Loving Your Enemies

You may not know where it says it, but more than likely, you know that the bible says to love your enemies. My first thought when I think of that is, "I don't really have any enemies." Enemy sounds like such a harsh term. I don't think I view any one person as an enemy. That kind of makes loving my enemies easy.

I say that, but it's kind of a cop out. Sure, I don't have an arch-nemesis that I consider my enemy, but I don't think that is what the bible means when it says love your enemies.

It doesn't take much effort to find commentaries on loving your enemies. A quick Google search turns up a lot of them. My understanding of the passage in Luke 6, and the similar passage in Matthew 5, is that we are to not only love those that are easy to love, or the people that we get something out of loving, but we are to love everyone.

I don't think loving someone means accepting and/or condoning all their behaviors. This can be hard to reconcile. Love is not always easy. I think loving someone is caring enough about them as a person, as a someone made in God's own image, that you want what's best for them.

Now, what you think is best for someone and what they think is best for them is often going to differ. And, just because you love that person and you think you know what's best, does not give you the right to impose your will on them. No, I think a truer testament to love is standing by someone despite the fact that they are living outside of what you think is best for them.

This all comes from a blog I saw this morning. The guys over at The Plow created a poster. Then, they converted it into a t-shirt. Now, they are giving the t-shirt away to anyone that donates to Bite Back.

I'd like to know...
What do you think about when you hear "love your enemies"?

What do you think about the t-shirts?
Do you think you would wear one? Why, or why not?