In the second part of Dr. Martin Luther King’s sermon entitled Loving Your Enemies, he spoke specifically about why we should love our enemies. The following are some the reasons he gave along with some thoughts of my own.
- Loving our enemies is the only way the perpetual cycle of violence and retaliation can ever be broken in an enduring and healing way. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. . . The chain reaction of evil—hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars—must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.
- Our hatred dehumanizes those we hate. We are all such mixtures of goodness and evil. However, we tend to overlook the evil in ourselves while denouncing the evil in our enemies. Those professing a gospel of grace can never allow themselves to dehumanize anyone God loves and is determined to forgive and bring home. If we begin drawing circles which exclude others from our love, we can be sure that others will draw circles which will exclude us. The late William Sloane Coffin maintained that the biblical truth “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” binds us together. We all have that in common, a commonality which precludes any irreparable dehumanization of our fellow humans as long as we trust God’s grace for ourselves.
- Our hatred dehumanizes us. MLK spoke eloquently about this injury we do to ourselves when we hate. Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true. Over the years as a pastor, I have seen examples of people who will not let go of their hatred. Decades after they have been wronged or hurt, they remain obsessed with that past event. Sometimes the person responsible for their pain had been dead for many years. The only one still suffering from that past was the one who valued their hatred and resentment more than a liberated present and future. As William Blake said in his poem entitled “A Poison Tree,” such hatred grows and grows until it destroys both the offender and the offended. Love for one’s enemy is also a form of love for oneself. The enemy may or may not be emancipated by our love. We, however, can always experience a transforming freedom which allows our lives to begin again. We can find a healing and joyful way out of the merciless prison which we have, stone by stone, made for ourselves.
- Loving our enemies is the only way we can change an enemy into a friend. Abraham Lincoln’s reconciling, forgiving spirit scandalized many people in the North who believed those in the South should be severely punished for their insurrection. Lincoln’s response was, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” Even if we are victorious over our enemies in our revenge and retaliation (and even if we kill them), they still remain our enemies, if not in the flesh, then in our memories and heart. They will haunt our souls until we find the strength to love and forgive. And that haunting will hound us throughout our lives. Hatred and resentment are ruthless masters who are never satisfied until they possess all we are.
- For those who seek to follow Jesus, there is a most important reason why we should love our enemies. Jesus said, “Love your enemies that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven.” There is some confusion among Christians regarding exactly who is a child of God. In one way, we are all children of God. That is our identity for at least two reasons. First, God is the ultimate source of all creation, including humans. God is our Mother/Father who brings us into existence. Secondly, we are all children of God because God loves each and all of us. Even the prodigal who rejects his father’s love, goes into the far country, and assumes that he no longer has the right to be his dad’s son discovers that he is still loved and still retains his familial identity.
So, why does Jesus say that “you may be children of your Father who is in heaven” if you love your enemies? The actual phrase used in this part of the Sermon on the Mount is “sons of the Father.” However, inclusive language, which I applaud, conceals a pattern of thought that is central to this saying. In Jewish thinking, to be “the son of” meant to show the character of whatever was being referred to. For example, if one is “the son of righteousness,” that person is a righteous person. If one is “the son of Satan,” such a person is demonic and evil in his or her nature. To be “sons of the Father” is to show the character of God. In this passage, Jesus said that God makes Her sun shine on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” This reference to God’s unconditional and indiscriminate love is one of the most radical sayings of Jesus. (Think how many sermons are blown to bits by Jesus’ assumption of such love!) We are to love our enemies because God loves God’s enemies.
A literal translation of the verb “to be” in “you may be children of your Father” is “that you may be becoming.” Various versions of the Bible interpret the meaning of this verb in different ways: “that you may be acting like your Father,” “that you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves,” “that you may become the children of your Father,” “If you do this, you will be true children of your Father.”
The gist of the passage is that as we love our enemies, we show the character of God and thus truly become like God (“a chip off the old block”).
From God’s side, we are always God’s children. But from our side, we become God’s children in the most authentic way only as we become like God and show Her character. And the deepest kind of love which reveals God’s eternal nature is a love which reaches out to our enemies.
Notice that the literal translation refers to a “becoming.” We become like God. I doubt if any of us will ever completely be like God in this life. (I know I surely won’t.) We are in process, and that grace of space and time should encourage and comfort us. However, we should never presume upon God’s grace. And we should never forget that if God’s ultimate goal is reconciliation of the entire universe and every lost “coin, sheep, and child,” then our love and forgiveness can be integral parts of that final cosmic shalom.
I end this series with one of the most remarkable quotes from Dr. King which reveals the depth of his wisdom, the essence of his discipleship, and the radical nature of his God’s love: To our bitter opponents we say: “We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.”
(Quotes in bold print come from Martin Luther King, Jr’s book Strength to Love, pp. 47-51. If you read only one book by MLK, this is the gem to read, savor, and ponder.)
