Loving your enemy is hard. It’s really, REALLY hard. It takes patience, restraint and understanding. The work of considering who my enemies are, what they believe, and how to understand where they are coming from can take a lot of energy. This requires more than just normal, daily living, and God would have us forgive our enemies daily.
One of the ways I have found to help with this is to consider God’s greatest commandment, according to Jesus:
Matt 22: 37-40
“ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
After loving God, I find I am supposed to love my neighbor as myself. This implies I love myself, which I suppose I do, but I don’t think about it much. More often, I am harder on myself than I have ever been on another human being. This has been especially trying during this past year--feeling trapped at home and surrounded by the scourge of disease. I have been blessed with much support, thankfully, and my wife and I pray often for those who have not. My wife has told me to stop being so hard on her husband because she loves him and he is the beloved child of God. That makes me stop and consider: Am I not following God’s commandments by not loving myself as I would love my neighbor?
In addition to praying and seeking God, we must actually be the stewards of our bodies and minds in order to be able to love our enemies more fully – and to not become an enemy to self.
In taking care of my body, I try to see my physical self, in spite of its many flaws, as a gift from God. I try to exercise and eat well, but have failed at times. But I keep trying to stop the negative self talk, give it to God and move forward.
In taking care of my mind, I indulge in reading and watching shows with my wife. We both like playing games and have been enjoying some new ones as the pandemic months have dragged on. We take walks throughout the neighborhood, enjoying each other’s company and getting some physical exercise to boot!
In taking care of my spirit, my wife and I pray together. We continue to enjoy our Sunday church services with CitySalt on Sunday, albeit through YouTube, and also have enjoyed participating in other socially- distanced time with our church, friends and family.
In order to be ready to serve God in all that He asks: loving myself, loving my loved ones and loving my enemies, I am practicing loving myself first to fill up that well, that all might drink from it.
Matt 6:35-36
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
About the Author
Mark lives in Oregon with his lovely wife, Darla and enjoys reading, writing, playing games and working to make the world a better place. He currently serves CitySalt church as a sound engineer and on the church council.