That Lord of ours!  He is the master of the paradox!  Just about the time our carnal selves get this survival thing down pat, He throws us a curve.  We want to protect our fragile hearts and minds, but the gospel says in more places than one, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who mistreat you."  

I wish the words said something more like, "Avoid your enemies, don't do anything bad to those who hate you, don't talk to those who mistreat you."  That would be so much easier, and it wouldn't even be a sin--or would it?  James tells us that "Anyone then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins" (4:17).  The word enemies in verse 27 is the Greek word for hateful people, not a foreign-type of enemy in a war.  It is the same word used in Romans 5:10.  In context it says,"You see, just at the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him!   For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!" (6-10).  So we were the people who acted hatefully toward God--unloving, disrespectful, uncaring, unfeeling, etc., and He didn't wait for us to change before He gave His life for us.  He set the standard, and loved His enemies.  It is also interesting that the Greek word for love in this verse is agapeo, the God-type love, the same word with which Christ instructs us to "love our neighbor as ourselves," and--are you ready for this?--the same Greek word for love that we encounter in "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). That is the love to which we are called.

We are called to love our enemies because Christ first loved us.  I remember one day when I was complaining to Dr. Eddie Stone who was my pastor.  I was upset because a certain colleague of mine was boasting of breaking the law, abusing the use of my tax dollars, and I wanted her punished for it, and I had told her as much, of course, letting her know how she was disappointing God in the process!  He listened patiently to all my self-righteous ranting, then replied, "Bev, remember, you owe everyone a debt of grace."  In that moment, the Holy Spirit permanently chiseled those words upon my heart.  While I was breaking the laws of God, before I even knew Him, Christ extended His grace to me from a bloody cross.  How can we pray to be like Him and harbor bitterness, anger, hatred and judgement against our brothers and sisters for whom He also died?  

Praise God that He calls things that are not as though they were!  Praise God that He sees the end from the beginning!  And Halelujah to the the Precious Name of the Lord that while I was still His enemy, He died for me!  "What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!"  And who knows but that the very one I percieve as an enemy may come to know and love of the Lord, too, one day. That's Christ's desire, and I want to be like Him.   

Lord Jesus, anoint my eyes that I may always see others through Your Eyes, and not through the eyes of my flesh; and give me a heart to love as You have loved; and please forgive me when I stumble.  Amen.