Part two of a sermon by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
(…continued) The meaning of love is not to be confused with empty emotional outpouring. Love is something much deeper than cheap sentimentality. Perhaps the Greek language can clear our confusion at this point. In the Greek New Testament are three words for love. The first word, eros, describes romantic love. The second word is philia, which is the feeling between friends. In philia love, we like those who like us. The third word is agape, an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return. Agape is the love of God operating in the human heart. At this level, we love others not because we like them, nor because their ways appeal to us, nor even because they possess some type of divine spark. We love every man because God loves him. At this level, we love the person who does an evil deed, although we hate the deed that he does.
Now we can see what Jesus meant when he said, “Love your enemies.” We should be happy that he did not say, “Like your enemies.” It is almost impossible to like some people. “Like” is a sentimental and affectionate word. How can we be affectionate toward a person whose avowed aim is to crush our very being and place innumerable stumbling blocks in our path? How can we like a person who is threatening our children and bombing our homes? That is impossible. But Jesus recognized that ‘love’ is greater than ‘like.’ When Jesus bids us to love our enemies, he is not speaking of eros or philia love; he is speaking of agape love, which brings understanding, reconciliation, and goodwill for all people; like the undeserved love God has for each of us.
II
Let us now ask: Why should we love our enemies? The first reason is fairly obvious. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So, when Jesus says “Love your enemies,” he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies—OR ELSE? The chain reaction of evil—hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars—must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.
Another reason why we must love our enemies is that hate scars the soul and distorts the personality. Mindful that hate is an evil and dangerous force, we too often think of what it does to the person hated. This is understandable, for hate brings irreparable damage to its victims. We have seen its ugly consequences in the unspeakable violence inflicted upon Negroes by bloodthirsty mobs, in the dark horrors of war, and in the terrible indignities and injustices perpetrated against millions of God’s children by unconscionable oppressors over the many centuries.
But there is another side which we must never overlook. Hate is just as injurious to the person who hates. Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a person’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.
A third reason why we should love our enemies is that love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. We never get rid of an enemy by meeting hate with hate; we get rid of an enemy by getting rid of our hatred. By its very nature, hate destroys and tears down; by its very nature, love creates and builds up. Love transforms with redemptive power.
We must hasten to say that these are not yet the ultimate reasons why we should love our enemies. An even more basic reason why we are to love our enemies is simply because Jesus told us to. That should be reason enough. He said, “Love your enemies that ye may be children of your Father which is in heaven.” (continued…)
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Isaiah 5:20 — Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness.
Galatians 5:14-15 — For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
I John 3:15 — Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.
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Lord Jesus Christ, You have taught us to pray: “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.”
In Your Name: I am to repair the breach; I am to mend the broken; I am to welcome back the one who has wronged me.
Lord, help me to remember that the power to do this is Your power, to be used for the sake of those for whom You died.
Help me to understand that I cannot turn away from any who ask for or need my forgiveness.
Help me to overcome any hindrance that would keep me from sharing the power of Your forgiving grace.
In Your name I pray. Amen.
–Concordia Lutheran Prayer Book
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