Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies,
and pray for those who persecute you…
There is no question that in the list of challenges that the good news of the Savior sets before us, there is probably no more difficult one than the command to ‘love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…’
Over the years, this command has invariably been a stumbling block to many in fully embracing Christ and his good news. Perhaps, that is because we so often confuse ‘loving’ with ‘liking!’ It is humanly impossible for us to ‘like’ everyone. Human nature being what it is, how in the world is it possible for us to be attracted to those whose lives are so corrupted by evil, selfishness and hatred of others? We are naturally repelled by such offensive folks – and rightly so. Jesus did not call us to befriend such folks. But, he did call us to ‘love’ them! This has nothing to do with feelings of affection or friendship but, rather, to see them as God himself sees them, with the ‘possibility’ of conversion of heart and his desire that they be open to his amazing grace that can make ‘all things new’ even the cruelty of the human heart. That is what loving our enemies truly means.
It is that kind of ‘love’ that can lead us to the possibility of forgiveness, even for those who may have hurt us the most in our lives. I sometimes hear from folks that feel that it’s impossible for them to forgive one who has hurt them greatly in life. God does not expect the impossible but he hopes that we might begin to take the slow and difficult steps toward a renewal of heart. Perhaps, the first step is merely asking God to forgive our unforgiving heart!