I am forced to preach under something of a
handicap this morning. In fact, I had the doctor before coming to church. And he said that
it would be best for me to stay in the bed this morning. And I insisted that I would have
to come to preach. So he allowed me to come out with one stipulation, and that is that I
would not come in the pulpit until time to preach, and that after, that I would
immediately go back home and get in the bed. So I’m going to try to follow his
instructions from that point on.
I want to use as a subject from which to preach this morning a
very familiar subject, and it is familiar to you because I have preached from this subject
twice before to my knowing in this pulpit. I try to make it a, something of a custom or
tradition to preach from this passage of Scripture at least once a year, adding new
insights that I develop along the way out of new experiences as I give these messages.
Although the content is, the basic content is the same, new insights and new experiences
naturally make for new illustrations.
So I want to turn your attention to this subject: "Loving
Your Enemies." It’s so basic to me because it is a part of my basic
philosophical and theological orientation—the whole idea of love, the whole
philosophy of love. In the fifth chapter of the gospel as recorded by Saint Matthew, we
read these very arresting words flowing from the lips of our Lord and Master: "Ye
have heard that it has been said, ‘Thou shall love thy neighbor, and hate thine
enemy.’ But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to
them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you; that ye may be the
children of your Father which is in heaven."
Certainly these are great words, words lifted to cosmic
proportions. And over the centuries, many persons have argued that this is an extremely
difficult command. Many would go so far as to say that it just isn’t possible to move
out into the actual practice of this glorious command. They would go on to say that this
is just additional proof that Jesus was an impractical idealist who never quite came down
to earth. So the arguments abound. But far from being an impractical idealist, Jesus has
become the practical realist. The words of this text glitter in our eyes with a new
urgency. Far from being the pious injunction of a utopian dreamer, this command is an
absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. Yes, it is love that will save
our world and our civilization, love even for enemies.
Now let me hasten to say that Jesus was very serious when he gave
this command; he wasn’t playing. He realized that it’s hard to love your
enemies. He realized that it’s difficult to love those persons who seek to defeat
you, those persons who say evil things about you. He realized that it was painfully hard,
pressingly hard. But he wasn’t playing. And we cannot dismiss this passage as just
another example of Oriental hyperbole, just a sort of exaggeration to get over the point.
This is a basic philosophy of all that we hear coming from the lips of our Master. Because
Jesus wasn’t playing; because he was serious. We have the Christian and moral
responsibility to seek to discover the meaning of these words, and to discover how we can
live out this command, and why we should live by this command.
Now first let us deal with this question, which is the practical
question: How do you go about loving your enemies? I think the first thing is this: In
order to love your enemies, you must begin by analyzing self. And I’m sure that seems
strange to you, that I start out telling you this morning that you love your enemies by
beginning with a look at self. It seems to me that that is the first and foremost way to
come to an adequate discovery to the how of this situation.
Now, I’m aware of the fact that some people will not like
you, not because of something you have done to them, but they just won’t like you. I’m
quite aware of that. Some people aren’t going to like the way you walk; some people
aren’t going to like the way you talk. Some people aren’t going to like you
because you can do your job better than they can do theirs. Some people aren’t going
to like you because other people like you, and because you’re popular, and because
you’re well-liked, they aren’t going to like you. Some people aren’t going
to like you because your hair is a little shorter than theirs or your hair is a little
longer than theirs. Some people aren’t going to like you because your skin is a
little brighter than theirs; and others aren’t going to like you because your skin is
a little darker than theirs. So that some people aren’t going to like you. They’re
going to dislike you, not because of something that you’ve done to them, but because
of various jealous reactions and other reactions that are so prevalent in human nature.
But after looking at these things and admitting these things, we
must face the fact that an individual might dislike us because of something that we’ve
done deep down in the past, some personality attribute that we possess, something that we’ve
done deep down in the past and we’ve forgotten about it; but it was that something
that aroused the hate response within the individual. That is why I say, begin with
yourself. There might be something within you that arouses the tragic hate response in the
other individual.
This is true in our international struggle. We look at the
struggle, the ideological struggle between communism on the one hand and democracy on the
other, and we see the struggle between America and Russia. Now certainly, we can never
give our allegiance to the Russian way of life, to the communistic way of life, because
communism is based on an ethical relativism and a metaphysical materialism that no
Christian can accept. When we look at the methods of communism, a philosophy where somehow
the end justifies the means, we cannot accept that because we believe as Christians that
the end is pre-existent in the means. But in spite of all of the weaknesses and evils
inherent in communism, we must at the same time see the weaknesses and evils within
democracy.
