Loving your enemy is the most ignored teaching in Christianity

Opening

In many sectors of contemporary Christianity, love for the enemy is treated as an excess of holiness: beautiful in preaching, but impractical when the offense is real. But the problem is not the clarity of the text. The problem is that many people accept Jesus while he consoles, guides or heals, and suspend him the moment he prohibits revenge, disarms the logic of hatred and refuses to divide the world between “good” people and disposable people.

When faith starts to justify cruel punishment, political retaliation or violence against those who have been labeled as enemies, we are not facing a “more realistic” gospel. We are facing selective obedience. And this is not a peripheral detail. It is a frontal clash with the teaching of Christ.

What the biblical text says

In Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus confronts narrow morality: "You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matt 5:43-44). The commandment is not just interior. It involves concrete action: loving, praying, blessing. The reason given by Jesus is theological: “that you may become children of your Father who is in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good” (Matt. 5:45). The disciple must reflect the character of the Father. Therefore, Jesus concludes: “be ye therefore perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48).

Luke 6:27-36 is even more direct: “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who slander you” (Luke 6:27-28). Next, Jesus dismantles the ethics of reciprocity: “if you love those who love you, what is your reward?” (Luke 6:32). The criterion of the Kingdom is not retribution, but mercy: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36).

Paul echoes the same principle in Romans 12:17-21: “do not return evil for evil to anyone”; “do not avenge yourselves”; “If your enemy is hungry, feed him” (Rom 12:17, 19-20). The aim is clear: the Christian response to evil is not the fantasy of moral revenge, but deliberate good.

Jesus' behavior follows this direction. In Matthew 26:52, he rebukes the use of the sword in that episode. In Luke 22:51, he heals the wounded ear. In Luke 23:34, the phrase “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” appears in many manuscripts and also in ancient testimonies, although there is a known textual variant. Read together, these texts form a coherent pattern: Jesus not only teaches love for the enemy; he embodies it.

Historical and theological context

Jesus speaks to a Jewish society subjected to Roman rule, marked by political tensions, violence and expectations of judgment. In this environment, “enemy” was not an abstraction. There were real oppressors, real collaborators, and real historical wounds. It is also important to remember that “you shall love your neighbor” comes from Leviticus 19:18. The chapter itself broadens the horizon of love by treating the resident stranger with justice and care in Leviticus 19:33-34.

The expression “you shall hate your enemy” does not appear as a commandment in the Old Testament. Many scholars understand that Matthew 5:43 records a restrictive inference or application common in the religious environment of the period; others discuss whether there is an allusion to a specific tradition. In any case, Jesus rejects limitation.

Throughout Christian history, sectors of institutional Christianity have justified coercion, sanctified wars, exemplary punishment, and dehumanization of the adversary. There were also, within Christianity itself, pacifist traditions that took this commandment seriously. The point here is not to fake consensus. It is recognizing that the practice of many Christians contradicted the text they proclaimed.

Analysis from Jesus

The central question is not whether loving your enemy sounds nice. The question is whether Jesus' character admits other ethics. The gospel answers negatively.

Loving the enemy does not mean calling evil good. It does not mean denying justice. It does not mean blindly trusting the aggressor. The biblical text does not require abandoning protection, discernment or public responsibility. It prohibits revenge, cruelty and dehumanization. The enemy remains a person before God, not a target to be erased.

Here the most serious objection appears: “this applies to personal life, but notfor authority, social defense, or punishment of crimes." The New Testament is not simplistic on this point. Romans 12:19-21 prohibits personal revenge. Romans 13:1-4 speaks of civil authority and the sword. Honest Christians read this tension in different ways: some conclude that the community of Jesus is called to nonviolence also as a public witness; others distinguish between the ethics of the disciple and the coercive role of the state. Memra does not treat this discussion as closed. But neither accepts that Romans 13 is used to sanctify cruelty, revenge or force worship.

The “this is impossible” objection also fails. Jesus does not present love for the enemy as a devotional suggestion, but as a mark of the Kingdom. What seems impossible to instinct is precisely the center of new life.

Conclusion

The biblical text is explicit: Jesus commands love for the enemy, prayer for persecutors, good instead of revenge and mercy instead of retaliation (Matt. 5:43-48; Lk 6:27-36; Rom 12:17-21). The reading defended here is that this commandment does not eliminate justice or require naivety, but it prohibits personal revenge and religious dehumanization.

What is in dispute is not whether Jesus taught this. What is in dispute is how much the church is willing to abandon its justifications to finally obey its Lord. When a Christian community exchanges love for the enemy for the logic of revenge, its testimony has already been distorted at its most sensitive point. The gospel does not need biblical justifications for hatred. He needs disciples who take Jesus seriously.