Loving Our Enemies – Reflections On The Hardest Commandment

I’m stunned by the fever of rage, hatred and violence that is currently gripping so many people and is so evident in social media, especially in the US, not least among Christians. One sign being carried to the White House eleven days ago read, “Jesus My Savior, Trump My President”! And I noticed among anti-Trump protesters this sign: “Burn in Hell, Donald Trump”.

We’re sailing in stormy waters, tall waves of enmity on every side. Christ’s instruction to love our enemies seems to have been scissored out of a great many copies of the New Testament. How many of us even pray for our enemies?

Yet clearly the topic is on some peoples’ minds. I take some encouragement from the frequent re-postings I’ve seen on Facebook in recent days of this passage from my book “Loving Our Enemies: Reflections on the Hardest Commandment”:

“If I cannot find the face of Jesus in the face of those whom I regard as enemies, if I cannot find him in the unbeautiful and damaged, if I cannot find him in those who have the ‘wrong ideas’, if I cannot find him in the poor and the defeated and damaged, then how will I find him in bread and wine or in the life after death? If I do not reach out in this world to those with whom he has identified himself, why do I imagine that I will want to be with him, and them, in heaven? Why would I want to be for all eternity in the company of those I avoided every day of my life?”

I feel uncomfortable peddling my own writings, but may I be forgiven for saying this particular book might be a timely read? Check and see if your local library can get it for you. Or jump off the deep end and buy a copy.

Jim