Love for enemies; make a good choice

"But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you." Luke 6:27-31

Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. These are tremendous words -- but how do we do it?

How can we love people who have hurt us? How can we do good to people who have gossiped about us, or cheated us, or otherwise oppressed us? How do we love the parent who has abused us or the teacher who has called us a fool, or the ex-wife or ex-husband who has tried to destroy the relationship we have with our children?

How can we love our enemies when everything we feel inside us about them makes us want to hurt them back as they have hurt us? That is the most common question that I and, I believe most other ministers, are asked.

How can I love someone I feel no love for? How can I bless those who curse me? The answer that is indicated by Scripture and by the life of Jesus, is that you can love those who you feel no love for only when you decide to do so.

Love you see is not a feeling -- it is a choice. Love is the decision to do right even when wronged, to do good even when bad is done, to bless even when you are cursed, to forgive even when you are condemned, to care even when you are not cared for. Love is not what we feel. Rather it is the good that we decide to do and then do. We so accustomed to thinking of love as a feeling, rather than as a decision or a choice we make, that a few words of explanation seem necessary.

How do we love our enemies when we do not feel like loving them? How do we get up in the morning to go to work when we feel tired? How do we shovel out the barn when we feel like sitting down and spending the day reading? How do we diet when we feel like having a gigantic bowl of ice cream with chocolate sauce and nuts and a cherry on top?

We simply decide -- we make a choice and then we follow through.

Jesus tells us a bit of what it means to love your enemy, of what we must decide to do if we are to love him or her, or in fact anyone - whether they are our enemy, or our friend. He tells us to bless rather than to curse, to wish the best for others rather than the worst. He tells us to be merciful as God is merciful, to forgive and to give as God gives forgives, without any expectation or hope of reward from that person, but simply for the sake of the other person simply because that is God's will for us.

Jesus tells us "Do to others as you would have them do to you."

That really is the greatest piece of advice about how to love others that there is. "Do to others as you would have them do to you."

This is the great rule of love -- the great rule by which you can tell if you love someone even when you do not feel very loving towards them.

My friends -- love your enemies -- and love will come back to you, judge them -- and that judgment will return. And remember this -- Love is not a matter of feeling; it is a matter of choice and of decision. And that choice, that decision, is one that affects us as deeply, perhaps even more deeply, as it affects the person we decide to love or to not love.

May all your choices about who to love be good choices -- that your measure may return to you not only full but also full of goodness.

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Editor's note: The Rev. Dr. Scott Stewart is the pastor of Pea Ridge United Methodist Church and Brightwater Methodist Church. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. He can be contacted at [email protected] or 479-659-9519.

Religion on 01/15/2020