God’s Love for our Enemies

Don’t believe that you know on your own how to get along with other people, or how to deal with enemies, or what good and evil are, lest humankind devour itself completely. ‘Never be conceited’–rather look to God’s way with us, with our enemies, that way, which Scripture itself calls foolish, the way of God’s love for our enemies, which God demonstrates to us by sending God’s Son all the way to the cross. The best wisdom is recognizing the cross of Jesus Christ as the insuperable love of God for all people, for us as well as for our enemies. Or are we of the opinion that God loves us more than God loves our enemies: Would we believe that we are God’s favorite children? Were we to think that, we would show ourselves to be of like mind with the Pharisees, we would have stopped being Christians. Is God’s love any less for our enemies, for whom God just as much came, suffered, and died, as God did for us? The cross is nobody’s private property, but belongs to all; it is intended for all mankind. God loves our enemies–the cross tells us that. God suffers on their account, feels anguish and sorrow because of them. God gave the beloved Son for them. That is the whole point every time we encounter enemies we remember at once: God loves them, God gave everything for them.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Christ’s Love and Our Enemies,” A Testament to Freedom, 285