Consider this part 2 of my ruminations on the Christian injunction, Love your enemies. Part 1is here.
The answer to the question is, I think, no. You cannot. This is why it is better, in my opinion, for Christians to avoid putting themselves in a position where they might be called on to do just that. A Christ-follower shouldn't be a hangman, for instance. A Christ-follower should not be a soldier.
But what of the non-lethal wars that blow across our cultural landscape like summer storms? What about the culture wars? Can I love my enemy in the culture wars while still fighting them tooth and nail?
I think it is hard to love someone once you have deemed them your enemy. To indulge in a warfare mentality, even if only about issues in a culture war (issues surrounding race, gender, sanctity of life, statues, limits to free speech, etc.), is to become consumed with these issues, and to create new categories of enmity.
Who is my enemy? If I'm fighting a war, even if it's only a war in my own mind, then my enemy is the one on the other side of that warfare. And to enmitize another is to effectively place them beyond the reach of love.
Warfare tends to escalate. Your culture-war opponent is at first merely someone who disagrees with you on an important issue. But before long he is being accused of murder or treason or racial hatred, though he has done nothing more than hold to a differing opinion about some issue you have prioritized in your own mind.
That's how a warfare mentality operates, and we see examples of it every day. Presidential tweets that call a whole political party treasonous or anti-American, for example. We see thought-leaders in the media urging their followers to think of a whole host of others as enemies. And an enemy is difficult to love.
This is why I generally try to take a non-combatant position in the culture wars. I have opinions, sometimes strong ones, and I will share them at times, but mostly I try to stand apart from the conflict. Warefare mentality produces harshness and judgmentalism.
Here's an opinion. If we want to love our enemy, we should stop thinking of them as enemies and start thinking of them as neighbors. We should seek their good, even as we may continue to disagree with them. Since we believe that all are made in the image of God and loved by him, we should refrain from speaking the language of enmity when we speak of the issues over which we disagree. We should de-enmitize our language. We are not combatants, we are missionaries. We should be relentlessly forgiving, as Jesus was.
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The earlier posts in this series are as follows:
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