by Brooke Lorren

Created on: September 03, 2009

There are several reasons why Christians should love their enemies. The first reason why Christians should love their enemies is because God said to. The second reason why we should love our enemies is because God loved us when we were his enemy. A third reason why we should love our enemies is because we never know where their life has been, or where their life is headed.

God Said To

In Matthew 5:44, Jesus said to his disciples "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." That's a tall order for any Christian. However, if we really believe that God is wiser than us, and only wants what is best for us, we need to do our best to follow what he says. We may not understand why we are to love our enemies, but if the Bible is true, then there must be a good reason for it.

God Loved Us When We Hated Him

Although many people might argue that they never hated God, the Bible says the opposite. Romans 5:10 says that "when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son." Before we were saved, we were the enemies of God. We followed the morals of the society that we lived in, rather than the commandments of God. We did what we thought was right, rather than what God thought was right. We thought that we were okay, and that we were good enough. We were unconcerned about our sins. Despite our attitude before we got saved, Jesus died for us anyway. We should show the same concern for others.

You Don't Know Who the Other Person is, or who they will Become

Only God knows the future. Only God knows what is in another person's heart. A person might be cruel and unkind to others because they hate him or herself, and the only way to feel better is to treat others with contempt. They might have been raised poorly. When we love our enemies, and pray for them, there is a chance that their lives may change. With a little love, people have gone from prison to preaching, from drug addiction to deaconship. People can and do turn their lives around, but that usually only happens when other people treat them with dignity, and not with contempt.

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