“Loving Your Enemies” (1957)
&gt;I think the first reason that we should love our enemies, and I think this was at the very center of Jesus’ thinking, is this: that hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. [tapping on pulpit] It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that’s the strong person. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil. And that is the tragedy of hate, that it doesn’t cut it off. It only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe.<p>Many of the so called and supposedly tolerant &quot;social justice warriors&quot; and the &quot;PC crowd&quot; would do well to understand this principle.<p>While indeed they may have a valid point about the vile hatred which their enemies are spreading, many of them become overridden by that hatred and echo it back creating a negative feedback loop.<p>&gt;And this is what Jesus means, I think, in this very passage when he says, &quot;Love your enemy.&quot; And it’s significant that he does not say, &quot;Like your enemy.&quot; Like is a sentimental something, an affectionate something. There are a lot of people that I find it difficult to like. I don’t like what they do to me. I don’t like what they say about me and other people. I don’t like their attitudes. I don’t like some of the things they’re doing. I don’t like them. But Jesus says love them. And love is greater than like. Love is understanding, redemptive goodwill for all men, so that you love everybody, because God loves them. You refuse to do anything that will defeat an individual, because you have agape in your soul. And here you come to the point that you love the individual who does the evil deed, while hating the deed that the person does. This is what Jesus means when he says, &quot;Love your enemy.&quot; This is the way to do it. When the opportunity presents itself when you can defeat your enemy, you must not do it.<p>As he says, you don&#x27;t have to <i>like</i> your enemy, but you should strive to <i>understand</i> them and where they are coming from as a human being; rather than writing them off as irrevocably stupid and completely irrational, as is done repetitively by either side in the 2 party system.<p>This is not merely a religious&#x2F;moral principle, but a strategic&#x2F;practical one:<p>&quot;If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle&quot;<p>-Sun Tzu, The Art of War