Jesus calls us to love our enemies. What do you think this means? Who do you view as your enemies? In what practical ways can you love them?

Loving one’s enemies is a challenge but also a way to honor God for what he has done for us. It is easy to love those that we like, but true and unadulterated love can best be shown to those who are difficult to love. If we want to try and fathom the depth and intensity of God’s love for us, we must practice loving those who are hurt, broken, unlikable, or difficult. Practical ways to love those that we see as enemies includes: praying for them, small acts of kindness, not speaking ill of them or judging them silently, encouraging them.

Our enemies are to be loved because we are all enemies of God without Christ. Therefore, as we show our love for God as He first showed love to us after the fall, with the various covenants made and of course Christ himself showing the perfect example of Love, we show our love to the father by loving others, even those in disagreement or living in sin. Coming into dialogue with others over judging them, even if we leave the discussion agreeing to disagree

Since I am not physically being persecuted for my faith I consider my enemies to be those who consider Jesus as irrelevant to their life. This is both in circles of people I know and those I don’t know. It is mostly people in my family who live their life however they want without any thought to how they are impacting others. I try, but sometimes fail, to love them by being kind and hearing what they are concerned about. At the same time I try to listen to the Holy Spirit in case there is something He wants me to say or do. And as for the people I don’t know that is harder. When I see so much violence in our world then I pray for those who are so full of hatred; I pray they would know Jesus and his love for them, for someone to be in their life that will reflect God to them, and for the Holy Spirit to get past their defenses and shine his light in their darkness.