Love Your Enemies.

The Sermon on the Mount cont... Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, 'Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. In this way, you show that you are the children of your Father in heaven. For he makes the sun rise on people whether they are good or evil. He lets rain fall on them whether they are just or unjust."

"If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?  Even tax collectors do that! If you greet only your friends, what more do you do than others? Even pagans do that! You however are to be complete in goodness, as your Father in heaven is complete."
Matthew 5:43-48

To love those who hate us and treat us badly is surely one of the hardest things to do in the Christian life. But we are to look at God and see how he treats all people. Jesus forgave his enemies as they were nailing him to a cross. He forgives all who ask him for forgiveness. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

I remember reading of an African-American man who got a phone call from a Klu Klux Klan member. The man swore at him and said terrible things. The African-American would tell him he loved him. After a few calls the man who called started to share about his lonely life and eventually they met and became friends. The KKK man gave his life to God joined his former enemy's church. Love can melt a heart that is full of hate.

I love what this commentary said about loving our enemies:

Love your enemies - There are two kinds of love, involving the same general feeling, or springing from the same fountain of good-will to all mankind, but differing so far as to admit of separation in idea. The one is that feeling by which we approve of the conduct of another, commonly called the love of complacency; the other, that by which we wish well to the person of another, though we cannot approve his conduct. This is the love of benevolence, and this love we are to bear toward our enemies. It is impossible to love the conduct of a person who curses and reviles us, who injures our person or property, or who violates all the laws of God; but, though we may hate his conduct, and suffer keenly when we are affected by it, yet we may still wish well to the person; we may pity his madness and folly; we may speak kindly of him and to him; we may return good for evil; we may aid him in the time of trial; we may seek to do him good here and to promote his eternal welfare hereafter, Romans 12:17-20. This seems to be what is meant by loving our enemies; and this is a special law of Christianity, and the highest possible test of piety, and probably the most difficult of all duties to be performed.
http://bible.cc/matthew/5-44.htm