“Love Your Enemies,” Don’t Cuddle Them

Jesus did indeed command His disciples to love their enemies, and we must obey Him without exception. Yet today this command is often misunderstood in two ways: first, by confusing love with acceptance or affirmation; and second, by flattening love into something without order or priority.

First, love is not acceptance, affirmation, or agreement. God’s love toward us was never one of blind acceptance. The supreme example of loving one’s enemies is God Himself: while we were still His enemies, He sent His Son to expose our sin and offer forgiveness through repentance and faith. Those who refuse His lordship face eternal judgment. To love our enemies, then, is not to affirm them in sin but to extend the same patience and mercy we have received. It means enduring evil while naming it for what it is, exposing the works of darkness, and calling sinners to repentance. The goal of love is always transformation, never accommodation.

Second, love must be rightly ordered. Scripture commands us to love God above all, then to love our families, the church, and finally the world. We do not love everyone in the same way, just as God does not love everyone in the same way. Therefore, we are not called to love enemies at the expense of our children, our churches, or the honour of God. To “love” in a way that confuses the church’s witness or compromises our children’s holiness is not love but idolatry. Ordered love protects what God entrusts to us while still extending mercy to outsiders.

Finally, love is not opposed to justice. God’s love is always just, and His justice is always loving. Love does not mean passivity toward evil; it means seeking the true good of others under God’s rule. We must not let compassion turn into indulgence, or mercy into betrayal.

So let us not be manipulated by the cheap charge, “You should love your enemies.” Instead, let us embrace Christ’s command in its fullness: to love enemies without cuddling evil, to extend mercy without compromising holiness, and to hold together love and justice as one in God.

Nino Marques