Love your enemies – Mt 5:43-48
An enemy is someone who has hurt me, maybe even hates me, who shows his unkindness to me. But notice that we, in our perversity, sometimes consider as our enemy someone whom we have wronged. The psychological mechanism is simple: you have hurt this man, and to drown out your conscience, you begin to think that he is a bad person, not worthy of your kindness. Regarding such a situation, "love your enemies" means come to your senses man, acknowledge your guilt, repair the wrong, ask for forgiveness, let your mutual relations become normal.
What does Christ mean "love your enemies" in relation to true enemies, those who have hurt us, and perhaps even hate us? Certainly, the Lord Jesus does not order us to agree meekly to harm. Our enemy is first and foremost a man, and if he is a man, it means that God loves him and wants to lead him to eternal life. That is why the Lord Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies. Because if he is acting unfairly, it is probably because he is lost in life and does not even know for what a man lives in this world.
The Lord Jesus himself left us the supreme example of prayer for our enemies. It was not about the people who had hurt Him sometimes ago. He prays for his own murderers and he prayed at the moment of killing him. His prayer is full of truth. The Lord Jesus does not underestimate the harm they do to Him. They cause him excruciating and most unjust harm - and this fact is not hidden by the Lord Jesus. However, he cares about the good of these people. He also sees that these unfortunates are not fully aware of the enormity of the evil they are doing. That is why he stands above the terrible evil that he experiences on their hands and prays for them: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." This prayer of the Lord Jesus is the highest example of the love of enemies. Deacon Stephen prayed in a very similar way for those who stoned him: " Lord, do not hold this sin against them " - these were Stephen's last words on this earth. The love of enemies is a special imitation of God's love. Because it is God who always thinks about our good, also when we behave like His enemies.
The commandment to love our enemies also has elements that are simply a postulate of common sense. For example, common sense demands that we give up the rules of retaliation. Retaliation might make sense if it were to compensate for the wrongs. But any retaliatory compensation is, after all, another harm, which in turn makes the aggrieved person and causes him to retaliate. By applying the principle of retaliation, in a short time they all become at the same time and even deeper harms and wronged, and the revenge cycle goes faster and faster, destroying everyone who participates in it. In this situation, stop to retaliate, by at least one of the parties, is simply common sense. But the Lord Jesus did not only forbid retaliation. He is asking us to love our harmers and persecutors. Of course, not because they hurt and persecute us. By saying: "love your enemies", the Lord Jesus teaches us that the very fact that someone is human makes him worthy of love. So great is human dignity that even very bad deeds do not destroy our humanity.
According to His teaching, the Lord Jesus when He was crucified, prayed for His own murderers. Later, Stephen and thousands of other martyrs followed him. The love of enemies is not about pretending not to be hurt. We are allowed to protest against harm and defend ourselves. But we must not forget that the offender is also human. Therefore, one should desire his conversion and pray for it. The offender cannot be viewed solely through the prism of the harm he has caused.
If possible, the offender should be punished for his evil deed. But let us leave all judgment on him to God. Because we ourselves will be judged by God.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george