Faith | There is a way to love someone who hates you

How do you love someone who hates you, is a question many wonder when hearing Jesus Christ’s instruction to love your enemies and bless them that curse you (Matthew 5:44).

To answer this question, I think back to when a person who I thought was a friend, turned viciously against me, making me the target of his slander and malice. I was taken aback by his cruel words and intent to harm me. What was I to do?

I fretted.

In praying for a healing response, I thought about Jesus’ instruction to “Love your enemies,” and wondered how obeying this rule would protect me this man’s evil intent.

I quickly decided that Jesus was not telling me to overlook evil in another and pretend like it wasn’t there. That would be naïve and foolish, for evil must be destroyed, not accommodated. But I had no desire to return in kind what I was receiving from him.

In praying further, I saw that a primary purpose of Jesus’ admonition to love your enemies was to keep another’s evil from becoming my evil. It was to prevent their hatred from becoming my hatred, their resentment from becoming my resentment, and their false accusations from breeding intimidation and fear in me which would lead to weakness and vulnerability.

The most effective counter attack to the evil I was facing, I decided, was a consciousness illuminated and empowered with the calm and composed authority of love. As light destroys darkness, love destroys the effect of hate. I wanted to side with the power of love, not with the depravity of hate.

I had to remember that healing love is infinitely more than a personal attribute. “God is love” (I John 4:8) the Bible teaches.

Genuine love is a divine power, a heavenly influence, that is invincible, immortal, eternal. It is above the reach of any attack on character. It rules supreme in the mind that knows it, and no evil on earth can knock it down or take it away. When we choose to love rather than to hate, we side with the almighty power of God, which in turn, protects us from evil mindedness.

To counter the personal attacks coming at me, I showered this fuming person with love. I prayed to see that a child of God was underneath that charade of carnal mindedness. I knew that the hate he manifested was temporal and destined to end.

I had confidence that the power of God’s love would prevail, and that the truth about me would stand strong, unstained by the circulated lies.

As I chose to love this man, rather than to hate him, I found peace. I dropped concern about what he had done and continued to send love his way.

I’m happy to say that the attacks stopped, my life went on untouched by the guile, and he took a different route in life that was far from mine.

I’m grateful for the spiritual lesson learned. Jesus taught us to love our enemies because he knew that was the best way to live free of them.