Of all the “hard sayings” of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, perhaps one of the most difficult is His instruction to love our enemies. Years ago, I had a co-worker who treated me badly. One day I congratulated myself on the fact that I’d never been unkind to her, never returned evil for evil and never tried to get even. Then the Holy Spirit whispered, “But you don’t love her.” He was SO right, and I stood stripped of all my “righteousness” in God’s presence. Even though I had refrained from taking revenge, my heart wasn’t right.
Sometimes we wonder how it is even possible to love our enemies. What does that look like? Romans 12:20-21 says: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. (v. 21) Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” I believe verse 21 is the key–overcoming evil with good. The best example I’ve ever seen of this came from a young woman I’ll call Cindy. She had suffered a great deal at the hands of one of the older players on her basketball team whom I’ll call Marsha. Cindy was an excellent player and Marsha felt that Cindy had robbed her of a starting role on the team. But no matter what Marsha did, Cindy continued to treat her with kindness.
A week or two before the game when seniors are honored, Cindy told her mother, “I think it would mean a lot 
to Marsha to be one of the starters on senior night. I’m going to ask the coach to put her in my starting position for that game.” Later, as we watched the game, we saw Cindy give Marsha a sincere hug, when she was being honored, and more than polite applause. I sent Cindy the following note, “There’ll come a time when your athletic ability won’t be so important, but character is forever!”
I believe one of the clearest indicators that we are fulfilling Jesus’ commandment to love our enemies is when we not only refrain from doing anything to hurt them but we also make every effort to do things for them that are good. It may even be that as we go the extra mile to do those good things, God Himself does the impossible, filling our hearts with love for them.
Father, enable us to obey your command to love our enemies in tangible ways so that you can fill our hearts with your love. Amen.
(All of the photos used are random ones from the Internet.)