Love Your Enemies

The teaching of the Old Testament concerning this theme is epitomized in the words, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev. 19:18). The rabbis of old and the scribes of Jesus' day perverted this teaching by omission (omitting the words "as yourself") and by addition (adding the words "and hate your enemy"). But Jesus taught that we should see every human being as our neighbor, including our enemy, and that we are to love even our enemies as ourselves. We may not be able to like or delight in our enemy, but we are to desire his good, pray for him and treat him with love.