Do you hate your enemies?

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Matthew 5:43-44

These are the words of Jesus as he was speaking to the “multitudes” early in his ministry. To say that he takes a strong position on love is an understatement. Jesus says to love and pray for your enemies. And, we see him carry this attitude, this example, to the cross. As he is being brutally murdered for no crime, Jesus looks down on his enemies, in indescribable pain, covered in blood, and says “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Today, the world is set up to battle our enemies. Let me use the word Jesus used. The world is set up to hate our enemies.

Growing up in corporate America, I always had people that were for me, on my team, and people that were against me, gunning for me. To win the political company battle, I had to know this playing field, what I was up against. I needed to know who to trust and who not to trust. To continue to climb the corporate ladder, I had to know my enemies. I had to beat them. I needed to win to be recognized. This took many forms, some as subtle as with-holding information or ideas or projects that I was working on. Some more dramatic, such as making it a point to “win” during a meeting, out-maneuver my antagonist. This is how you needed to play the game. Ask anyone on this playing field and, if honest, I think you will find the same description of life in corporate America.

I just use this an example from my own life, but I also see this in the life of my kids, from their early elementary years through high school. Pick any stage of life, and each of my three children has enemies. Words are thrown around viciously among the children. They, too, must know who is for them and who is against them. The hardest thing for me to teach them is how to love their enemies. I immediately take my life learnings and instruct on how to win, out-maneuver.

So, we learn this divisiveness early in life and it creeps into every area. We tend to make enemies in our minds with anyone that has a different thought or opinion. We harbor bitterness in our heart with those who disagree. Religion. Politics. Race. Church. Masks. Pick the area, and we create division. No doubt, we all have enemies.

On a rare occasion, and I stress rare, I pointed my son in a different direction. As we were having a bedtime discussion, we began talking through some boys in his life that he was defining as enemies. My son was down as we talked about the situation. I told him to work on building bridges with them, maybe sit by them at lunch. He had to take the first step, as we had no idea what was going on in their lives. He needed to befriend them. A few days later, in our bedtime discussion, he proudly, passionately, exclaimed that he had built bridges with a few of the boys. He had taken the first step, opened the door. They were now friends. My son had taken it upon himself to do the uncomfortable work of building a bridge. Now an enemy was a friend, and the result was an excited boy. One who was down was now up, a by-product of loving your enemy.

Build a bridge. Take the first step. Never have I respected someone more than when they pulled me aside, shot me straight, and put the things that there were causing division between us on the table.

Jesus closes this section of his message with a demanding statement. “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven in perfect.” He calls us to be perfect, just as God is perfect.

My son built bridges in the story above, but he inevitably will have situations in his life where he will fall short. He will in no way be perfect. This is true for all of us, especially the writer. Never will we love our enemies perfectly. The most humble person will have bitterness, maybe anger, in their hearts that we will never see. So, we will fail in being perfect.

But, this is precisely why Jesus came to earth. He came to make the impossible, possible. Jesus said in Matthew 19:26, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Jesus came to carry the burden of impossibility. Try as we might, we will always hate our enemies. But, He is always there to help. Just talk to him about it. Ask for his help. Things change when Jesus gets in the middle of it.

Impact others. Live generously.

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