Christ Jesus said, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven."  ^{Matt. 5:44, 45;}

Why should we be expected to love our enemies and those that curse us? To many, it seems unreasonable.

At another time, in answer to Peter's question "How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?" Jesus said, "I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven." ^{18:21, 22;} This also might seem quite unreasonable. And such sayings of Jesus have led some people to picture him as a weakling.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. He vigorously condemned evil, manifested as gross materialism, hypocrisy, and sanctimonious ecclesiasticism. He said, "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" ^23:33; Who was he berating? None but the ones who felt they had the power to bring about his mortal destruction—the religious rulers of Israel. Was he ignoring his own teaching about loving one's enemies? Essentially he was not blasting sinners. He was exercising the highest sense of love in striving to awaken them from the sins they were committing to the realization of man's true perfection in the likeness of the Father.

Jesus understood God's spiritual creation so thoroughly that he could see and love God's perfect idea, man, right where the one who might consider himself an enemy seemed to be. In Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy we read: "Material man is made up of involuntary and voluntary error, of a negative right and a positive wrong the latter calling itself right. Man's spiritual individuality is never wrong. It is the likeness of man's Maker."  ^{Science and Health, p. 491;}

The spiritual individuality of one whom we call, or who calls himself, an enemy is never wrong, never otherwise than Godlike, loving, and noble. How can one help but love true individuality, the divine idea? Science and Health states: "Discord is nothingness named error. Harmony is the somethingness named Truth." ^{p. 276;} How can discord or any material condition be real when it is no part of God's creation? An enemy is only a mortal mind misconception of a perfectly harmonious divine idea. The only place an enemy, a misconception, can be is in one's thinking. Therefore the way to love an enemy is to know that man's spiritual identity is never more nor less than kind, loving, wise. His whole reason for being is to reflect God.

There are not really two creations, the material and the spiritual. There is only one—the spiritual. What appears to us to be the material, with all its problems, is a mistaken concept, an illusion. Science and Health states: "Matter is neither self-existent nor a product of Spirit. An image of mortal thought, reflected on the retina, is all that the eye beholds." ^{P. 479 .} Therefore when we insist that man is not a hateful mortal but is really a perfect, spiritual idea of God and must reflect those qualities that are associated with the Father, we have the scientific basis for loving our enemies.

A Bible story shows us the possibility of successfully handling enemies through spiritual understanding and compassion (see II Kings 6:8—23). The Syrians periodically overran Israel. On one occasion the prophet Elisha prayed that the eyes of the enemy should be blinded, and then he led them to where the king of Israel was. He prayed that their eyes should be opened, and they saw that they were prisoners. The king asked whether he should smite them with the sword, but Elisha replied that the king should set bread and water before them. They returned to Syria to war no more with Israel.

I have proven for myself the fact that one who appears to be an enemy is, in reality, a perfect, spiritual idea. One day I left my car in a downtown parking lot. Upon my return I saw a car being driven into the side of my car. There had been plenty of room for the driver to turn, but he had been careless. I approached him, and he was incensed that I even asked him for his driver's license. When he produced it, I asked whether the address was his current one. He was indignant that I should question it. I had the damage repaired that afternoon and took the receipted bill to his address, only to learn that he had not lived there for three years. A call at the Motor Vehicle Department revealed that he lived in a city twenty miles away. This was in wartime, and I had no motor fuel to waste. I had no way of knowing that he would be home even if I went there.

So I applied truths of Christian Science to the situation. I knew that man is the reflection of divine Principle and that God alone governed His idea. I sought to see man as truthful, the image and likeness of God. I wrote him a note and enclosed the receipted bill for the repairs to my car. About a week later I received a draft for the exact amount of money due. No amount of recrimination, I'm sure, would have had such a harmonious result.

An enemy is only a distorted image in mortal thought. God's idea, man, is where the enemy appears to be.