But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. - Matthew 5:44
"When the New Testament commands us to love one another, the appeal is not to the emotion, but to the will..... What is enjoined upon all who would call themselves Christians is a sustained determination to show unbreakable good will in order that the best qualities in the person 'loved' may be called forth." - Leslie D. Weatherhead. The Significance of Silence. p. 73
Loving our enemies includes the miracle of a forgiving spirit. Francis C. Stifler passes on an incident from the life of an English soldier. A soldier sent this letter to a German mother: "As a member of a party of Commandos raiding a village in France, it became my duty to kill your son.... I earnestly ask your forgiveness, for I am a Christian..... I hope I may, someday after the war is over, talk with you face to face." This German mother received the note several months later, and she wrote the English soldier this reply: "I find it in my heart to forgive you, even you who killed my son; for I too am a Christian..... If we are living after the war is over I hope you will come to Germany to visit me, that you may take the place in my home, if only for a time, of my son whom you killed."
If we allow hate to linger in the heart, it will twist our mind and blind our vision. By loving those who hate us, we prove that we believe all men are sons of our heavenly Father. When Jesus said, "Love your enemies," He explained the reason by adding, "that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Matthew 5:45. - Neff
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