I was listening to my pastor give a sermon on loving your enemies last Sunday. Funny how timely these kinds of messages can be sometimes. There are no coincidences, as they say.
He was explaining how our enemies are loved just as much as we are and then he asked us a question that really bothered me. “Would you be okay with it if your home in heaven ends up being next door to your biggest enemy?” he asked.
Hell no! I answered quickly in my head before looking around at the people sitting next to me, just to make sure I that hadn’t actually said what I was thinking out loud.
I wouldn’t want to ever see my biggest enemy ever again, let alone run into them as I walk down my driveway paved of gold to get the mail every day for the rest of eternity.
But the point that he was trying to make was that we’re called to love our enemies. And if I’m honest with you, I have a really hard time with that.
Our enemies seek to do us harm. We’re called to love them anyway.
Our enemies hate us and make our lives miserable. We’re called to do good to those who hate us.
Our enemies curse us and speak badly about us. We’re called to bless them in return.
And our enemies persecute us. We’re called to pray for them.
I’ve tried hating those who hate me. All it does is make things so much worse for everyone.
The truth is that loving our enemies doesn’t mean that we need to become best friends with them. It doesn’t mean that we start including them on our Evites for our barbecue get-togethers. And we don’t need to send them Christmas cards or call every now and then to see how they’re doing.
But it does mean forgiving them.
Because if our hearts are filled with hate, there will be little room left for us to love anyone else. And if we only love the people who are good to us and love us back, what kind of love is that?
That doesn’t mean you let people walk all over you. That doesn’t mean you don’t stand up for yourself. And that doesn’t mean you don’t play a part in setting things right when you need to.
But we do need to strive to forgive, no matter how difficult that may be or how long it may take.
Because forgiveness allows us to let go and move on. It lets us off the hook from having to get even with our enemies and it leaves justice to be served by a higher authority. It heals our hearts.
The best way to love our enemies is to forgive them. The best way to forgive is to pray for them.
This doesn’t mean that you dedicate time every night to pray that your biggest enemy gets a promotion, or a raise, or that the evil plans that they’ve made to harm you becomes a reality.
Just pray. Pray for the situation. Pray for them. Pray for yourself. What you’ll find is that prayer won’t always change your enemy. And it won’t change God. But prayer will always change you.