How can you love your enemy

You refuse to do anything that will defeat an individual, because you have agape in your soul. And here you come to the point that you love the individual who does the evil deed, while hating the deed that the person does.

This is what Jesus means when he says, "Love your enemy. When the opportunity presents itself when you can defeat your enemy, you must not do it. Now for the few moments left, let us move from the practical how to the theoretical why. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil.

It only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. Somebody must have religion enough and morality enough to cut it off and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of love. I think I mentioned before that sometime ago my brother and I were driving one evening to Chattanooga, Tennessee, from Atlanta.

He was driving the car. And for some reason the drivers were very discourteous that night. And I remember very vividly, my brother A. Somebody got to have some sense on this highway. That as all of the civilizations of the world move up the highway of history, so many civilizations, having looked at other civilizations that refused to dim the lights, and they decided to refuse to dim theirs.

And Toynbee tells that out of the twenty-two civilizations that have risen up, all but about seven have found themselves in the junkheap of destruction. It is because civilizations fail to have sense enough to dim the lights. And we will all end up destroyed because nobody had any sense on the highway of history.

Somewhere somebody must have some sense. Men must see that force begets force, hate begets hate, toughness begets toughness. And it is all a descending spiral, ultimately ending in destruction for all and everybody. Somebody must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and the chain of evil in the universe.

And you do that by love. We usually think of what hate does for the individual hated or the individuals hated or the groups hated. But it is even more tragic, it is even more ruinous and injurious to the individual who hates.

You just begin hating somebody, and you will begin to do irrational things. Your vision is distorted. There is nothing more tragic than to see an individual whose heart is filled with hate. He comes to the point that he becomes a pathological case.

For the person who hates, you can stand up and see a person and that person can be beautiful, and you will call them ugly. For the person who hates, the beautiful becomes ugly and the ugly becomes beautiful. For the person who hates, the good becomes bad and the bad becomes good. For the person who hates, the true becomes false and the false becomes true. The symbol of objectivity is lost.

Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater. And this is why Jesus says hate [ recording interrupted ]. Never hate, because it ends up in tragic, neurotic responses. Psychologists and psychiatrists are telling us today that the more we hate, the more we develop guilt feelings and we begin to subconsciously repress or consciously suppress certain emotions, and they all stack up in our subconscious selves and make for tragic, neurotic responses.

And may this not be the neuroses of many individuals as they confront life that that is an element of hate there. And modern psychology is calling on us now to love. Hate at any point is a cancer that gnaws away at the very vital center of your life and your existence. It is like eroding acid that eats away the best and the objective center of your life. So Jesus says love, because hate destroys the hater as well as the hated. Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies.

And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption. Just keep being friendly to that person. Keep loving them. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies. I think of one of the best examples of this.

You remember when Abraham Lincoln was running for president of the United States, there was a man who ran all around the country talking about Lincoln. Enemies are opponents — not opponents for play, as in sports or games, but in mutual opposition with us in matters of deep concern. Their goals are opposed to our own highest aspirations. Thus, out of conviction we must actively try to prevent them from reaching their goals. We can do this lovingly, or not — and thus we find ourselves head-on confronted with the possibility to love of enemies.

Love makes us first of all think of romantic attraction, affection and desire — a whirlwind of emotions, yes, but that is only one of countless forms in which we experience love. In so many different contexts do we speak of love that one may actually wonder what they have in common, if anything: Love between teacher and pupil, love of parents for children, of children for parents; love of your dog or your cats, your country, your grandparents. Again, how different our love for a grandmother is from that for a grandfather and both of them from love for a pet geranium among our potted plants, let alone love for a sweetheart.

Is there a common denominator for all these varieties of love? Yes, indeed, there is. As members of the cosmic family we belong together, and this belonging goes far deeper than anything that can ever divide us. While love says this yes joyfully and with fondness, hatred says it grudgingly with animosity, gall. Still, even one who hates acknowledges mutual belonging. This shows that hatred is not the opposite of love.

The opposite of love and of hatred is indifference. Loving our enemies is an ideal for human beings of any spiritual tradition.

Mahatma Gandhi practiced it no less inspiringly than St. It has been found difficult; and left untried. We love our enemies because God tells us to. We love others because God tells us to. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Love your enemies because God loves you. God loves us to the point that He sent His only Son to die for our sins. We love our enemies because we love God. Everyone, including that person you dislike, was created by God.

How can we say we love God when we hate someone He has made? As you begin the process of showing love to all people, here are three things you can do to start loving your enemies today. How can we forgive people who think it nothing to run roughshod over the rights of others? How can God forgive us when we treat His created beings with such disregard as we sometimes do? Can we learn to forgive ourselves?

Can we learn to love people like these? Evelyn is a foreign correspondent stationed in Germany. She watches as the rights of the Jews are taken one by one. As a woman, and with her German heritage, she has a lot to lose. When she meets Peter, she is horrified by his endorsement of what he considers the order of German society. Can these two find common ground?

When Twilight Breaks was a fascinating tale. Part 1. Think about what made you enemies. This might be a painful set of memories to relive, but it is necessary to consider them in order to change your thinking. What role did you play in your rift? How long have you had bad blood between you? Have reasonable expectations.

When you hear the phrase "love your enemies," this doesn't mean you have to love them in the same way you love your friends or family, but you should be able to love them as your equal, in the same way the Bible verse suggests that God gives His goodness equally to everyone. If your enemy has hurt you very deeply -- such as a friend who had an affair with your spouse or a co-worker who has sabotaged a professional opportunity for you -- then it might take a lot of time before you can try to forgive them.

Accept that you won't get an apology. You might believe that in order to truly forgive your enemies, they will have to apologize for their wrongs against you. But this gives your enemy a large amount of power. Realize that forgiveness and loving your enemy is more about benefiting yourself than them. Learn the health benefits of forgiveness. When you forgive someone, you can experience things such as lower blood pressure, improved symptoms if you suffer from anxiety or depression, and even a boost in your immune system.

Make forgiveness a choice. Every time you feel yourself thinking bitter or resentful thoughts towards your enemy, stop yourself and think about something positive instead. Think about how you have grown from your experiences with your enemy instead of how angry you still are with them. You continue to allow them to have power over your thoughts.

If you can't love them at first, then try to at least ignore them or think of them in a neutral light. Part 2. Express empathy for your enemy. Although you may have been hurt by them in the past, try to see the world through their perspective. What kinds of past experiences may have shaped their behavior?