{"id":35,"date":"2014-02-23T01:49:57","date_gmt":"2014-02-23T01:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/?p=35"},"modified":"2015-11-13T21:08:51","modified_gmt":"2015-11-13T21:08:51","slug":"love-your-enemies-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/love-your-enemies-what\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Your Enemies . . . What?!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

No where, ever, will you find this command in the rules for any nation, any organization, any religion . . . but for Christianity. These words were spoken by Our Lord Himself, not to living saints who hung on His every word, but to his disciples, rough fishermen, common people whose lives were already hard enough. He speaks to you and me.<\/p>\n

Think for a moment . . . do you have any enemies? I mean real enemies, someone who wants bad things to happen to you – someone who tries to hurt you?<\/p>\n

If you lived in Israel or Palestine, you could answer \u201cyes\u201d. For the Jew it would be \u201cthe Palestinians\u201d, for the Palestinian, it would be \u201cthe Jews\u201d. For the Serbians, it\u2019s the Croats (and vice-versa). And on it goes; Huttus vs. Tutsis, Christians vs. Moslems, and here in America, we could say at times, even Democrats and Republicans.<\/p>\n

How about you? Do you have any enemies? I\u2019m hard pressed to answer \u201cyes\u201d to that. I have people who don\u2019t like me or don\u2019t trust me (and me toward them); perhaps they are a rival, but I can\u2019t say I know anyone who is my enemy.<\/p>\n

Does this clear us from the Lord\u2019s command? I don\u2019t think so. In the same way Jesus expanded the other commandments of the Torah – – – from shall not kill to shall not grow angry, from shall not commit adultery to shall not even look lustfully – – – so now my \u201cenemy\u201d becomes someone who doesn\u2019t necessarily \u201chate\u201d me, but rather someone who \u201cstands in my way\u201d.<\/p>\n

My enemy becomes someone who thinks differently than I. It is someone who makes me afraid, someone who, yes, doesn\u2019t like me, or someone who hurt me, and by golly, I\u2019m not going to forget that.<\/p>\n

And what do we do with this new \u201cexpanded\u201d version of enemy? We avoid that person. We gather people around us who feel the same way about that person.<\/p>\n

You can see how this natural response to an opposing force begins to divide the human family. Fear, retaliation, mistrust become the atmosphere between families, co-workers, political parties, cultures, religions, and nations.<\/p>\n

How can this situation, given human nature, ever change? Or, do we even want it to change? (Isn\u2019t it easier to keep my enemies my enemy?!)<\/p>\n

No. Jesus, if we choose to listen to him, says, \u201clove your enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n

But HOW? (Please know I\u2019m trying to do these myself, and many of you are much better at this than I am).<\/p>\n

Thoughts to help me love my enemy:<\/p>\n