Leadership Thought: What Does It Mean to Love Our Enemies?

Dear Friends,

Loving our enemies is hard, and seemingly impossible in some cases, but Jesus makes it abundantly clear that this is what we are called to do.

In the article below, Judd Garrett, wrestles with what Christ's love really means when one confronts something like the horrific hate filled act of revenge that recently took place on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. I share his message as a reminder of how we must respond to such an act as those who claim the name of Christ.

Judd writes, "When I first heard of the Islamic terrorist attack in New Orleans on the early morning of New Year’s Eve killing 14 innocent people, I wanted revenge, or at least justice, which many times feels a lot like revenge. I was filled with anger and hate. A friend of mine told me that if one of his kids had been killed in the terrorist attack, the police killing the terrorist would not be enough. He would want members of the terrorist’s family or his mosque to die as well. He would want a form of retributional justice for his child to show that his child’s life meant something, and that he didn’t die in vain."

"In the past few days, I have wondered, how could anyone follow a religion that tells its followers to kill people who have different religious beliefs? I understand, through history, there have been a number of instances where followers of my religion – Christians – killed others because they were of different religions, but my patent response has always been, when Muslims kill people of other religions, they are acting in accordance to the teaching of Islam, when Christians do it, they are acting directly opposite of Christ’s teachings. That is absolutely true. Jesus taught about love, forgiveness, and mercy. “Do unto others as you would have done unto you”; “love your neighbor as yourself”; “love one another as I have loved you”; and “love your enemies”. Those teachings of love all sound wonderful. They make us feel good about what we believe. They make us feel good about ourselves. They may even make us feel morally arrogant."

"But if we, as Christians, are going to separate ourselves from Islam or the world in general, then we must do more than preach the words of Jesus, we must become the words of Jesus. How many of us really adhere to these dictums? Do we really love our fellow man in the way Jesus tells us to? If so, how in the world do we love our enemies? How can we find it inside ourselves to love the man who just intentionally killed 14 innocent people on Bourbon Street? That goes directly against every human instinct that I have. I want to hate him. Hating him is the natural thing for us humans. I don’t know how to love him. I don’t know if I have that in me, but I know that is what we as Christians are called to do. That more than anything is what separates us from them. We are called to not only forgive but to love that person. Anyone can act in revenge. The world acts in revenge. That is what the driver of that truck was doing – acting in revenge for whatever wrong he superimposed on America or Christians or Jews. And what did his act in those early hours of New Years morning accomplish? And what would taking revenge on his family or someone of his religion accomplish? Absolutely nothing."

"We must find a way to not let the hate inside of us which is begging to come out, to rear its ugly head. You’re never supposed to make emotional decisions, and when the emotion is hate, nothing but evil will emerge from that. The man who committed this evil act on Bourbon Street was driven by hate. That is the only emotion that would motivate that level of evil."

"Cheri Bech, the aunt of Tiger Bech, the ex-Princeton football player killed during the terror attack, told Fox News, “on New Year’s night, we had learned of the news of Tiger. My daughters and I were sitting at our dinner table, and one of my daughters looked at me and said, ‘Mom, you know, someone killed my cousin. And I forgive him’,” she said. “It’s through our faith in Jesus that we’re able to forgive such a heinous act of crime against just innocent people.” This is the ultimate struggle. We are called to live, think and act in a way that is completely contradictory to this world and our nature, but completely consistent with the word of God. Although loving and forgiving people who commit evil, feels unjust here on Earth, remember, the time we spend beyond this world will make our time in this world feel like a blink of an eye".

"Finding a way to love everyone even our enemies, does not mean that we must turn a blind eye to the evil that people do, and suddenly believe it’s okay or justified to commit terrorist acts. It is not. We must do everything in our power to confront and stop evil. But in this world, we are confused. We falsely believe that in order to love another person, we must affirm everything that the person does. And if we don’t affirm their behavior, then we are told we are “hating on them”, which is absurd. Parents can still love their child, even though the child does things that his parents don’t approve of. We are not required to approve of or affirm everyone’s actions in order to love them. And we should not love another person based on their actions, anyway."

"We are called to love our fellow man despite their evil and hateful actions. That’s the difficult thing for human beings. And that’s what makes God, God. God is able to love us in spite of our sins. God is capable of loving the evil person. That’s the difference between God’s love and man’s love. And we may prefer man’s love to God’s love here on earth, but when we stand before God and are making an account for our lives, we will all hope to experience God’s love in that moment not man’s love. We demand justice here on Earth, but we will all beg for mercy at the doorstep of heaven."

"Maybe if we did the impossible and found a way to forgive and even love a person who did the unthinkable – intentionally kill the innocent – and through that, the world would be able to glimpse and even experience the type of love and mercy that Jesus embodied, only then would the innocent not have died in vain."

Judd is a graduate of Princeton University and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He is the brother and brother-in-law of Janine and Harry Flaherty, who together help lead the New Jersey State Fellowship of Christian athletes.