Democracy is the greatest form of government to my mind that man
has ever conceived, but the weakness is that we have never touched it. Isn’t it true
that we have often taken necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes? Isn’t
it true that we have often in our democracy trampled over individuals and races with the
iron feet of oppression? Isn’t it true that through our Western powers we have
perpetuated colonialism and imperialism? And all of these things must be taken under
consideration as we look at Russia. We must face the fact that the rhythmic beat of the
deep rumblings of discontent from Asia and Africa is at bottom a revolt against the
imperialism and colonialism perpetuated by Western civilization all these many years. The
success of communism in the world today is due to the failure of democracy to live up to
the noble ideals and principles inherent in its system.
And this is what Jesus means when he said: "How is it that
you can see the mote in your brother’s eye and not see the beam in your own
eye?" Or to put it in Moffatt’s translation: "How is it that you see the
splinter in your brother’s eye and fail to see the plank in your own eye?" And
this is one of the tragedies of human nature. So we begin to love our enemies and love
those persons that hate us whether in collective life or individual life by looking at
ourselves.
A second thing that an individual must do in seeking to love his
enemy is to discover the element of good in his enemy, and everytime you begin to hate
that person and think of hating that person, realize that there is some good there and
look at those good points which will over-balance the bad points.
I’ve said to you on many occasions that each of us is
something of a schizophrenic personality. We’re split up and divided against
ourselves. And there is something of a civil war going on within all of our lives. There
is a recalcitrant South of our soul revolting against the North of our soul. And there is
this continual struggle within the very structure of every individual life. There is
something within all of us that causes us to cry out with Ovid, the Latin poet, "I
see and approve the better things of life, but the evil things I do." There is
something within all of us that causes us to cry out with Plato that the human personality
is like a charioteer with two headstrong horses, each wanting to go in different
directions. There is something within each of us that causes us to cry out with Goethe,
"There is enough stuff in me to make both a gentleman and a rogue." There is
something within each of us that causes us to cry out with Apostle Paul, "I see and
approve the better things of life, but the evil things I do."
So somehow the "isness" of our present nature is out of
harmony with the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts us. And this simply
means this: That within the best of us, there is some evil, and within the worst of us,
there is some good. When we come to see this, we take a different attitude toward
individuals. The person who hates you most has some good in him; even the nation that
hates you most has some good in it; even the race that hates you most has some good in it.
And when you come to the point that you look in the face of every man and see deep down
within him what religion calls "the image of God," you begin to love him in
spite of. No matter what he does, you see God’s image there. There is an element of
goodness that he can never sluff off. Discover the element of good in your enemy. And as
you seek to hate him, find the center of goodness and place your attention there and you
will take a new attitude.
Another way that you love your enemy is this: When the
opportunity presents itself for you to defeat your enemy, that is the time which you must
not do it. There will come a time, in many instances, when the person who hates you most,
the person who has misused you most, the person who has gossiped about you most, the
person who has spread false rumors about you most, there will come a time when you will
have an opportunity to defeat that person. It might be in terms of a recommendation for a
job; it might be in terms of helping that person to make some move in life. That’s
the time you must not do it. That is the meaning of love. In the final analysis, love is
not this sentimental something that we talk about. It’s not merely an emotional
something. Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men. It is the refusal to
defeat any individual. When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power,
you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that
system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system.
The Greek language, as I’ve said so often before, is very
powerful at this point. It comes to our aid beautifully in giving us the real meaning and
depth of the whole philosophy of love. And I think it is quite apropos at this point, for
you see the Greek language has three words for love, interestingly enough. It talks about
love as eros. That’s one word for love. Eros is a sort of, aesthetic
love. Plato talks about it a great deal in his dialogues, a sort of yearning of the
soul for the realm of the gods. And it’s come to us to be a sort of romantic love,
though it’s a beautiful love. Everybody has experienced eros in all of its
beauty when you find some individual that is attractive to you and that you pour out all
of your like and your love on that individual. That is eros, you see, and it’s
a powerful, beautiful love that is given to us through all of the beauty of literature; we
read about it.
Then the Greek language talks about philia, and that’s
another type of love that’s also beautiful. It is a sort of intimate affection
between personal friends. And this is the type of love that you have for those persons
that you’re friendly with, your intimate friends, or people that you call on the
telephone and you go by to have dinner with, and your roommate in college and that type of
thing. It’s a sort of reciprocal love. On this level, you like a person because that
person likes you. You love on this level, because you are loved. You love on this level,
because there’s something about the person you love that is likeable to you. This too
is a beautiful love. You can communicate with a person; you have certain things in common;
you like to do things together. This is philia.
