Cowboys and Indians. The Autobots and the Decepticons. The Red Sox and the Yankees. Enemies. Living in our reasonable civilized society, not many of us have personal enemies. There certainly are enemies of Christianity: secularists and atheists. There are enemies of Western society: Islamic terrorists. And enemies of our worldview: the liberal media. Most of us, however, do not have personal enemies. But we do have people we don’t like and who don’t like us. In our families there are people who we really don’t look forward to seeing at Thanksgiving. At work there are people who we don’t get along with and try to avoid. Even at church there are people who irritate us and we would prefer not to be around them. It’s natural to gravitate toward certain people, but is it right? Is it right to keep our enemies at bay? I don’t remember who said it, but he recommended keeping your enemies close; keep them close so that you can keep your eye on them. I think Jesus would also tell us to keep our enemies close, but for a different reason… in order to love them. “I say, ‘love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!’” (Matt. 5:44). This passage is Jesus’ exposition of Leviticus 19:18, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Some in Jesus’ day may have been teaching that, if we’re commanded to love neighbors, then, by contrast, we can hate enemies. They may have been teaching this in misapplication of the Old Testament principle of excluding the foreigner. God instructed the Israelites to exclude foreigners from the community not because they were foreign but because they were idolatrous. God-fearing foreigners, on the other hand, could be included in Israel: Rahab and Ruth, for example. The principle of exclusion had nothing to do with personal enemies. Jesus corrected the misunderstanding and challenged the natural, sinful human tendency: “Love your enemies.” The enemies of Jesus’ disciples were the Romans, the Pharisees, persecutors. Our individual enemies may be people we don’t like or who don’t like us, people with whom we don’t get along. Jesus expects His followers to love those they don’t like. But it’s not about just loving those we don’t like; it’s harder than that. Sometimes we have people in our lives who, intentionally or unintentionally, do us wrong, threaten us, or seek to harm us; who mistreat us even though we’ve been nothing but kind to them. Jesus instructs us to love them. And that love is more than just passively enduring them, it’s an active love. Jesus Himself gives us a few practical ideas: “Pray for those who persecute you.” “Do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27). “Bless those who curse you” (Luke 6:28). Living according to Jesus’ command will revolutionize our lives and relationships. It might even make a friend out of an enemy.