Jonathots Daily Blog
(4201)
“Love your enemies.” A peculiar idea.
First, how does that happen? If you’re really a lover, how do you make enemies? Do some people just hate to be loved—therefore they have to hate you because you’re the one who loved them?
Or is it that you fail to love your neighbors, and in the meantime, they turn into enemies, so now you’ve got a real problem.
How can you love your enemies? Doesn’t the word “enemy” connote some sort of conflict?
Does Jesus love Satan? They’re enemies.
Does Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi love Donald Trump? They’re enemies.
There seems to be a prerequisite of a certain amount of disfavor, if not hate, in levying the word “enemy” onto someone else.
So what’s the purpose of the love? Are we speaking figuratively, as in, “compared to the amount of dislike we could muster, we sure seem loving in our discretion?”
Or is it that condescending “love your enemy,” like they do with gay people?
“I love the sinner, but I hate the sin.” How does one do that?
For this to work, the sinner would have to believe he or she is sinning, rather than following a sexual orientation. Any way you look at it, it’s hatred.
So how do you love your enemies? Doesn’t it express a weakness that leaves you vulnerable? Someone gets ready to punch you in the face, and you say, “Listen—I love you.”
Do we think it’s a deterrent?
Does “turn the other cheek” spare a cheek from being hit? Or just make you defenseless?
God knows, pessimism is a destructive virus. But likewise, optimism leaves us all gooey and doughy—half-baked.
I don’t know about you—I don’t want platitudes.
I don’t want someone to say, “Love your enemies,” and then if I try it, they chuckle and say, “No—not that way.”
Or, “Come on, kid. You’ve gotta stand up for yourself.” But we’ve been standing up for ourselves for a long time.
Israel stands up for itself in the Middle East. So do the Arabs.
Standing up for oneself is really the formula for a stand-off, isn’t it?
Yet what good does it do to introduce love into a volatile situation?
It seems so ridiculous to people, even those who claim to believe in the Gospel, that they try to ignore it and think of all sorts of ways to hurt one another.
How did I ever get goddamn enemies? Did I think I was loving, but ended up being an asshole? Or did I insist I imitate a loving person while being an asshole? Come on.
Words are useless unless you know what they mean.
When the words “love” and “enemy” occur in the same sentence, I, for one, need more information.
I’d rather not have enemies. Will being a loving person help with that? Now, there’s an idea.
I don’t want to pick a fight. Picking a fight is such a futile process. There’s a chance you’ll win. There’s a chance you’ll lose. But if you win, you still must have some sort of concern toward the person you beat the crap out of. Otherwise, people will think you’re wicked. I guess it’s alright to be hateful as long as you aren’t wicked.
When people say they’ll pray for you, do they? Or is the statement the prayer?
I think maybe the human race could do much better if high-sounding ideas like “love your enemy” were better explained, and really shitty attitudes, like, “every man for himself,” were exposed.
My thought is, if somebody is your enemy and you aren’t able to whoop him, you’d better find a way to get along with him.
And if you think you can whoop everybody, it’s safe to say that you’ll eventually get whooped.
I’m not in the mood for a good whooping—either to give one or to take one.
So I guess the thought is:
Once you find out that someone is pissed at you, control the vibe.
Nurture the energy that flows his or her way, and make sure they have no reason to turn the feud into a vendetta and the vendetta into a war.
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