The Greek language comes out with another word for love. It is
the word agape. And agape is more than eros; agape is more
than philia; agape is something of the understanding, creative, redemptive
goodwill for all men. It is a love that seeks nothing in return. It is an overflowing
love; it’s what theologians would call the love of God working in the lives of men.
And when you rise to love on this level, you begin to love men, not because they are
likeable, but because God loves them. You look at every man, and you love him because you
know God loves him. And he might be the worst person you’ve ever seen.
And this is what Jesus means, I think, in this very passage when
he says, "Love your enemy." And it’s significant that he does not say,
"Like your enemy." Like is a sentimental something, an affectionate something.
There are a lot of people that I find it difficult to like. I don’t like what they do
to me. I don’t like what they say about me and other people. I don’t like their
attitudes. I don’t like some of the things they’re doing. I don’t like
them. But Jesus says love them. And love is greater than like. Love is understanding,
redemptive goodwill for all men, so that you love everybody, because God loves them. You
refuse to do anything that will defeat an individual, because you have agape in
your soul. And here you come to the point that you love the individual who does the evil
deed, while hating the deed that the person does. This is what Jesus means when he says,
"Love your enemy." This is the way to do it. When the opportunity presents
itself when you can defeat your enemy, you must not do it.
Now for the few moments left, let us move from the practical how
to the theoretical why. It’s not only necessary to know how to go about loving your
enemies, but also to go down into the question of why we should love our enemies. I think
the first reason that we should love our enemies, and I think this was at the very center
of Jesus’ thinking, is this: that hate for hate only intensifies the existence of
hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit
me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. [tapping on pulpit] It just
never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that’s the strong
person. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of
evil. And that is the tragedy of hate, that it doesn’t cut it off. It only
intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. Somebody must have religion
enough and morality enough to cut it off and inject within the very structure of the
universe that strong and powerful element of love.
I think I mentioned before that sometime ago my brother and I
were driving one evening to Chattanooga, Tennessee, from Atlanta. He was driving the car.
And for some reason the drivers were very discourteous that night. They didn’t dim
their lights; hardly any driver that passed by dimmed his lights. And I remember very
vividly, my brother A. D. looked over and in a tone of anger said: "I know what I’m
going to do. The next car that comes along here and refuses to dim the lights, I’m
going to fail to dim mine and pour them on in all of their power." And I looked at
him right quick and said: "Oh no, don’t do that. There’d be too much light
on this highway, and it will end up in mutual destruction for all. Somebody got to have
some sense on this highway."
Somebody must have sense enough to dim the lights, and that is
the trouble, isn’t it? That as all of the civilizations of the world move up the
highway of history, so many civilizations, having looked at other civilizations that
refused to dim the lights, and they decided to refuse to dim theirs. And Toynbee tells
that out of the twenty-two civilizations that have risen up, all but about seven have
found themselves in the junkheap of destruction. It is because civilizations fail to have
sense enough to dim the lights. And if somebody doesn’t have sense enough to turn on
the dim and beautiful and powerful lights of love in this world, the whole of our
civilization will be plunged into the abyss of destruction. And we will all end up
destroyed because nobody had any sense on the highway of history. Somewhere somebody must
have some sense. Men must see that force begets force, hate begets hate, toughness begets
toughness. And it is all a descending spiral, ultimately ending in destruction for all and
everybody. Somebody must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of
hate and the chain of evil in the universe. And you do that by love.
There’s another reason why you should love your enemies, and
that is because hate distorts the personality of the hater. We usually think of what hate
does for the individual hated or the individuals hated or the groups hated. But it is even
more tragic, it is even more ruinous and injurious to the individual who hates. You just
begin hating somebody, and you will begin to do irrational things. You can’t see
straight when you hate. You can’t walk straight when you hate. You can’t stand
upright. Your vision is distorted. There is nothing more tragic than to see an individual
whose heart is filled with hate. He comes to the point that he becomes a pathological
case. For the person who hates, you can stand up and see a person and that person can be
beautiful, and you will call them ugly. For the person who hates, the beautiful becomes
ugly and the ugly becomes beautiful. For the person who hates, the good becomes bad and
the bad becomes good. For the person who hates, the true becomes false and the false
becomes true. That’s what hate does. You can’t see right. The symbol of
objectivity is lost. Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater. And
this is why Jesus says hate [recording interrupted]
. . . that you want to be integrated with yourself, and the way
to be integrated with yourself is be sure that you meet every situation of life with an
abounding love. Never hate, because it ends up in tragic, neurotic responses.
