A Fresh Perspective - 01/18/08
I cannot imagine a more challenging and controversial prophetic teaching than the teaching of Jesus: "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. embodied this teaching at great personal sacrifice. His non-violent, non-cooperation with racist, segregationist laws inspired a movement that "moved" us a little closer to the kingdom of God.
In a sermon entitled "Loving Our Enemies," written in a Georgia jail and preached just after the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, Dr. King says, "To our most 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 still love you . . . Throw us in jail, and we shall love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye 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.'"
Only the kind of love that offers forgiveness to our enemies - the persons or groups that seek our demise - can break the cycles of hate and violence that pervade the domination systems of the world. Only the redemptive power of love can change evil and corrupt hearts bent on condemnation and destruction.
But that is not why Christians are to love their enemies. Yes, we hope for their conversion from enmity and hate to forgiveness and love. But that is not the reason we love them. According to the gospel of Jesus we love them because God loves them: "Love your enemies, do good to them . . . and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father in heaven is merciful" (Lk. 6:35-36). God is the kind of God who is gracious even to his enemies; therefore, if we are to live as God's daughters and sons in the world then we will be gracious too.
This teaching of Jesus has caused some would-be followers of Christ to throw up their hands in despair. Many evangelical Christians simply ignore it, reducing Christianity to a set of beliefs that one must get right. Other Christians acknowledge it, but for all practical purposes deny it, because they have no intention of living according to it.
Dr. King admits that this is not practical, but "the so-called practical way (which is about getting even) has led inexorably to deeper confusion and chaos. Time is cluttered with the wreckage of communities which surrendered to hatred and violence. . . This is the only way to create the beloved community." Thank you, Dr. King, for showing us that Jesus' teaching, while not practical, is deeply relevant. Thank you for giving us a dream and hope that some day love will win.
Chuck Queen is Pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church, Frankfort (CBF affiliated). You can access his sermons and past articles at www.ibcfrankfort.com. He welcomes your comments at cqueen@fewpb.net