The life of Jesus remains the most magnificent and astonishing of human biographies. As for the Gospel, the book that reshaped the world, its revolution stumbled when we stripped it of its efficacy and clothed it in a garment of excessive romanticism. We began to chant its greatest commandments, such as ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ and ‘Love your enemies,’ with emotional ecstasy, boasting of their beauty, but we failed to transform these words into daily actions and behaviors.
Thus, a divorce occurred between the commandment and behavior, between faith and the believer, and between Christ and His followers. The commandment became a language that addresses hearts with poetic romanticism fit only for reading, turning into dreamy slogans that make Christianity a ‘religion of angels and birds,’ as portrayed by the French thinker Ernest Renan.
This divorce stems The understanding the commandment of love in a naive, romantic way, turning it into slogans inapplicable in a reality teeming with pain, enmity, evil, injustice, hostilities, and struggles for revenge and justice.
When a person sees that the commandment makes them a loser, stripped of all their rights in the struggle of life, it becomes an unbearable burden and an obstacle to be discarded. How can one understand the commandment ‘Love your enemies’ when facing an enemy who wishes to annihilate their family and neighbors (and ISIS is not far from our minds)? Here, the commandment appears not merely as a burden, but as absurd nonsense, because it seems to violate human dignity before the enemy even does.
The commandments of love sometimes seem unbearable: ‘Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.’ Who can bear taking a slap to the face and remaining silent? And ‘If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also,’ making Christ’s commandment seem as though it strips people of their basic rights. Faced with this inability to achieve them, people abandon them, even reject them, and look for another messiah to defend them.
The second reason is ‘justification.’ It is said that applying the commandment requires a special divine grace, which creates a solid wall around it, sealing its fate as a commandment fit only for a world of saints.
The Realistic Christ… Not the Romantic Christ
The great surprise is that Jesus Himself, the lawgiver and commander, did not behave romantically in the world—not with His disciples, nor with His political and religious opponents, nor even with the crowds that followed Him. The Christ of the Gospel is completely different from the Christ of Mansour Rahbani’s play (And He Rose on the Third Day); that tragic hero living in the realm of spirits. The Christ of the Gospel was a realistic, firm, and sometimes even confrontational human being.
He confronted the religious authority when He drove the sellers out of the temple, and He used harsh language, saying: ‘You brood of vipers!’ He firmly rebuked Peter when he tried to dissuade Him from the path of suffering, saying: ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ He even stripped some relationships of their excessive romanticism when He told someone: ‘Let the dead bury their own dead.’
When the Jews debated Him, He argued back with irrefutable proof. When they tried to trap Him, He was vigilant, and His answers shook their foundations. He did not entrust Himself to them but was cautious. And when the high priest’s guard slapped Him, He did not turn His right cheek; rather, He defended Himself firmly, saying: ‘If I said something wrong, testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?’
In that moment, His response was the authentic, practical application of His commandment. ‘Turning the cheek’ did not mean humiliating surrender; it meant: no emotional outburst, no anger, and no revenge. He defended Himself with dignity without an instinctive reaction, turning the ‘reaction’ into a conscious ‘action.’ This was manifested most gloriously on the cross; He reached the final moment without directing a single word of hatred or a cry for revenge at His crucifiers. His words were a seal on His life: He remained the Christ, He did not lose His love, and He did not turn into a distorted reflection of His crucifiers. Therefore, His cross became salvation, not just a moment of emotional reaction.
So, What is Evangelical Love?
When we read the phrase ‘Love your enemies’ with a romantic mindset, we spontaneously assume we are required to carry overwhelming feelings and positive emotions toward someone who harms us and harbors evil against us. We imagine we must ignore their harm, act as if the world is a warm mother’s embrace, and endure all insults with a naive smile!
But Evangelical love is not reduced to emotion; it is a creative decision. ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ means recognizing the other as a human being equal to me in value and dignity, simply because they are human. It is acknowledging their existence, respecting their humanity, and recognizing their rights just as I recognize my own. It is understanding that one’s neighbor seeks justice just as one does, desires their rights, and aspires to live with dignity.
Love does not mean I consider the other’s rights more important than mine, but rather that I acknowledge they have a right just as I demand it for myself. If two people compete for the same job, the goal is not for one to foolishly step aside for the other, but for both to realize the other’s right to pursue it, knowing this world is vast enough for everyone. Love, in a national context, is demanding citizenship and the rule of law for others just as you demand it for yourself, even without harboring feelings of personal affection for them.
That We May Not Become Wolves
When Jesus said, ‘Love your enemies,’ He did not mean you should surrender your dignity and welcome your enemy with open arms even if they come to kill you! Christ did not ask you to offer heartfelt emotions and trade their sword for sentiment. Jesus was answering the most important question: How do I deal with the enemy without becoming a copy of them?
Loving the enemy does not mean offering them roses while they carry a knife, nor belittling yourself before them, nor erasing the boundaries that protect you from their harm. It simply means: refusing to turn their enmity toward you into enmity toward them in your heart. Refusing to become a reflection of their evil, and refraining from revenge. The commandment does not ask you to change your feelings to view the enemy as a friend, but to change your method of responding to the enmity.
When Jesus said: ‘Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves,’ He did not say: ‘Be food for the wolves!’ He meant: In your struggle with the wolves, beware of becoming wolves yourselves.
The problem lies in the romantic interpretation that distorted Christ’s words and made their application impossible. But what restores the commandment’s true and practical meaning is scrutinizing the behavior of Jesus Himself. The words that some think were meant for a world of angels were actually applied by Jesus in this brutal world of ours; He applied them in the very moment when all political, religious, and social forces gathered to kill Him. They killed Him… but Christ, through His love, did not turn into a reflection of His enemies. He remained the Christ, and that is why He was the Savior.
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