Loving Our Enemies Means Swimming Against the Stream

“But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you.” — Luke 6:27–28

There is no shortage of social sin — sin against neighbors and communities — in the world today, and it’s only compounded by hypocrisy among many claiming the way of Jesus. But the world envisioned by Jesus, the one we call God’s kingdom, is so beautiful and so powerful that it can transform everything. You have probably seen glimpses of it. This is the good news.  

But this good news is by no means easy news. You see, for disciples of Jesus committed to his way of love, the path is narrow, demanding, and challenging — a bit like swimming against the stream. Not only is the way of love countercultural and counterintuitive, it is downright impossible — or it would be, if we tried to manage it on our own.  

But implicit in the call to love our perceived enemies, proclaimed in this week’s reading of Jesus’s Sermon on the Plain, is the promise of God’s abundant grace to empower and direct our steps down this path. It’s our superpower, so to speak, and it enables us to embody attitudes and behaviors that make us different from what we’d be on our own. But how do we tap into it? 

To live out the love that distinguishes God’s kingdom from the world today, it helps to attend to three things in our daily lives: 1) praying for the desire to love as God loves, 2) practicing in community with deep intention until our actions become habits, and 3) cultivating a disposition of openheartedness.

The disciple’s work is to love others as God loves us: abundantly, mercifully, and without exception. It is to practice loving beyond our natural inclinations of ego, responding to others in ways that don’t depend upon how they treat us. And it is to open our hearts to the light of God’s enabling grace, again and again. 

We love our enemies, even when it costs us everything, because God’s love has no limits.”

This way of life affects how we move in the world; it affects who we become. It makes everything different. Even resistance to evil looks radically different. Instead of matching blow for blow, we remember how God responds to us when we sin. We trust that in imitating God’s forgiveness, we have the power to love our enemies and transform ourselves. We have seen this dynamic play out in real life and each time we look on with wonder, asking, “How on earth did this person summon the strength to forgive?” Impossible love like this has the power to charge a brutal world with holiness. 

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. understood the power of holiness when he preached about the humanity of those who dehumanize and oppress — and that loving our enemies can be a way of restoring our own humanity. He showed us how to confront the most intractable injustices with love and hope rather than hate and despair. King knew that Jesus’s teachings on love of neighbor and love of enemy are focused on creating communities rooted in justice for everyone.

In God’s kingdom, we don’t love our enemies because they will love us in return. We love them, even when it costs us everything, because God’s love has no limits. We recognize that we belong to one another and are bound together; the good of our enemies is the good of our neighbors. This radical call to build real relationships — to see one another as full, and flawed, people — is ultimately a call to mutual well-being. We know, with Jesus and Dr. King, that it’s an ideal worth giving our lives for.

Here are a few questions we might ask ourselves: Who evokes feelings of hostility within me? Which people do I struggle to love? How will I resist the temptation to defend my self-interest? Whom have I made an enemy because they don’t agree with me? How do I hold to my commitment to justice while loving and praying for those motivated by hatred? 

Read all of Sunday’s scriptures

Step Into the Story

Here are some ways to think more deeply about what it means to love our perceived enemies.

Social Justice

In this 1957 sermon delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, Dr. King explains why Jesus calls us to love our enemies: “Hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. . . . The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil. . . . and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of love.” 

To guide your efforts, here’s a list of 198 methods of nonviolent action from the Albert Einstein Institution.

Poetry

In “This Morning I Pray for My Enemies,” poet laureate Joy Harjo, member of the Muskogee/Creek Nation, considers the wisdom of the heart to determine enemy or friend.  

Poet and environmentalist Wendell Berry begins “Enemies” in this provocative way: “If you are not to become a monster, you must care what they think.” 

Music

In a meditative practice to cultivate empathy, Buddhist monk and mindfulness teacher Jack Kornfield guides the listener to connect to their heart wisdom when dealing with difficult people.

Practical Theology

Scholar and Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast offers 12 practical suggestions for making real the Christian ideal of love of enemies. 

Visual Art

Created by Brooklyn-born artist Hans Fleurimont, this portrait of Dr. King is crafted from the words of his many powerful speeches. 

Kathy Bozzuti-Jones is associate director, spiritual practices, retreats, and pilgrimage, at Trinity Church.