How Is It Possible To Love An Enemy? (Jesus, morals)

[Sunstone]

Jesus admonishes people to love their enemies. But what does that mean? How is it possible to love your enemy without sacrificing yourself? Or is self sacrifice being implied here? And if so, is it a good thing to love your enemy?

[YmirGF]

I don't think it is possible to "love your enemy" per se, otherwise they would not be your enemy. How could you go pick up a gun and go shoot someone you love? Could you do it, Phil? I sure couldn't. I think THAT is the point of what he is saying. In effect, the glowy one is saying, "If you love everyone, no one will BE your enemy." Granted, it does help if everyone is on the same page.

The other part of the quote, if I remember correctly is "as you would love yourselves", but sadly all too many people don't seem to be able to manage even that much. The point being, if you don't love yourself, how exactly do you know what it is like to love another?

I could be wrong, but that is the way it has always struck me.

[Comprehend]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

Jesus admonishes people to love their enemies. But what does that mean? How is it possible to love your enemy without sacrificing yourself? Or is self sacrifice being implied here? And if so, is it a good thing to love your enemy?

Loving your enemy does not mean to do whatever your enemy wants. I understand it to mean to do what is best for them to the best of your understanding. Immanual Kant espoused the same sort of ideal and explained it in great detail in The Metaphysics of Morals, in the section on the happiness of others. Think of it this way, if you have a child, your kid may want ice-cream for dinner, you happen to know it would be better for them to have spaghetti (or whatever). You give your kid the spaghetti and that is loving them. In the same way, loving your enemy should be viewed in this light (IMO). That being said, you all are aware of what happened to Jesus and the Apostles, they all did sacrifice themselves. I believe self sacrifice is necessarily being implied here. Not usually to the fullest extent (death) but normally, when you give to another of yourself, you are making some sort of sacrifice. That is the gospel. Love your fellow man. Finally yes, I think it is a good thing to love your enemy. those who do not believe in an afterlife should remember that many of us that do, do not view death as nearly as large of a consequence as you do.

for reference:
John 15:12-13
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Matthew 5:44-46
43 ¶ Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

[Luke Wolf]

On a larger scale, according to The Art of War, taking care of captive enemies is good, as it can add to your numbers.

On a personal level, maybe loving your enemy can be accomplished after all issues are settled (I know two people who are best friends, allthough the one was going to literally kill the other the first time they met), but I'm not sure loving someone while they are your enemy is possible.

[Ozzie]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

Jesus admonishes people to love their enemies. But what does that mean? How is it possible to love your enemy without sacrificing yourself? Or is self sacrifice being implied here? And if so, is it a good thing to love your enemy?

Buddha recommends loving your enemy also. On a practical level, so long as your "enemy" doesn't have a knife to your throat or is bankrupting your, you can view their agression toward you as harmful to themselves not you. Apart from being a fact according to karma, you can leave yourself unaffected by their agression if you adopt this posture. Try it!

[Hema]

I know that many people forgive their enemies but I don't want to talk about that. I think in general, if people love their enemies, it doesn't mean that we are saying that whatever they did to us was right. To me, it means that we should send feelings of love toward them. If we send feelings of hate toward them, it will only make them worse people. If we send feelings of love and ask God to help them be better people, in the long run, it will help our enemies to change for the better.

[PureX]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

Jesus admonishes people to love their enemies. But what does that mean? How is it possible to love your enemy without sacrificing yourself? Or is self sacrifice being implied here? And if so, is it a good thing to love your enemy?

I think it means separating people from their behavior, in our minds and hearts. People become our "enemy" by what they do, not by who they are. So there is no need to "sacrifice ourselves to them". We can defend ourselves against what our enemies do, while simultaneously forgiving them for doing it. And yes, I would kill someone I love under some extreme circumstances, such as mortal defense.

[CDRaider]

I take that to be that you must understand your 'enemy' is human too and they have reasons, healthy and logical or not, are still humans. They too think they are in the right and they too believe that you are harming them or someone close to them by your beliefs. Even if they are wrong, they aren't terrible people.

[PureX]

Originally Posted by CDRaider

I take that to be that you must understand your 'enemy' is human too and they have reasons, healthy and logical or not, are still humans. They too think they are in the right and they too believe that you are harming them or someone close to them by your beliefs. Even if they are wrong, they aren't terrible people.

Often that's the case. But sometimes people become so screwed up by the things that have happened to them in life that they become the embodiment of anger and hatred and resentment and act out under the spell of these emotional toxins. But we can still love and forgive them, if we can understand that they have fallen victim to the poison that their own "enemies" have infected them with in the past.

To me, none of this excuses the negative behavior they are exhibiting toward us, however, and so we are not obliged to accept it, and can defend ourselves against it. In fact, it could be argued that to defend ourselves against unloving behavior is a way of teaching our "enemies" what love is (and is NOT).

[JMoum04]