Are People Your Enemies?

Think a minute before you answer.

Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” If people are not your enemies, then whom is He telling you to love? The devil? (That wouldn’t make any sense.)

There’s a tendency for people to de-personalize their enemies. It’s easier to steal from someone, if you call that someone a corporation, or the government. It’s easier to drop a bomb on someone, if you call that someone a target. It seems like about everybody is getting all fired up against some de-personalized enemy: the government, political parties, multi-national corporations, Wall Street, the rich, gays, Muslims, Catholics, the organized church, Babylon, the system, etc… How would it change our dialog and our actions, if we actually saw our enemies as people… humans… flesh and blood, like we ourselves?

You know that when YOU are the target of bullets, bombs, theft, vandalism, harsh words, or any other kind of opposition; it becomes VERY personalized!

Now let me take this to a more local level. We’ve seen some great freedom, deliverance, and revival in the last several months. Regardless of what our current persuasion is, or whom we listen to, or identify with, only a few would say we’re not more serious about our relationship with God, and more determined to live like Jesus, than we were a year ago. If we all maintain our course to be like Jesus, it will inevitably bring us into the unity that Jesus prayed for in John 17. That’s good!

Yet we know that there have been (and will be) enemies. In this context, I am including even those who have loved you very much, but have unintentionally, even unknowingly, harmed you. There’s no question that whatever, or whoever, had put you in bondage, or deceived you, or made you unfruitful, or just lulled you into comfortable complacency, could be called your ‘enemy’. Was it the devil? Of course, but not by himself. Was it organized religion, Babylon, the system, the hierarchy, the culture? That’s where it gets easy to de-personalize the enemy. All of these are impersonal things. But they are all made up of people.

Did a system put you in bondage? Did a hierarchy mess up your life? Did Babylon confuse you? No. It was people… preachers, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, spouses, friends… all used by Satan in some way, and to varying degrees of guilt. Satan may have used even you in the past, to do his work on others. I, personally, cannot escape that truth. Deceiving, and being deceived, go hand-in-hand.

(I know that sounds horribly negative. And we should never forget that all of us have been helped by others in immeasurable ways, but right now I’ve only got time and space to focus on rightly identifying and loving our enemies.)

Am I saying that our fight is against people? Not at all. Then are we to fight against buildings? Of course not. (Most of us actually live in one.) How about fighting against organizations and systems? Remember… organizations are made up of people. That is why people get upset, and hostilities arise, when you attack an organization. You may feel like you’re only attacking a system, or a building, or some de-personalized ‘target’, but your target feels it very personally. You will generally get a negative reaction… even when you avoid naming names, with the very noble intent of NOT offending anyone.

Now here’s why this is so important… and so good! If you can see your enemies as PEOPLE, not de-personalized targets… then you can LOVE THEM, as Jesus commanded. You can’t love a system, or a building, like you can love a person. When you recognize your enemy as a real person, then you can relate, as a real person yourself, to their struggles, their weaknesses, their needs and desires. That’s a big step toward open, non-defensive, non-combative dialog, and mutual understanding.

Say, if forgiveness is in order, how could you forgive a building, or a system? You need a name and a face… a real person.

Also, you can’t listen to a building, or a system. But you can listen to an enemy you love. And when you listen in love, you just may find a friend and brother who can show you something in God’s wisdom that you might not see yet. And when he sees your genuine, heartfelt love, he just may listen to you. Then, instead of defeating one another, you are both winners… and the unity of the body of Christ is just a little tighter.

I realize, that as hard as I’ve tried here to share something that I believe is from the Lord, and will help the Body of Christ… I am taking a risk of alienating a whole lot of dear friends… and it’s not in my heart to say, “I don’t care.” I just love everybody. God bless you ALL!