“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you.” Luke 6:27 (NLT)
PART 6 – Danger of Hate
This passage goes on to say from V28-31 “Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you… (then from V35 – 36) Love your enemies! Do good to them… for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.”
Jesus is specifically talking about people here. Not our ultimate enemy, the devil, but people who rise up against us and to cause us heartache and/or harm intentionally or not. Fighting hatred with hatred only results in more hatred. The only thing that has ever cut through hatred is love.
A wise man (also my phycologist through different seasons) told me that “hurting people hurt people.” When you find someone fighting against you, it’s often due to their own brokenness and the state of their heart than anything we represent or have done to them. When you step back from someone and can see this, it helps you look at them with compassion rather than retaliating with the same ferocity.
(NB: Be wise – if you are being abused or are in danger, then loving your ‘enemy’ or the one that represents danger does not mean staying vulnerable to that danger, that's not what we’re saying at all. Get yourself safe and get some help if you are in that kind of situation.)
There’s this old saying – “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle you know nothing about”… Kindness and love makes the difference, not more power or brute force.
Tolklien says through the character Gandalf “Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.”
Let's allow Jesus to help us be those ‘ordinary folk’ who meet darkness with kindness and love. Lets be people who can see through our enemy's ferocity and into the brokenness of their hearts and allow LOVE to respond rather than react with hatred. It changes you… It helps keep you from the destructive ways of hurt and fear, and it just might help your ‘enemy’ find healing and compassion.