Loving Your Enemies

THE elections are over. Many things have been said before and after the elections. Some of the statements were very hurtful to some. In the process people felt humiliated, victimised and their rights not respected. This means enmity was fostered to a certain extent.

But now elections are done with. I am aware there is a court case currently going on, but my point is not about the legality of the outcome of the elections, but rather how we go on as a nation after elections?Of course, we can go on. Namibians are Christians. And from a Christian perspective, we are the people of hope. Even if things are not going the way we expected them to, we remain hopeful. Hopeful in a sense that things will change one day. Something good will emerge. As Christians, we do not know when, but we are sure that the Kingdom of God will triumph over evil, life will triumph over death, love will triumph over hatred and good will triumph over bad. Now, this sounds typically religious and does not make a lot of sense in the ears and thoughts of a liberal theorist whose aim is to see things done right away! Some of our number have no mentality of waiting, patience! They want to rush things without a discerning mind. Sometimes they do so forcefully and in the process chaos and confusion, stress and depression is cultivated.Now, if we are to embrace the biblical principle of hope, as we wait for something good or at least better, a lot work is needed. Faith needs to be put in practice from all angles. One way to remain focused on that hope is to love your enemies. Like hope, love is another biblical principal required of all Christians. Jesus said in Mathew 5: 43-45:’You have heard people say: ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemies’ But I tell you to love your enemies and pray for anyone who ill treats you. Then you will be acting like your Father in Heaven. He makes the sun rise on both good and bad people and he sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong. If you love only those who love you, will God reward you for that? Even tax collectors love their friends. What is so great about that? Don’t even unbelievers do that? But you must always act like your Father in Heaven.’The Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr, who was a pastor of the Baptist Church and a leader of the civil rights movements in the USA in the 1960s, has a perfect reflection on this subject. Perhaps it should be remembered that Dr King’s approach to the abolition of racial segregation was ‘non-violent’ action. He understood that racial segregation was violence in itself; hence fixing violence with violence was not an option for him. His anti-violence action was not only manifested by word of mouth, but he walked the walk. This means he was not violent, either physically or intellectually. He did not compose war or destruction as a means to achieve his goals, nor did he use his pulpit to attack individuals. The only thing he did, he testified to the TRUTH, which is another biblical principle.Now, back to the question of loving the enemy. Dr King began by posing a question whether Jesus was an impractical idealist and not a practical realist or vice versa as some philosophers have tried to portray him. Is it practically possible for one to love his enemies? How can you love those who seek to tarnish you, or defeat or destroy you for that matter? It sounds idealistic and somewhat impractical. However, Dr King contended that Jesus was mindful of difficulties inherent in the actual practice of loving one’s enemy. Jesus lived at a time when people preached ‘love only those who love you and hate those who hate you.’ As always, Jesus turned things upside down. The reason is simple. Jesus was a man of change. He did not want to maintain an unhelpful status quo. He had a mission to accomplish.Jesus was convinced that hate for hate does not promote peace and reconciliation. Perhaps those who hate us will only come to know love once we decide to love them despite their hatred. So Jesus, as preached by Dr King, admonishes us Christians and reminds us of our responsibilities of loving all people irrespective of how they treat us. Our responsibility as Christians is to discover the meaning of this command and seek passionately to live it out in our daily lives.How do we do this? Dr King has three steps one can follow in order to implement this command. They are: First, ‘we must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive.’ Second, ‘We must recognise that the evil deeds of the enemy neighbour, the thing that hurts, never quite express all that he is.’ And third, ‘we must not seek to defeat or humiliate the enemy but to win his friendship and understanding.’Let us now look closely at those steps and see if we can fit ourselves in them.1. We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgiveIt will never be practical to love your enemies if you have not forgiven them. It must also be understood that it all begins with the person who is wronged. True forgiveness and reconciliation will only take place if the wronged person is willing to let bygones be bygones. This, however, does not mean forgetting or ignoring the evils that was done against you, or pretending and behave as if nothing happened, or what happened does not matter. On the contrary, it means that the evil acts, injustices against you does not become an impediment to friendship and relationship. Forgiveness is an extra ordinary step one needs to take if love is to happen. Forgiveness creates an atmosphere in which relationship, friendship and brotherhood is re-established and people will come together in mutual trust and honesty. Forgiveness means that an old debt is cancelled. In other words forgiveness takes away all the hate and ill feelings one had to endure. Forgiveness is a practical realization that the evil acts against us are no longer a stumbling block to a new friendship. ‘Ondi na okuva talifa nawa.’ On the contrary, Jesus pleaded for the forgiveness of their sins!2. We must recognize that the evil deed of the enemy-neighbour, the thing that hurts, never quite expresses all that he isTo this, Dr King attests that something good might be found and seen in the enemy. He also reminds his audience that we all have a potential to become enemies of some sorts. Our lives as individual human beings are ever divided. Two children are there in our hearts, each pulling us to either side. Either to do good or bad, to love or to hate, to build or to destroy or to give life or take it away. We believe that behind evil acts are good things which only need to be exposed and brought to the fore. Only love has the capacity to do this.3. We must not seek to defeat or humiliate the enemy but to win his friendship and understandingHere we are reminded of the danger of counter humiliation. You humiliate me, I will also humiliate you, even worse than you did to me. Humiliating the enemy is not the best way to solve the problems of enmity. Ours is to cultivate the culture of understanding and make an enemy a friend. But not through manipulation, bribery, or cleverly calculated tactics to emotionally trick the person; nor does it mean to be naive about chronic enmity in your enemy. All Christians are to have the love of God. No excuses. There should be no time when you love and a time when you should not love. Wherever you find yourself you remain a Christian whose responsibility is to love. In politics or in business, you should be guided by love. The Apostle Paul emphasised this over and over again in his letter to the Ephesians. We should love without distinction and seek to transform, change, regenerate, reform and renew a hurting heart into a loving heart.Now that we have looked at the practical ways to love the enemy, we now move on to the ‘why’ question. Do we really need to love our enemies. Of course! We need and have to. Where hate is returned for hate, then hate multiplies. Where anger is returned for anger, anger multiplies. Where insult is returned against insult, then insult multiplies. Then in the end we have cultivated and nurtured these evils to become a culture.The more evil is used to remove evil the more evil is prolonged. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do so. Dr King says: ‘Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.’ Have we not come to such conclusion in our modern world that we should love our enemies or else? ‘The chain of evil hate begetting hate, wars producing wars should be broken or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.’ says Dr King.The second reason why we should love is that even the enemy is suffering, whether he knows it or not. And the only treatment for this condition is to be loved. The third reason to love the enemy is that in all true essence, it is only love that can transform an enemy into a friend.We live in the world of enmity. Hate is so prevalent and has become endemic. Namibia is no exception. People are humiliating each other, they are composing the best ways to destroy one another. They are crafting the best ways to defeat or eliminate one another. Be warned that consequences can be ugly. In Namibia we should be exemplary. Let us not create situations whereby hate is born. Let us not give hate a chance. God bless Namibia!* Father Kaluwapa L Katenda is the Secretary & Treasurer of the Anglican Diocese of Namibia, and an Archdeacon and Rector of Tsumeb.

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