"Love your enemies" said Jesus Christ. I personally would apply this loving of enemies command in this way; if there is something I can do which will benefit others but it will benefit my enemies too with no reward from them back to me, I should not let that thought stop me doing it. Personally that is the best I can do because I do not have the means to buy food for friends and enemies who are hungry or even visit them in prison or hospital and God knows that. We can give to charities that feed everyone poor and hungry indiscriminately because of this teaching of Jesus to love not just our friends but also our enemies.
A great example of the teaching of loving enemies is the Book of Jonah where Ninevah was a mortal enemy of Israel and yet Jonah was commanded to preach to it what God would give him - he initially went far away from doing it because, he later said, he knew the preaching would save Ninevah and he could not bear that outcome. God taught him the lesson he needed by comparing Ninevah to a shade on a hot day that would be a loss to God if it perished so God can love an enemy city because even an enemy can be a blessing in extreme circumstances and would be missed by God. So in loving our enemies we are loving our God who made them and then God is indeed our God. Easier to say than to do though, as Jonah experienced. So when our saving message is preached to people who include our enemies we feel it turns our stomach bitter even though it is sweet in the mouth to speak it.
To achieve love (holy love) we have to work at our personal development once we believe and are forgiven: 2 Peter 1:5-9 "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins."
A great example of the teaching of loving enemies is the Book of Jonah where Ninevah was a mortal enemy of Israel and yet Jonah was commanded to preach to it what God would give him - he initially went far away from doing it because, he later said, he knew the preaching would save Ninevah and he could not bear that outcome. God taught him the lesson he needed by comparing Ninevah to a shade on a hot day that would be a loss to God if it perished so God can love an enemy city because even an enemy can be a blessing in extreme circumstances and would be missed by God. So in loving our enemies we are loving our God who made them and then God is indeed our God. Easier to say than to do though, as Jonah experienced. So when our saving message is preached to people who include our enemies we feel it turns our stomach bitter even though it is sweet in the mouth to speak it.
To achieve love (holy love) we have to work at our personal development once we believe and are forgiven: 2 Peter 1:5-9 "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins."
