The greatest of these is love your enemies.

"The greatest if these is love"- quoted from 1 Corinithians 13:13, and displayed proudly and frequently by Christians, churches, Christian bookstores, t-shirts, cards, bookmarks, bumper stickers, yadda yadda. What warm fuzzies we feel; what empowerment and hope rise in us due to this phrase!

Christians talk a lot about love- from our worship services, camps, Bible studies, etc. Love the poor and needy! Love the broken and different! Absolutely! We love love. And who doesn't? I mean really, isn't this one thing we can all agree on?

Yes, indeed. By speaking of love Christianity really brings nothing different to the table than Oprah, Dr. Phil or Hallmark. True, the love of God is quite different than the love that they represent. And that type of love is what we're talking about, right? If that is our claim, does Christianity really practice what is being preached? Do you?

I see the messsage of love crumble when it comes to loving our enemies. Sure we proclaim and act on our love to the poor, broken, needy, sick, and other victims. We do very well at loving those who love us and appreciate us. But when it comes to those who go against us suddenly true sincere love is replaced with gossip, cheap shots, impatience, ill-thinking, "putting up with them", and mockery (mainly of course behind their backs because that is how we do it, right?). Suddenly because someone else is opposing us we lable them as guilty (which may in cases be true, but that should not matter) and allow that "guilt" to become our excuse for throwing out the window all the things we've preached and proclaimed about love. They're just not good enough for our love, right? By being against us, they've sort of given up the right to our love, right? Yikes.

You might say you do love them on the inside, but what is coming out on the outside? Anger? Frustration? Gossip? Blow offs? Lack of respect? A lower view of them? If you really loved them on the inside these things would not come out (Matthew 15:18,19).

Even now if you are thinking "That's exactly what 'so-in-so' needs to realize", then you are not hearing me. I am not talking about how your enemies should treat YOU. I'm talking about how YOU should treat them. So step up, shut up, and realize that yes, the Bible says the greatest of these is love, and it is also filled with a plethora of verses, stories, and examples of the need to love your enemies (Matthew 5:44/Luke 6:27,35/Luke 10:25-37-the example of the Good Samaritan/etc.). Loving your enemies is the true test of the depth of your love.

How quickly Christians forget that we were once not so long ago enemies with God Himself (Romans 5:10). And to reconcile our relationship with Him, His Son Jesus Christ had to be brutally crucified. That's how He responded to our being His enemies. So, what if God had treated you how you treat your enemies??

I encourage you to read this passage with the words "for my enemies" added after the word love througout it...

1 Corinthians 13:1-13"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love for my enemies, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love for my enemies, I am nothing.
And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love for my enemies, it profits me nothing.
Love for my enemies is patient, love for my enemies is kind and is not jealous; love for my enemies does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love for my enemies never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
But now faith, hope, love for my enemies, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love for my enemies.