What's Love got to do with it?
- Gary Fritsch
- Mar 15
- 3 min read
In her 1984 song, Tina Turner defines love as a second-hand emotion a reaction to our body's reaction, and unfortunately the world agreed (long before she penned it). So when Jesus says 'love your enemies', we know that He must be talking about something else.
To think about 'love your enemies', you have to be able to define both love and enemy. St. Thomas Aquinas gave us a pretty functional definition of love: 'willing the good of another for the other's sake.' So it's not caring about what happens to the other person because it also affects or benefits us - but because it is good for them, even if it doesn't benefit us - or sometimes even if it inconveniences us. As Jesus quickly points out, when we do this in the context of the people with whom we have loving relationships, it is certainly a good thing, but it is kind of the norm there, although as our friend Tina highlights for us, many of our so-called loving relationships are based on something that is not love.
The second task is to define then what an enemy is. An enemy is someone who is opposed to our good. They place their needs, wants, and ambitions above our good. In this day and age, we can interpret this in a geopolitical way, considering politicians and even whole countries that oppose what we believe to be good. While it is still productive to try and love them and pray for their good, Jesus was almost certainly talking about those who would oppose us personally.
How indeed do we find a way to love those who oppose the very things that are good for us, even things that our good God intends for us? The simple answer might be that we pray that God will change them. Well, that can be a little self-serving. We can fall into the habit of "they are wrong, I am right - God fix them." On the other end of the spectrum, we can begin to think that we must put ourselves last (which is beautiful and sacrificial) which can lead us to becoming a doormat for someone else's desires to trample all over what is good for us.
This is tricky business, to say the least. The answer? Jesus. I know it sounds cliche` but God is the only one who truly knows what is best for us, AND best for those who oppose us. In order to love our enemies, we have to conform our hearts to God's will. We have to genuinely want to see good things for our enemies, and to pray to God not only that He make it happen, but that He will help us to know what role He might desire us to play. God will not ask us to play a role contrary to our own ultimate good. There might be sacrifice, there might be humility, there might be challenges, but God will always lead us to our ultimate good. Their ultimate good will never involve them persisting in sin or bringing harm upon others. Jesus didn't love those who killed Him because they did it, but in spite of it.
This surrendering of our will to the will of the Father for the purpose of the good of another is the theological virtue of love. In this world of sin, it will always be imperfect, but we must always remain dedicated to seeking it perfected through God. This is our eternal destiny and we are called to work toward it now.
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