us enemy.

Not I need to meddle a bit.   Think about who you consider an enemy on a personal level.  How do we show that person active living love?  What about our national enemies?  How do we assure that we are showing them love?  I said this was going to be a deep dive.  Over the next couple of days we will look at putting hands on feet on this command to love our enemies dearly.

The point is that I must steel my heart to do so.  I must live a life that loves my enemies actively.  I must consider how to be active in showing my enemies that I do love them no matter what barriers they construct.  I truly believe that there is no force more powerful in the universe than love.  Perhaps if I practice employing it everywhere with everyone it will be easier when I encounter an enemy.

How about you Dear Reader?  What are your thoughts?

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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