Absence of love doesn't imply presence of hate. There are many "Interpretations" to the words given by Jesus© therefore people can agree with what he meant. If we are to only listen to that Statement = Love your Enemies and not try to interpret it but just understand it "Have deepest caring feelings for the people who want to harm you and do you bad" - That is ridiculous and dangerous. Not only for ourselves but for society.
An enemy is not necessarily someone who has done us wrong but someone who wants to do us wrong. Could we love someone who wants to do us wrong? Yes we can. Its a higher and deeper feeling.
Lets say my son thinks that I want to hurt him so he decides to do me wrong. He became my enemy. Can I love him? yes because I know he has been misled. he perhaps made a stupid or irrational decision but I still am able to love him because he is my son and I know that people make mistakes.
What if he hits me? Now he caused me harm he has become and active enemy. Could I still love him? Yes. Do I love his actions? Do I love his decisions? No. I hate his actions and I hate his decisions but I am able to love him still. I am able to Love my Enemy. Because I loved him before he became my enemy. However his actions have repercussions because he cause me harm and in order for him not to do it again he needs to be punished and retribution needs to be give to person harmed.
Can we Love our Enemies? Yes we can. Should we love all our enemies? No. Can we love some of our enemies and still have justice and protect society? Yes but All the factors need to be considered.
I would say instead RESPECT ALL YOUR ENEMIES. That is very important. They are our enemies and they have the potential of harm us. Therefore in order to avoid harm we should respect their potential and their power. If they actually harm us then JUSTICE must be procured either by LAWS or some other way in order to protect the society.
Should we HATE our enemies? no we dont have to. We can respect them. We could hate their actions but sometimes our enemies are in the right to hate us or our actions..What if I am molester and people hate me because I like to molest people. They are my enemies. They want me to receive punishment and cause me harm, not for revenge but for Justice. I might hate them. But what if feel so bad for the harm I cause them. What if I realize that I made wrong and therefore I accept the punishment I receive? Can I love my enemies? YEs. Did you ever do wrong when you were little and then regret it and wanted to receive punishment for it? Did you ever feel love to the punisher for the sake of Justice?
If we ALL as a society learn to do good to our RACE, ALL THE LIVING THINGS, AND THE WORLD then we start creating a loving environment. A respectful environment. A society were the enemy is selfishness and not the individuals. There are some countries where Jails are not locked. Because the individuals understood their wrong and accept the punishment. They are ENEMIES of society we could love them but not their actions. In such countries crime is less and punishment is minor compared to selfish countries. Any harm done to any individual is a harm done to all of us a society event to the person committing the crime.
How about Love all the Living things, Hate the actions that cause harm. Hate the persons that want to cause harm to any living thing, willingly and knowingly of their actions without searching for a civilized system of Justice.
LOVE YOUR ENEMIES is as logical as to say HATE YOUR FRIENDS.
And by the way WE dont need God to come to this conclusions we just need to sit and think what is better for all of us. We act selfishly as human beings not because we have SIN(tm) inside our flesh but because we look for our interest first then the interests of our community then our species, then our planet (we look for our individual survival first naturally) But as we become more evolved then we can start to teach our young one that WE MUST look for the interest of our planet in connection with our own interest.
Just thinking.
PS, we cant even be sure that Jesus said those words. Its all hearsay documents with no less than 200 years after he existed. There are no originals by him or any eye witness. Only hearsay that makes for a good story and lots of books and for us to keep debating about it in these boards... dont you love religion? Thank God for his clarity :-)
