Jesus told us to love our neighbor. That usually isn’t too bad. I have generally had good neighbors although once or twice while living in an apartment I have had some noisy neighbors I would have liked to kill about 2 AM. However, those are the exceptions. Most of my neighbors are good folks who are easy to like. A few I have found easy to love. But for most I have been able to act in their interest rather than in my own. Loving my neighbor has never been a major issue.
Jesus also told me to love my enemy. By and large I have not had many problems with that as I can’t remember very many enemies in my life. I do remember one guy in the 4th grade who threatened to beat me up. I don’t know if he was my enemy or not but I did avoid him for several weeks. When I was a pastor there were a couple of people who might have seen me as their enemy as I was trying to change “their” church but I never saw those people as my enemy. So loving my enemy has never been that much of a problem.
What I have had trouble with is some of those people in between. In between “my neighbor” and “my enemy”. That constitutes a wide spread of people. I guess I would characterize them as acquaintances. Some who I have worked with, some I have met at different situations, some I was forced into proximity by circumstances. Some I chose to know until I got to know them better and then saw that as a mistake.
Some of THOSE I have had trouble loving. I bet some of you have the same problem. I have no problem with neighbors and those close to me. I have no problem with enemies. They are usually too distant to be concerned with. I have been told by my government that ISIS is my enemy but I have never met a member of ISIS. Before that, I was told my enemy was the Communist but I don’t remember ever meeting a Communist. So I have never had a problem with them.
But there are a lot of people that go into neither of those classifications, neighbor or enemy, that I really don’t even like much less love. I don’t know what it is about them. I can’t put my finger on it, I just don’t want to be around them. They haven’t done anything to me. Some I have barely met. I just don’t like them.
Some It’s just because of their bumper sticker. Theirs came from the “other party”, you know which one I mean. Sometimes, it is because of the way they talk. Sometimes because they are loud and obnoxious when I want things to be quiet. Or quiet when I want things loud and fun. What can I say? I can find lots of reasons not to like people. No, I don’t love them.
Now that is when I begin to feel guilty. If Jesus said to love my neighbor. If Jesus said to love my enemy. Then he must have meant that I was to love all of those in between people also.
Jesus had some neighbors, some followers who were close to him. He loved them. Jesus had some enemies, they crucified him and he prayed for his Father to forgive them—an act of love. But most of the people were in between those two extremes. He Died for them! An act of love.
If I am a Follower of Jesus I guess I better do acts of love for my neighbors, my enemies and that crowd of people in between. Some of which I don’t even like. I need a lot of help in this area.