Psychologists and psychiatrists are telling us today that the more we hate, the more we
develop guilt feelings and we begin to subconsciously repress or consciously suppress
certain emotions, and they all stack up in our subconscious selves and make for tragic,
neurotic responses. And may this not be the neuroses of many individuals as they confront
life that that is an element of hate there. And modern psychology is calling on us now to
love. But long before modern psychology came into being, the world’s greatest
psychologist who walked around the hills of Galilee told us to love. He looked at men and
said: "Love your enemies; don’t hate anybody." It’s not enough for us
to hate your friends because—to to love your friends—because when you start
hating anybody, it destroys the very center of your creative response to life and the
universe; so love everybody. Hate at any point is a cancer that gnaws away at the very
vital center of your life and your existence. It is like eroding acid that eats away the
best and the objective center of your life. So Jesus says love, because hate destroys the
hater as well as the hated.
Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love
your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a
power there that eventually transforms individuals. That’s why Jesus says, "Love
your enemies." Because if you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to
transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very
root of love is the power of redemption. You just keep loving people and keep loving them,
even though they’re mistreating you. Here’s the person who is a neighbor, and
this person is doing something wrong to you and all of that. Just keep being friendly to
that person. Keep loving them. Don’t do anything to embarrass them. Just keep loving
them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning.
They react with bitterness because they’re mad because you love them like that. They
react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that
transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will
break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why
Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There
is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.
I think of one of the best examples of this. We all remember the
great president of this United States, Abraham Lincoln—these United States rather.
You remember when Abraham Lincoln was running for president of the United States, there
was a man who ran all around the country talking about Lincoln. He said a lot of bad
things about Lincoln, a lot of unkind things. And sometimes he would get to the point that
he would even talk about his looks, saying, "You don’t want a tall, lanky,
ignorant man like this as the president of the United States." He went on and on and
on and went around with that type of attitude and wrote about it. Finally, one day Abraham
Lincoln was elected president of the United States. And if you read the great biography of
Lincoln, if you read the great works about him, you will discover that as every president
comes to the point, he came to the point of having to choose a Cabinet. And then came the
time for him to choose a Secretary of War. He looked across the nation, and decided to
choose a man by the name of Mr. Stanton. And when Abraham Lincoln stood around his
advisors and mentioned this fact, they said to him: "Mr. Lincoln, are you a fool? Do
you know what Mr. Stanton has been saying about you? Do you know what he has done, tried
to do to you? Do you know that he has tried to defeat you on every hand? Do you know that,
Mr. Lincoln? Did you read all of those derogatory statements that he made about you?"
Abraham Lincoln stood before the advisors around him and said: "Oh yes, I know about
it; I read about it; I’ve heard him myself. But after looking over the country, I
find that he is the best man for the job."
Mr. Stanton did become Secretary of War, and a few months later,
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. And if you go to Washington, you will discover that one
of the greatest words or statements ever made by, about Abraham Lincoln was made about
this man Stanton. And as Abraham Lincoln came to the end of his life, Stanton stood up and
said: "Now he belongs to the ages." And he made a beautiful statement concerning
the character and the stature of this man. If Abraham Lincoln had hated Stanton, if
Abraham Lincoln had answered everything Stanton said, Abraham Lincoln would have not
transformed and redeemed Stanton. Stanton would have gone to his grave hating Lincoln, and
Lincoln would have gone to his grave hating Stanton. But through the power of love Abraham
Lincoln was able to redeem Stanton.
That’s it. There is a power in love that our world has not
discovered yet. Jesus discovered it centuries ago. Mahatma Gandhi of India discovered it a
few years ago, but most men and most women never discover it. For they believe in hitting
for hitting; they believe in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; they believe in
hating for hating; but Jesus comes to us and says, "This isn’t the way."
And oh this morning, as I think of the fact that our world is in
transition now. Our whole world is facing a revolution. Our nation is facing a revolution,
our nation. One of the things that concerns me most is that in the midst of the revolution
of the world and the midst of the revolution of this nation, that we will discover the
meaning of Jesus’ words.
