I am reminded of a line from a song by Larry Norman, “The Beatles said all you need is love, and then they broke up”. If four lads from Liverpool who were making serious bank together couldn’t get along, how are we supposed to actually love one another in a time of such division and vitriol the likes of which most of us have never seen before? Never mind just getting along with one another, how are we supposed to do as Jesus said and actually love our enemies?

I find that there are numerous verses from the Bible that we tend to brush right by. The call to love your enemies is one of those. It just feels unrealistic at best, and foolhardy at worst. But let me ask you, how different would the world be if we actually did what Jesus said to do? What would it look like if, instead of demonizing those with whom you disagree and who you consider an enemy, you actually tried to love them?

For starters, I can tell you what it doesn’t look like. It doesn’t look like what most of our political leaders are doing these days. What I mean is speaking of the opposition in ways that belittle them as human beings. It comes from both sides of the aisle. There are more then enough examples of leaders on the political right and political left being guilty of dehumanizing those who disagree with them by calling them the kinds of names that used to be reserved for school playground arguments. When they come from supposedly mature adults who are supposed to be leading us to a better future, the damage is massive. Words matter. Words have power. Words lead to actions. The minute you use words that denigrate and dehumanize those you disagree with, they become fair game for attack and are undeserving of love, respect, compassion, or mercy. From there things only escalate to the kinds of things we have seen in recent days.

On June 25th, a liberal Democratic State Representative in Minnesota, Melissa Hortman, was assassinated along with her husband because of her political stance. On September 10th, Conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated in what police are calling a targeted political attack. Leaders on both the political left and the political right need to take stock of their words and ask what are the repercussions of the things we say and the way we say them. But it is not just political leaders, it is especially incumbent on religious leaders to check their words and their tone and set the standard for the way all of us speak about others. If you are a follower of Jesus, it is all the more important to check your words and ask, do my words and my demeanor bring healing or bring division? And keep in mind, you can have disagreement over ideas, policies, and even the Bible and NOT have division.

So just what does it take to love your enemies, and how can we do that? For myself, it required me to come to the realization that I was an enemy who was deeply loved. The Apostle Paul wrote to Christians in Rome in the first century and said, “ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Romans 5:8-10. What those words tell me is that Jesus demonstrated his love for me, by giving His life for me, when I was in fact, His enemy. I may not have been in a hot war with Him, lobbing grenades His way. I was certainly in a cold war with Him. I was not reconciled to Him, I did not love Him, but He loved me.

Knowing that the God of the Universe came into the world to give His life for me, His enemy, how could I possibly treat fellow human beings, who are made in His image, with anything but dignity, respect, compassion, and yes, even love? I know our natural tendency is to win the argument, to defeat those we disagree with, to put them down in order to raise ourselves up. But that never works. It only leads to the opposition yelling louder which in turn leads to more vitriol and on it escalates until someone in their frustration gets violent and people die. Nobody ever has their mind changed in that kind of exchange. We only dig in deeper.

Jesus never lashed out that way. He debated with those who opposed him. He had some serious exchanges of ideas, but He showed respect. In fact He went beyond that. He actually served His enemies. How so? Remember when He washed the feet of His disciples, that included the feet of Judas, the man He knew was about to betray Him. Even as He faced death, Jesus never stopped loving those around Him, including the soldiers who nailed Him to the cross, the crowds who stood around jeering and mocking Him and even close friends who would abandon Him for a time. He never stopped showing them compassion and treating them with dignity.

Was it easy? Not at all. It was painful. It came at a cost. Ultimately, it cost Him His life. But He believed it was worth it.

Loving your enemies doesn’t mean you need to feel all warm and fuzzy about them. It doesn’t mean you need to give in to every idea they have. It means not wishing them harm when they harm you. It means stopping to serve them by helping fix a flat tire on the side of the road in the pouring rain instead of driving through the massive puddle right next to them at high speed. No matter how good that might feel in the moment. It means not thinking the worst of them automatically because they are the opposition. It means acknowledging when they have a good point and changing your thinking as a result.

If you read the Bible closely, that is the picture you get of loving your enemies. It is all through the Bible, not just in the life and teachings of Jesus. In fact, the Law of Moses provides examples of loving your enemies that are the ancient world equivalents of fixing a flat tire, and not immediately thinking the worst of others.

In the wake of the Charlie Kirk and Melissa Hortman killings, will we repent of our divisions and vitriol? Will we back off from the name-calling and finger-pointing? Or will the extreme fringe on both ends of the spectrum be allowed to continue to ratchet up the rhetoric and cause more division? The first two days since Kirk’s killing have left me hopeful on one hand and resigned to more of the same on the other. I have seen numerous posts from people who disagree vehemently with Kirk’s ideas, come out with wonderful statements on the need for free speech and civil discourse. But I have also seen too many posts from people on the left saying, in essence he got what he deserved and others from the right saying it is all the fault of the Left while taking no responsibility for one’s own contribution to the division and being utterly silent on the death of Melissa Hortman.

What’s the answer? I keep coming back to Jesus and the realization that I am a sinner in need of grace and forgiveness and mercy, and that Jesus died to give me that. The most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have eternal life“. If God feels that way about even my enemies, if Jesus is willing to die for those same enemies and me who was also His enemy, who am I to not do all I can to love, even my enemies?