Loving Our Enemies

    An individual who lives and promotes the Christian lifestyle will always have others pitted against them because of their lifestyle. As Christians we are called to love our enemies.  Jesus says in (Matthew 5:44),"You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." The best way to learn how to love our enemies is examining and following the way God the father, and God the Son loved their enemies.
     Did Jesus have enemies? The answer is a resounding yes. Jesus had a lot of enemies and almost every human that was born was born an enemy against his Beloved Father. Adam and Eve created separation from God, a separation without His Grace that would be eternal for every human being that would ever live. But God did not give up on us. He came to us and sent his Son because he loved us so much. His Son out of Love of us(his enemies) followed his Father's will in perfect obedience. Perfect obedience that lead him to be nailed up on a cross by his enemies and spiritual deaf and blind men. Jesus forgave them "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." 

     Taking Christ's example we see that loving our enemies means seeing them as human beings in need of our father's love. Martin Luther King Jr. once said "Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power." How true this quote is. Love transforms individuals. God's love transforms us and so too will our love for each other destroy our hate filled hearts.

     Martin Luther King Jr. is a pretty good example of someone who followed Christ's words in loving his     enemies. Martin Luther King Jr. was born in 1929 in Atlanta Georgia and at the time it was a very segregated place. When he was a pretty young child he became friends with a white boy, whose father owned a business across the street from the King's family home. But when the boys were around six year-olds they started school. They went to separate schools for their race. Soon afterwards, the parents of the white boy stopped allowing King to play with their son, stating to him "we are white, and you are colored." Martin Luther King feeling distraught over those words relayed the happenings to his parents.

    They in return, had a long discussion with him about the history of slavery and racism in America. Upon learning of the hatred, violence, and oppression that black people had faced in the U.S., Martin Luther King  declared that he was "determined to hate every white person." But his parents being the good Christians that they were, instructed him "that it was his Christian duty to love everyone."

     This was hard for the young Martin Luther King to hear, and he struggled with doing this in the younger ages of his life. However, as he got older. As he grew closer to Jesus and Jesus' gospel message, he saw that his parents were right. Martin Luther King began to public show love for his enemies. He showed love for those who would not let him sit in a front bus seat. Love... for those who made him use a different water fountain and restroom. Martin Luther King Jr. legacy is that of a legacy of a man that loved his enemies.

    We too are called today, to love our enemies. Our enemies could be a difficult or unfair co-worker. An enemy could be a sibling that we always squabble with. A sibling that has grown distant that we haven't talk to in years. Maybe we are called to reach out to them and say, "I love you. Let's do something...maybe go out to eat. Let's repair our broken relationship."

    An enemy could be, a stubborn person at our church, who only wants things in the church to go their way; and not necessarily want the things to go anyone else 's way. We are called to humbly work with them and figure out a solution in a loving way. An enemy could be a classmate that your matched with to do an assignment. They have let you down before and now again they are not doing their part of the assignment. Instead of throwing your hands up in despair, you realize the assignment must be done so you choose to love them. You do your part of the work and encourage them to do theirs.

    We could also have enemies in the bigger sense of the word. These enemies we do not see, we just feel their oppression and hatred. They carryout their oppressions and hatred in the articles they write, podcasts and radio episodes they do. These enemies call us bigots and evil doers for us just being Christians. They hate us for living and promoting the gospel message. We don't have to like our enemies. Nor do we have to enjoy spending time with them. But we are called to love them in the deeper sense of the word. And loving them as I mentioned earlier is seeing they are just souls in need of God the Father's love.