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Love your enemies?

At a time when people are increasingly realizing the need for less friction and conflict among those with opposing views, the gospel message of loving our enemies seems more relevant than ever. Today we share a poem that helps show us how.

  • By Jacob R. Moon

Christian Science Perspective audio edition
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It puzzled me for the longest time:
Jesus’ saying to all
(Including us)
“Love your enemies.”

“Love the Lord thy God.”
Well, sure.
“Love thy neighbour as thyself.”
Fine.
But “Love your enemies?”

My balky heart said no.
“Not till they change,” it said.
“Not till they do something
To become lovable.
How can I? Why should I?”

Then one day I looked it up,
And saw what follows:
“Love your enemies ...;
That ye may be the children
Of your Father
Which is in heaven.”

Oh.
That changes everything.

For your own sake –
For the sake of all mankind –
See only what God sees;
Refuse to be hoodwinked
Into beholding an enemy.
Let nothing and nobody
Trick you into letting go of love,
No matter what.

Love your enemies?
If we could,
It would ...
When we do,
It will ...
Change everything.

Originally published in the Christian Science Sentinel, Jan. 16, 1989.

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

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The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

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