In every war movie, or so it seems, there comes a moment when it is understood or stated: “It’s either us or them”. I have heard coaches say it as well: “Somebody has to win, so why not us”? We are defining exactly who the enemy is, whether they are a real threat to our lives or to our winning streak. And, this is okay for sports and more especially if lives are on the line.
There is a difference though and that is that we humans seem to find it easy to identify “them” and turn them into an enemy. Whether it is someone who disagrees with us or someone we just don’t like or simply someone who is different from us. Our own social policies do it all of the time, when we demand that the poor or homeless or jobless somehow need to earn assistance or merit it. It is just so easy to find an enemy, even where one does not exist.
The comic character Pogo actually explained it correctly: We have met the enemy and he is us. In this one sentence, Pogo sums up the truth for all of us. We hate in others what we actually hate in ourselves. That is why Christ said to love others “as you love yourself”. God knows, Christ knew, we hate ourselves. We don’t tell others, but we do not like who we are. That is because we have a picture of who we should be and we know we don’t achieve it or deserve it to happen for us.
Church, quite often, reinforces this notion that we are not good enough. Come on, how many times have you heard that you just “need to get right with God”. My friends, we have always been right with God! We have always been wonderful creations that please God. A man named Jesus came, gave up every bit of actually being God, and taught us what real life, as God’s children, should look like.
This is why he said to love your enemy, because our first enemy is us! If you learn to love you, as the Creator of all loves you, suddenly you will have a harder time finding the enemy, finding any enemies. Come on, you know it gets old being afraid and angry. Let’s love ALL of our enemies, starting with ourselves.
TMM