The whys? and hows? of Loving Our Enemy..Chp. 5 SYNOPSIS of Dr. Martin Luther King's STRENGTH TO LOVE

Loving Your Enemies

“Ye have heard that it hath been said,
thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate
thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love,
your enemies, bless them that curse you,
do good to them that hate you, and pray
for them which despitefully use you, and
persecute you; that ye may be children
of your Father which is in heaven.”
Matthew 5:43-45

This command of Jesus challenges us with new urgency. Upheaval after upheaval has reminded us that modern man is traveling along a road called hate, in a journey that will bring us to destruction and damnation. Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, the command to love one’s enemy is an absolute necessity for our survival. Love even for enemies is the key to the solution of the problems of our world. Jesus is not an impractical idealist; he is the practical realist.
Jesus realized that every genuine expression of love grows out of a consistent and total surrender to God. So when Jesus said ‘Love your enemy’, he was not unmindful of its stringent qualities. Yet he meant every word of it. Our responsibilities as Christians is to discover the meaning of this command and seek passionately to live it out in our daily lives.
Why love our enemies?

1. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate - adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. The chain reaction of evil – hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilitation
2. Hate scars the soul and distorts the personality. Hate is just as injurious to the person who hates. Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity.
3. A third reason we should love our enemies is that love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend By its very nature, love creates and builds up, hate destroys and tears down Love transforms with redemptive power

How do we love our enemies?

1. We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done or putting a false label on an evil act. It means that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship. Forgiveness is a catalyst creating an atmosphere necessary for a fresh start and a new beginning. Forgiveness means reconciliation, a coming together again. Without this, no man can love his enemies. The degree in which we are able to forgive determines the degree to which we are able to love our enemies.
2. We must recognize that the evil deed of the enemy – neighbor, the thing that hurts, never quite expresses all that he is. An element of goodness may be found even in our worst enemy. Each of us is something of a schizophrenic personality, tragically divided against ourselves.
There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this we are less prone to hate our enemies. We recognize that his hate grows out of fear, pride, ignorance, prejudice, and misunderstanding, but in spite of this we know God’s image is ineffably etched in his being. Then we love our enemies by realizing that they are not totally bad and that they are not beyond the reach of God’s redemptive love.
3. We must not seek to defeat or humiliate the enemy but to win his friendship and understanding. Every word and deed must contribute to an understanding with the enemy and release those vast reservoirs of goodwill which have been blocked by impenetrable walls of hate.
The meaning of love is not to be confused with some sentimental outpouring. Love is something much deeper than emotional bosh. Agape love is an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return. Agape is the love of God operating in the human heart as opposed to eros(lust) and philia (friendship) love. At this level, we love every man because God loves him. We love the person, who does an evil deed, although we hate the evil deed that he does.
We should be happy that Jesus did not say “like” our enemies. It is almost impossible to like some people. But Jesus recognized that ‘love’ is greater than ‘like.’ When Jesus bids us to love our enemies, he is speaking of agape, understanding and creative, redemptive goodwill for all men. Only by following this way and responding with this type of love we are we able to be children of our Father who is in heaven.

The ultimate reason we should love our enemies is expressed explicitly in Jesus’s words, ‘love your enemies……that ye may be children of your Father which is in heaven. We are called to this difficult task in order to realize a unique relationship with God. We are potential children of God. Through love that potentiality becomes actuality. We must love our enemies, because only by loving them can we know God and experience the beauty of his holiness.
Jesus is eternally right. History is replete with the bleached bones of nations that refused to listen to him. May we in this time hear and follow his words – before it is too late. May we solemnly realize that we shall never be true children of God until we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.