Loving your Inamici: Christmas Lived Out
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies…’” ~ Matthew 5:43-44a
“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” ~ Romans 5:10
Last week I talked about how we were strangers to God, and how He showed us unimaginable xenia by coming to us. However, to leave it at “strangers” is a bit of an understatement. As Paul says in Romans, “we were enemies” of God.
And yet, we know God loved us.
To love your enemy is counter-cultural in any age, however I can’t help but laugh at what the Romans would have thought of this. After all, hating your enemy was thoroughly ingrained in their very politics…