Learn To Love Your Enemies

Loving your enemies, this sounds like an oxymoron.  Why would you want to love someone that has hated you , persecuted you, done you wrong?  It just does not make sense and it goes against our natural human instinct.  It is easier to hate those who hate you and dish out the same disrespect that they did to you.  But as Christians we are called to do something different.  We are called to mirror the emotions of God which is love, always for all people, no matter what.

God wants us to show other people His love, despite their sinful nature, shortcomings, and despite their wrong doing toward you.  Not only because it exemplifies God, but it sets us apart from the other nonbelievers.  Can you imagine trying to tell people that God is love and we are to exemplify God's love, but when faced with hatred from someone else all that love disappears?  Why would anyone want to believe in God with that type of behavior.  You are no different from any person that do not believe in God.  Anyone can hate those who hate them.

“In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much.”  Matthew 5: 43-46 

Trust and believed I have been hated, persecuted, I have been called dumb, gullible, and thought of as weak because I want to forgive those who have done bad things to me.  But after a while I come to realize something.  Instead of anger I began to feel pity.  God revealed to me that the closer we get to Him the more we start to see things like Him.  So while God hates the bad things we do to other people.  I am sure that it is pity that He feels more than anything.

The reason being is because God created all of us, He knows what He has created us to do and what He has created us to be.  And so when we do things wrong to other people and are so consumed with wrecking havoc on other people's lives it is kinda of sad.  It is sad because there is something inadequate in these type of people as to why they have to compensate by being mean to others, and mostly because they ignore the fact that the evil they do in this world they are going to have to be held accountable for, by God.

I once had a old boss that was so insecure.  She was hated by all and no one wanted to be around her.  She forced people to be her friend by using pay raises and promotion as a weapon to be hanged over their head.  And then for kicks she would scream at them and degrade them in front of others.  She knew if they wanted a promotion they would simply have to take it.  And many people did.   And to me, she would often follow me around in the halls and get mad when I did not want to have conversation with her.  She would call me into the office and ask about my personal life and then get mad when I did not want to tell her.  She would cut hours from me, lie about me, and tell other employees not to talk to me among many other things.

All of this of course was stressful and the natural reaction would be for me to go back at her at hard as she was coming at me.  But when you read this, do you not feel sad for her more than anything.  Sad that she has to force people into being her friend? Sad that she has to use her position as a supervisor as a way to dominate people?  The hate that I could have used for her was used instead for me just feeling sorry for the type of person that she was.  And I realized that I should not waste any mind space retaliating against this person, her living in her insecure mind should be torment enough.


Instead I forgave, went on with my life, went on with my calling, and went on with m education.  Although her bullying on the workplace was torture, it just made me stronger and it did not stop any of the plans that I had for myself.

The same with my son's father.  He is a bad father to say the least.  I used to care, get mad and angry for his blatant disregard for my son.  But then I realized something.  It was probably better not to have him in our lives then it was to have him in our lives.  He is a felon, he is selfish, he does not want to be a father nor does he know how to be.  He prefers to spend his time pretending on social media that he is a good father then actually being one.  I looked over at my son and realized that my son is happy, he has positive male role models in his life.  My son told me that he wants a father, but it does have to be his father because even at 6 years old he realizes that something is not quite right there.   My son had forgiven his father for his shortcomings and does not think twice about him, I had to take a lesson from my son and do the same.

And in both of these situations, instead of feeling anger toward either of them, the anger turned to pity.  Pity for my supervisor because she is insecure, jealous, and these emotions have kept her in the same place as oppose to her moving forward in life; and actually getting to know people that want to be her friend instead of trying to force people to be her friend.  And pity for my son's father, pity for his other children that he left all these years.  Pity for his seven aborted children that never had a chance to live (none by me).  And despite us not getting along, I feel he has a lot of potential, most that is wasted due to his inability to look past himself.

So often times, people who hurt you or have your hurt you, something is wrong with them; not you.  It is their problems not yours, but you cannot wallow in unforgiveness and hatred toward that person for what they  have done.  You cannot allow the flaws they have in their personality to affect yours.  And if you chose not to forgive them but remain in hatred and animosity toward them, then you will allow their demons to swallow the goodness about you as well.  This is why we must forgive, and move on.  Make sense?  I hope so.