The idea that Christians practice and embody love in a way that is different from the rest of the world is ingrained in the church starting in elementary Sunday school. One of the pieces of evidence that was used to back up this understanding was the idea that Christians love their enemies. The fact that this faith calls us to respect those that cause us harm was made out to be the pinnacle of empathy. Christians could not only tolerate, but actually love their enemies? That was unheard of and completely against secular society.
However, I have come to believe that the notion of loving our enemies is not enough. To label someone as an enemy is to reduce them to their negative impact on you, which is an act of dehumanization rather than love. To look at someone and to name them based on what they have done to you is not consistent with Jesus’s naming tendencies in the Gospels. He calls people that society viewed as unclean, impure and potentially harmful as friends, daughters and students. As Christians, we have no enemies; only fellow image-bearers of God.
The word “enemy” is common in religious circles, but is incredibly vague in its limits. What must someone do to be called an enemy? The boundaries are murky and subject to interpretation. It seems equally justifiable to call someone that cuts you off in traffic and someone on the other end of a global conflict an enemy. If that is true, it is a poor word choice for Christians who are supposed to welcome and love the stranger and not fall into worldly anger and judgment. Even though this word is frequently used on Sunday mornings, it is not an appropriate word to call another human being that we claim to love.
There are several uses of the word “enemy” in the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms. The literal translation of the Hebrew word that is commonly used for enemy is “one who hates.” Therefore, Christians are called to love those who hate. I propose that calling someone an enemy is a form of hatred, which reduces us to what we deem others. Instead, we are to view people through their inherent goodness in Christ. To be able to say that “this person has hurt me and yet I will call them friend, family and loved by God” shows radical and encompassing love. On the opposite side, saying “this person has hurt me and I will reduce them to their poor actions and only refer to them as such” is just another form of labeling, unforgiveness and dehumanization – exactly what makes someone an enemy in the first place.
This concept may seem abstract, but the names that we identify people and people groups matter. If someone who holds certain ideologies, looks a certain way or is from a certain place is my enemy, then it is easy to place this label on others who fit these demographics as well. It’s a slippery slope. This can lead to misguided stereotypes and a casual use of the word enemy without thought of the consequences.
If Christians are supposed to love enemies and neighbors alike, why does there need to be separate names for the two? You cannot love your enemy if you call them one. Christians are supposed to welcome the stranger and love their neighbors. An enemy is just a mislabeled neighbor or a stranger that you have not met yet. There are times where this concept seems childish and impossible, and it seems far more satisfying to treat people cruelly based upon how they have treated me. Like wishing harm on people that have caused me harm, and only seeing them through the lens of their past actions that have hurt me. But then I remember my friend Jesus. How he never condemned those who spit on him and nailed him to a piece of wood. How he never lashed back, never succumbed to anger. If Jesus did not call his murderers enemies, then I will not call fellow children of God enemies either. If Jesus does not have enemies, then neither do I.
