WE LOVE OUR ENEMIES THROUGH THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
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“Loving my enemies does not apparently mean thinking them nice either. That is an enormous relief.” – C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity –
To love our enemies is perhaps the most challenging command that Jesus gives us… a concept foreign to our nature. How then can we do what is seemingly impossible?
We first need to remember that love is not just a feeling… love is a choice and an action. Jesus chose to love the unlovable. He is our model for what the Holy Spirit can do within us… to work in us His will… to mold us into His likeness… and to do what we cannot do ourselves.
“We must try to feel about the enemy as we feel about ourselves— to wish that he were not bad, to hope that he may, in this world or another, be cured: in fact, to wish his good. That is what is meant in the Bible by loving him: wishing his good, not feeling fond of him nor saying he is nice when he is not. I admit that this means loving people who have nothing lovable about them.“ – C.S. Lewis
We may never “feel” love for our enemies as we do for our friends and loved ones. Yet we are called to be like Jesus… to choose to love the unlovable. We are not condoning their wrong actions. Jesus did not accept the evil intentions and actions of His enemies. Yet His sacrifice on the cross was for the sins of all people.
“God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8
God’s nature is love. He always loves us… wishes us the absolute best… even at times when we may not be that lovable. He asks that we do the same for all His children. Yet it is a journey where we allow the Holy Spirit to work gradually in our lives… moving us to victory upon victory… from glory to glory.
“Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.” – C.S. Lewis
On our spiritual journey, we grow to become more and more like Jesus… our heavenly Father’s ultimate desire for us. Through His Spirit within us, we can do what would otherwise be impossible. We can show impossible love… even to our enemies.
