Luke 6:31-36
The Lord said, “As you wish that men would do to you, do so to them. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
Our Gospel reading today contains a hard saying: love your enemies. It might be easy to suspect that our Lord is employing some degree of hyperbole here, exaggeration for effect. After all, He also told us in the fourteenth chapter of this same Gospel that ‘if anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.’ And it is agreed by the Fathers that He did not mean this literally.
How could it possibly be so, when one of the ten commandments ordains that we must honour our father and mother? And when we read in so many places in Sacred Scripture of the love and care we must have for our children, that a husband must have for his wife, and a wife for her husband?
No, what is meant here that our love for God and His Word must be so intense, so entirely committed, that the love one has for others, no matter how closely related, pales in comparison. And it also means, for example, that while a husband must love his wife, he cannot allow that love to come between him and God. And that while a child must love his parents, neither can he allow that love to override his love for God.
However, when it comes to loving our enemies, the Fathers assure us that this is something that we are to take literally. Why? In essence because God hates no one and, therefore, neither should we. It is useful to recall here the concept of theosis or divinisation, the idea that we are, with God’s grace, to transform ourselves so that we become as like to God as possible; for as Saint Athanasius said, ‘God became Man that man might become god.’
How important is theosis? Well, Archimandrite George of the Holy Monastery of Gregoriou on Mount Athos wrote a short book on the subject, titled ‘Theosis: The True Purpose of Human Life’. The title says it all. It was for theosis, union with God, that He made us; and it is towards this we must strive with every fibre of our being until the moment when we draw our last breath.
This book, I would note, is a wonderful guide and aid in this struggle. When I visited the Holy Monastery of Gregoriou one of the monks I spoke with described it as truly life changing. It is available on the monastery website should you wish to read it yourself, something I would highly recommend.
Of course, one might reasonably ask why if loving one’s enemies is so essential to the Christian life and to one’s own salvation, then why is it so difficult? A partial answer to that is that no one ever said that the Christian life would be easy. Quite the opposite; we must never forget that our Lord told us that if we were to be His disciples we had to take up our cross. Being a Christian means accepting struggles and challenges in this life; and that includes loving those who actively hate us and wish us harm.
Another reason why it is so difficult is because we have become very used to the idea of thinking of love as an emotion and that emotions are things we have no real control over. However, this is not correct. If it were, God would not command us to love Him, or to love our neighbour, and most certainly not to love our enemies. We must, therefore, think of love as an act of will, something we can chose to do.
Indeed, thinking of love as something outside of our control is fraught with danger. We may think here of all those who have had affairs or left their spouses, claiming to have ‘fallen in love’ with someone else; or all of the various kinds of sexual immorality in our society that is excused glibly on the grounds that the perpetrators were in love and could not act other than they did and continue to do, despite the hurt they cause others and the damage they do to themselves through their unrepentant sinning.
But such behaviour, of course, is not love in the true sense, but rather indulging in the passions. And fighting against the passions, as the Fathers tell us, is something we must do if we are to succeed in our struggle to attain theosis.
Returning to our Lord’s command that we are to love our enemies, as already mentioned, it is not easy. But we will do well to recall here what took place in the sixth chapter of Saint John’s Gospel. There our Lord taught His followers concerning the Bread of Life, and that it was truly His flesh. Many grumbled, saying that it was a hard saying and who could receive it, and they ceased to follow Him. Jesus then turned to those who remained and asked if they would also leave. And Saint Peter responded by saying ‘Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life’.
The hard sayings do not disappear because we find them hard or difficult or uncomfortable. They remain because they are the truth, the only truth, God’s truth. And if we are to be saved, we must accept them as Saint Peter did, as the words of eternal life. Amen.
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