Can we really love our enemies?

The world seems to be filled with good guys and bad guys. From the viewpoint of an us-versus-them mentality, those on our side are seen as friends and allies, and those on the other side as opponents, sometimes enemies.

And then there are those who are doing things that are harmful to us or to others – those who, in Christ Jesus’ words, “curse you, ... hate you, ... and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).

So how should we deal with those who oppose us? That’s a question addressed in an essay called “Love your enemies” by Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science. She begins by asking: “Who is thine enemy that thou shouldst love him? Is it a creature or a thing outside thine own creation?” (“Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896,” p. 8). The essay makes it clear that the enemy exists only in our perception.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Christ Jesus commands us to love our enemies. It is not a question of choice or of waiting for the right conditions. He says loud and clear, “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.”

Jesus makes plain that it is not the reciprocal love among family and friends that he is calling on us to practice but the kind of universal love that God expresses. He notes that our heavenly Father “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).

How do we love with such impartiality? As Mrs. Eddy points out, it is not necessary for us to love a sinning human being. That would be to condone his or her belligerence or deceit. To solve this problem, we must recognize the distinction between the information coming to us from the material senses and the truth coming from spiritual sense.

The material senses convey images of material or wrongful conditions – of death and destruction. But these are not pictures of the world as God, Spirit, created it. They are false impressions produced by a supposed mentality apart from God, who is the one divine Mind. To get the true picture of reality, we must rely on spiritual sense – the capacity each of us has to be conscious of God, good, and God’s perfect, spiritual creation.

The infinite, divine Mind expresses its goodness in man through what might be called Godlike qualities. These divine attributes form the true identity of each of us as God’s creation.

Christian Science shows us that we have a choice about the kind of information we are going to accept about ourselves and others: the material sense of humanity as selfish, dishonest, unjust, and capable of evil, or the spiritual sense of man as God’s creation – intelligent, loving, just, pure, and capable of good only.

I had to make just such a choice many years ago when I was working with young Black and white students on a project designed to overcome racism. My friends and I needed city approval for several parts of this project, but we found ourselves opposed by a city official. He even made statements that were clearly racist.

I prayed for God’s guidance and was led to study the essay “Love your enemies.” But I just couldn’t get my thought around that idea that I was creating my own enemies. This guy sure sounded and acted like our very real enemy. At that point a good friend encouraged me to imagine that this city council member had asked me to pray for him about a problem he was having.

Of course! If this man were to ask me to pray for him, I would immediately throw out the picture of him as a mortal. Instead, I would cherish those spiritual qualities that I knew were his as a child of God.

It came to me to invite him to attend one of our project’s activities. He was hesitant, but accepted. That was the beginning of a genuinely supportive relationship. We next had a difficult zoning issue with the city, but our new city council defender resolved it for us seamlessly.

Our goal isn’t to love people as flawed human beings but to lift thought to the contemplation of man as God’s spiritual image and likeness. When we are able to see from this true perspective, it’s natural to love even our enemies impartially.

Adapted from an article published on sentinel.christianscience.com, Feb. 8, 2023.