Love Your Enemies

“Love your enemies…” Matthew 5:43

Sometimes our enemies live with us. Think Cain and Abel, Luke Skywalker and his dad, or the countless stories of fathers and sons trying to kill each other because one is a Taliban warrior and the other in the militia. I remember back in college when I would tell my classmates that I was working in the family business. Some would then respond adamantly, "I'd never work for my parents!!! We would just quarrel every day!" Most of the time our enemies are those who are close to us. After all, how can anyone hurt us if we do not care about them? It is those we love who have the most power to wound us. 

How do we love our enemy, our mother, who deeply injures us when she compares us to others? Our enemy, our dearest closest friend, who told our secrets to someone else? Our enemy, our father, who abandoned us when we needed his protection? People always disappoint. That's what people do. People are made of clay, easily broken, in need of redemption. WE are made of clay, we disappoint. We usually cannot give what others expect of us, most of the time, or some of the time. 

What we need is God's love shining through our brokenness, our cracks. After all, we can only love because He first loved us (1 John 4:9). We cannot give what we do not have. To love our enemies, or our friends, or our family, we need to be confident in God who loves us immeasurably, forgives us unconditionally, and will walk with us till the end.