Can we really love our enemies, or that it’s just utopian expectation?

We all have heard of read last week about Florida Pastor Terry Jones who had planned to burn the Koran on the 9/11. And despite all the protest and internal and international leaders who pleaded with him not to do it, for a while, he was still thinking to incinerate the Koran, as we can read in the Wall Street Journal article.

One of the questions that popped into my mind it’s how does this pastor see and understand Jesus’ teaching from Matthew 5:43-45 “You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”But the question it’s still there and I think it’s a just one. Can we really love our enemy? Can we really have feelings of love towards them, since we cannot have control over what we feel, or at least the control we have it is very limited? Well … in my opinion ….the question itself it’s wrong, because it’s based on a wrong assumption of what the word love means in the Bible.

What do I mean by that? One of the golden rules in Hermeneutics it is to interpret any writings through the eyes of culture that was written by. For us, the western civilization, love is essentially feelings. But the teaching of Jesus, and of the Bible, does not come from a western civilization culture, does it? For a Middle East nation love it’s NOT essentially feelings, but first of all means action. This is why those cultures have arranged marriages. I think the best example of this is the parable of the Good Samaritan, were Jesus defines what love is. Could the Samaritan have any positive feelings for a completely stranger … coming from an enemy nation, that was just robbed? Almost sure he did not have feelings for that man, but still he loved him helping him, doing something good for him.

The most quoted and known verses from the Bible it’s another great example: John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” There are a lot of examples in the Bible where love is seen mainly as action because for Hebrews love meant before anything … doing something, acting for the benefit of the person you love. “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13 (NIV)

Probably Paul, as an “international missionary” was aware of this cultural difference of understanding of love and probably he wanted to point it out, quoting a much older writing, (in his letter to the Christians from Rome) and clarifying what Jesus meant when he said “Love your enemies”. Also I think this passage may possibly answer our question “Can we really love our enemies, or that it’s just utopian expectation?”
Here is what he said:
On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:20-21 (NIV)