We may have also memorized the characteristics of love that Paul described in I Corinthians 13, concluding with:\u00a0“But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love”<\/em> (I Corinthians 13:13).<\/p>\n “Well and good,” you might say. “I really try to have a loving spirit, so what do you mean by ‘the hardest command?'”<\/p>\n There’s another aspect of love that God has also commanded, and that is found in Matthew 5:43-48:\u00a0“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”<\/em>\u00a0Some may not think this is the\u00a0hardest\u00a0<\/strong>command, but it certainly ranks near the top in anybody’s list. We might think the best way to deal with our enemies is to avoid them, but Christ went way beyond that. He said we are to\u00a0love our enemies and pray for them. <\/strong>And Luke quoted Christ as saying\u00a0“But I say unto you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you”<\/em>\u00a0(Luke 6:27).<\/p>\n Can we really do that? If God wants it, then it\u00a0can<\/em>\u00a0be done. Let me give you an example. My wife and I were returning from a wedding in the Baltimore, Maryland area, and stopped in Fredericksburg, Virginia. While there we visited some historic sites, some going back to the 1600s. One site was Fredericksburg Civil War Battlefield, where there were some 18,000 killed and wounded in the battle that raged December 11-15, 1862. A touching monument was erected on the battlefield in honor of a young soldier, Richard Rowland Kirkland.<\/p>\n Filling several canteens with water, the young Confederate stepped over the stone wall to care for his wounded enemies.<\/p>\n When Union soliders understood Kirland’s purpose the ceased firing at him and cheered. For nearly two hours he continued his ministrations. Kirkland has since been known as “The angel of Marye’s Heights.” He died in battle at Chickamanga, Georgia, in September 1863. He was 19 years old.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But we have examples long before this. We remember that when Stephen was being stoned after his message in Acts 7, this is recorded: “When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep.”\u00a0<\/em>(Acts 7:58-60)<\/p>\n And even\u00a0before the event with Stephen, the greatest “love your enemies” act was the crucifixion of the Son of God – Jesus Christ. We remember that he was spit upon, cursed, tortured, and finally nailed to the cross. We have been told death by crucifixion was possibly the cruelest means of putting someone to death that man has invented. “When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing”<\/em>\u00a0(Luke 23:34).<\/p>\n So, how do you treat your enemies, besides avoiding them? Some might say, “Well, I’m not Christ.” Neither was Stephen. Neither was Richard Kirkland.<\/p>\n How do you treat your brothers and sisters in Christ with whom you may have had some differences? Do you suppose God will have some separate places in heaven where we can go to avoid having to deal with them? Perhaps it would be good to learn to get along with them now while we have the opportunity.<\/p>\n Do you\u00a0“love your enemies,”\u00a0<\/em>and “do good to them that hate you?”\u00a0<\/em>Yes, sometimes that’s hard to do. But if Christ told us to do it, it can be done. And someone has said, “The best way to overcome your enemy is to make him your friend.”<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Jefferson David Tant From time to time, we see articles written about love. We remember a lawyer asking Jesus a question, “trying him: Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And he said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[65,54],"class_list":["post-51687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-love","tag-obedience"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":29105,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-about-the-ten-commandments\/","url_meta":{"origin":51687,"position":0},"title":"What about the Ten Commandments?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jerry Blount It seems a constant source of confusion among Christians to determine our relationship to the Ten Commandments. How do we sort all this out? On the one hand, Paul said,\u00a0For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/MosesTablets.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":34724,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/notes-on-covetousness\/","url_meta":{"origin":51687,"position":1},"title":"Notes on Covetousness","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Prohibition Exodus 20:17, \"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.\" Psalms 10:3, \"For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, And the covetous renounceth, yea,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Notes","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/notes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":58859,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-promise-and-the-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":51687,"position":2},"title":"The Promise and the Law","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Homer Hailey via\u00a0The Preceptor, Vol. 1, No. 7, May 1952. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul began his defense of the truth he preached by showing that the gospel is one gospel and that any deviation from it is a perversion of the gospel and not another gospel.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23560,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-land-promise\/","url_meta":{"origin":51687,"position":3},"title":"The Land Promise","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Franklin T. Puckett in\u00a0The Preceptor, Vol. 1, No. 10, August 1952. Premillennialists tell us that God's promise to give the land of Canaan to Abraham and his seed has never been fulfilled. Since His promises do not fail, there must be a future fulfillment. Consequently, when Jesus comes the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60541,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/two-young-men-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":51687,"position":4},"title":"Two Young Men Baptized","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mike Willis I recently conducted a meeting in which two young men were baptized on Thursday night prior to the services beginning. It was the highlight of a good meeting. On Friday night when the meeting came to a close, as the father of the two young men came\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56304,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/pearls-from-proverbs-frankness-finds-favor\/","url_meta":{"origin":51687,"position":5},"title":"Pearls From Proverbs: Frankness Finds Favor","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Irvin Himmel Via\u00a0Guardian of Truth\u00a0XXXI: 4, p. 108, February 19, 1987 \"He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favor than he that flattereth with the tongue\" (Proverbs 28:23). Although there are people who do not care what others think about them, most of us desire the esteem\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/scold-234x300.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/KirklandMemorial-300x225.jpg\")
“While the civil war entailed immense destruction and tragedy, it did not always engender hate. For two days following the battle, wounded Union soldiers, caught between the lines, cried out for water. Though exposure to enemy fire for even a moment meant almost certain death, Sergeant Richard R. Kirkland of the 2nd South Carolina Volunteers tried to help.<\/p>\n