Should you love your enemies?
Asking yourself why should you love your enemies is a difficult question.
Imagine that you are part of a reality TV show. You and your best enemy have a problem to solve and you need each other to survive.
Will you ignore one another?
Think about it.
Let's face it, its easier said than done. Living with other people especially our best enemy is too hard.
Loving our enemies is difficult indeed.
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matt. 5: 44).
Why should you love your enemies?
Let me ask you again, was there a time in your life that you hated someone?
What if the person you hate most is your best friend? Or worse, it could be your parents.
What if your best friend becomes your best enemy in life?
And what if the person you hate most is the only person alive in this world together with you.
The hypothetical question above is rare but I know you have encountered this one already.
Things like this happened because of misunderstanding and miscommunication.
Often times we are misunderstood by our actions, words, and gestures towards other people. This misunderstanding can ignite quarrel between you and another person.
If quarrel arises, expect worse things will happen - bickering, stabbing, backbiting, etc.
Again, the question is what if the only person in the world alive is your best enemy and you.
What would you do?
Why should we love the unlovable?
Why should you love your enemy even when they hate you? Is it really possible? The answer depends on you.
First, we are to live in harmony with one another.
In the book of Romans, it says, as much as possible life at peace with everybody. How can we be at peace with anyone if we have those hatreds for them?
Second, forgiveness is one of the best medicine of all drugs.
It's hard to keep all your hatred by yourself. It can cause heart failure. You kill yourself slowly if you harbor negative feelings towards your friends, parents, etc. That is why the should learn to forgive others for by doing this, we are also forgiven. The book of Matthew has shown to us.
"If you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you." (Matt 6:14)
Last, is to love those who are dear to us.
We only pass this world once, we will be remembered not for our greatest achievements in life. But we will be remembered by how we live our lives.
What if one day, your enemy - the one you hate most is your parent (father or mother) died.
How can you show your love to them while they are still alive?
A common situation again is that we only ask forgiveness if the person is already dying or dead.
We only seek forgiveness if the person is not anymore with us.
What benefit is that for us and to them. It's too late.
Would you allow this thing to happen? Of course not.
I've known this woman who happened to be the husband of my friend. They are a happy and loving couple. But there was this incident that the husband was bedridden because of illness.
Three months after being bedridden, he passed away. Before the death of her husband she prayed:
“Lord, you know how much I love my husband. Please give him another chance at life and I will follow his way and go with him to church. I regret why I had not allowed you more fully into my life while my husband was in good health. I promise, that if you let him live, I will go to church with him. ”
Unfortunately, she cannot do the things she wanted because she cannot bring him back.
It's too late.
You can read the whole story of the couple in my book,
'Wise Decisions: How to choose between two great things and have them both at the same time."
You see, while we still have time to show our love to our dear ones, let's do it.
Do you have a friend whom you have misunderstanding lately?
Are you not on good terms with your mother or father?
Do you know a person whom you cannot go along well together?
This is the right time to show love to them.
