The love of neighbor and enemy

Abbot Tryphon:

Love Your Enemies

Do unto others as you would have done unto you (Luke 6:31)

It is a terrible temptation to wish our enemies destruction. Our Lord instructs us to love our enemies and to do good to those who hate us or persecute us. To wish for their destruction is to ignore the love that God has for us, even though our sins have made us enemies of God.

Our salvation is not accomplished in a vacuum, for all of humanity is the beneficiary of Christ's redemptive act upon the cross. Christ died for all of us and our salvation is interconnected to all of humanity. We should be just as concerned for the salvation of our neighbors as we are for our own salvation.

 

When we see someone filled with hate and far from God, we should pity them and pray for them. To wish ill upon them is not in keeping with Our Lord's commandment. Love must reign in our lives, and the salvation of others must be a central theme in our own prayers.

With love in Christ,

Abbot Tryphon

 Bond Robin's reaction:

If I had grown insane and was harming children, would I be helped or harmed by someone stopping me by whatever means it took? Were I to be killed, it would be a kindness not only to future victims but also to me so that I could not damage myself and my soul further. This may seem an extreme example, but I have met people who came to sanity in prison and thanked the officer who shot them. Of course, everything Abbot Tryphon said is true unless you take it as a call to inaction and pacifism. It is as if they are saying, Tryphon excepted, that what you are supposed to do in the face of evil is never act, and wrap your arms around yourself and try to summon good emotions. Righteous indignation with a whip in hand is a lost art.

The clerics love to caution that we must love our enemies as if sentiment is what is meant. Real Love is action and not emotion; it acts in the other person's best interest whether we like them or not, and lovingkindness takes many forms. When people reduce Christ's admonition to love neighbor and enemy to the confines of sentimentality and not Holy Spirit-Filled Healing, they mock his meaning. One can never love a neighbor or enemy by ignoring, condoning, or perpetuating their evil actions.
 
When one acts in the best interest of neighbor or enemy, one must, at the same time, hate all the works of evil, every lie, robbery, murder, and enslavement, every pride of reason, every evil and illegal domination, which appropriates to itself wealth, power and control, in opposition to the Love of Christ. For instance: I don't hate Hillary Clinton; I hate every lying, murderous evil act, every injustice she has inflicted on people of goodwill and, in some cases, on mutual enemies, her co-conspirators. I can say the same about Lindsey Graham. The message of maudlin sentimental Love of our enemies is a half-truth that quickly becomes a lie and the cover for cowardice, laziness, and the temptation to the worldly philosophy of pacifism.