History unfortunately leaves some people oppressed and some
people oppressors. And there are three ways that individuals who are oppressed can deal
with their oppression. One of them is to rise up against their oppressors with physical
violence and corroding hatred. But oh this isn’t the way. For the danger and the
weakness of this method is its futility. Violence creates many more social problems than
it solves. And I’ve said, in so many instances, that as the Negro, in particular, and
colored peoples all over the world struggle for freedom, if they succumb to the temptation
of using violence in their struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long
and desolate night of bitterness, and our chief legacy to the future will be an endless
reign of meaningless chaos. Violence isn’t the way.
Another way is to acquiesce and to give in, to resign yourself to
the oppression. Some people do that. They discover the difficulties of the wilderness
moving into the promised land, and they would rather go back to the despots of Egypt
because it’s difficult to get in the promised land. And so they resign themselves to
the fate of oppression; they somehow acquiesce to this thing. But that too isn’t the
way because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with
good.
But there is another way. And that is to organize mass
non-violent resistance based on the principle of love. It seems to me that this is the
only way as our eyes look to the future. As we look out across the years and across the
generations, let us develop and move right here. We must discover the power of love, the
power, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that we will be able to make of
this old world a new world. We will be able to make men better. Love is the only way.
Jesus discovered that.
Not only did Jesus discover it, even great military leaders
discover that. One day as Napoleon came toward the end of his career and looked back
across the years—the great Napoleon that at a very early age had all but conquered
the world. He was not stopped until he became, till he moved out to the battle of Leipzig
and then to Waterloo. But that same Napoleon one day stood back and looked across the
years, and said: "Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have built great empires. But
upon what did they depend? They depended upon force. But long ago Jesus started an empire
that depended on love, and even to this day millions will die for him."
Yes, I can see Jesus walking around the hills and the valleys of
Palestine. And I can see him looking out at the Roman Empire with all of her fascinating
and intricate military machinery. But in the midst of that, I can hear him saying: "I
will not use this method. Neither will I hate the Roman Empire." [Radio Announcer:]
(WRMA, Montgomery, Alabama. Due to the fact of the delay this morning, we are going
over with the sermon.) [several words inaudible] . . . and just start marching.
And I’m proud to stand here in Dexter this morning and say
that that army is still marching. It grew up from a group of eleven or twelve men to more
than seven hundred million today. Because of the power and influence of the personality of
this Christ, he was able to split history into a.d. and b.c. Because of his power, he was
able to shake the hinges from the gates of the Roman Empire. And all around the world this
morning, we can hear the glad echo of heaven ring:
Jesus shall reign wherever sun,
Does his successive journeys run;
His kingdom spreads from shore to shore,
Till moon shall wane and wax no more.
We can hear another chorus singing: "All hail the power of
Jesus name!"
We can hear another chorus singing: "Hallelujah, hallelujah! He’s King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. Hallelujah, hallelujah!"
We can hear another choir singing:
In Christ there is no East or West.
In Him no North or South,
But one great Fellowship of Love
Throughout the whole wide world.
This is the only way.
And our civilization must discover that. Individuals must
discover that as they deal with other individuals. There is a little tree planted on a
little hill and on that tree hangs the most influential character that ever came in this
world. But never feel that that tree is a meaningless drama that took place on the stages
of history. Oh no, it is a telescope through which we look out into the long vista of
eternity, and see the love of God breaking forth into time. It is an eternal reminder to a
power-drunk generation that love is the only way. It is an eternal reminder to a
generation depending on nuclear and atomic energy, a generation depending on physical
violence, that love is the only creative, redemptive, transforming power in the universe.
So this morning, as I look into your eyes, and into the eyes of
all of my brothers in Alabama and all over America and over the world, I say to you,
"I love you. I would rather die than hate you." And I’m foolish enough to
believe that through the power of this love somewhere, men of the most recalcitrant bent
will be transformed. And then we will be in God’s kingdom. We will be able to
matriculate into the university of eternal life because we had the power to love our
enemies, to bless those persons that cursed us, to even decide to be good to those persons
who hated us, and we even prayed for those persons who despitefully used us.
Oh God, help us in our lives and in all of our attitudes, to work
out this controlling force of love, this controlling power that can solve every problem
that we confront in all areas. Oh, we talk about politics; we talk about the problems
facing our atomic civilization. Grant that all men will come together and discover that as
we solve the crisis and solve these problems—the international problems, the problems
of atomic energy, the problems of nuclear energy, and yes, even the race problem—let
us join together in a great fellowship of love and bow down at the feet of Jesus. Give us
this strong determination. In the name and spirit of this Christ, we pray. Amen.
