The Impossible-ness of Loving Our Enemies

I’m still reading a book by Kenneth E. Hagin entitled, ‘Love: The Way to Victory’ and he said something that though I thought I knew, I actually understand now. He said,

‘…praying for our enemies has a lot to do with walking in the God-kind of love.’

That statement is powerful because it takes a God-kind-of-love, to love someone, that for all intents and purposes, you should very well hate. Yet God commands us to in Matthew 5:44 which says, “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you…”

Thankfully, that’s a commandment because if we had to do this, in and of ourselves, it would take an unnerving STRENGTH and an abundance of MATURITY on top of a never-ending OBEDIENCE and a robust DISCIPLINE for the things of God. But more than anything, it’s going to take the power of God and faith in that power to love an enemy which means your focus can’t be on you or your enemy. You’re only going to be able to get this done when you want to obey and please God more than you want to get that get back.

And though you can simply go through the motions of trying to be nice to your enemies’, those niceties won’t last long. The longstanded-ness or the wherewithal of keeping the commandment lies in your desire to want to do it because you want to please God.