My brother is 18 months older than I am. It's not significant now that we're both in our forties, but it was when we were teens. He was older and stronger than I was. He hit me often and got away with it. But there comes a time in a kid's life where you just cannot tolerate such abuse any longer. It happened to me once and only once. I can't remember the exact details (and I'm sure my brother has forgotten the incident altogether), but I had decided I had had enough. I lashed back. And boy, did it ever feel good. The only thing I remember is I got a shot to his head. Sweet! And I did the next logical thing: I ran. He chased me and finally caught up with me and (again I'm short on details) I believe I paid dearly for it. For the first time in my life, though, I had gotten revenge on my brother.
Revenge was sweet.
Perhaps one of the hardest verses in the Bible to enact in practice is found in Luke 6:27. Love your enemies. That's all you need to read. The rest of that section is commentary and insight on those three words. Love your enemies. Who are my enemies? Do I even have enemies? We all do. I thought of this verse tonight as I passed by the company my wife used to work. They wrongly and callously let her go. They are my enemies. My thoughts about them were less than godly. And yet, I read, “love your enemies.” But, but but…
Love your enemies.
Those three words separate us from those who do not believe, and if I'm honest with myself, those are very hard words. Obviously we're not being mistreated and beaten and flogged by uncaring guards as many of our brothers and sisters are in persecuted lands, for which those words must seem next to impossible. But, nonetheless, we are commanded to love our enemies and even to pray for those who mistreat us.
We have a natural inclination to lash out at those who hurt us, as I did once with my brother (30 years later I have to admit that it was very satisfying, if only for 3 minutes). We want revenge. Often we're out for blood. The revenge in America takes very different, more subtle forms: lawsuits, rumors, and gossip. We badmouth the person, or in my recent example, the company. Still, we can't ignore those three verses: love your enemies.
At this point, I need to ask, what good does it do to love my enemies? It doesn't matter. Jesus, knowing mankind, didn't really give a good reason why we were to love those who mistreated us except to say how different you would be if you did. Perhaps there's a good reason, perhaps not. That isn't the point. The point is, we have a choice. We can become bitter about our enemies or we can love them. More often, though, we just tend to ignore them.
Luke 6:27 Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
