"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?

     "We have met the enemy, and he is us," Pogo® famously declared in a comic strip years ago.  While the cartoonist was talking about the environment, he could just as easily have been describing the world of evangelical Christians in modern society. 

     As followers of Jesus Christ, we are instructed to do three things, in this order of priority: Love God and others; tell others about salvation through Jesus Christ alone; and take care of the world He created.  And unlike the whole rest of the world, we're commanded to do those three things-to the best of our ability-without hate or rancor-ever.

     That means how we do things is every bit as important as the things we do.

     Every person who calls themselves a follower of Jesus Christ isn't necessarily a Christian, and only God really knows who is or isn't.  For those who are Christians, hate and rancor have no place in their lives, and are counter-productive to the work they do for the Kingdom.  Christians who allow themselves to hate-anyone-become temporary enemies of the work of Christ, even as they stand under the shadow and protection of His forgiveness and salvation. 

     We evangelical Christians have seen some exciting spiritual movements in our lifetimes, and yet the longer the world exists, the more deadly and destructive it becomes.  In other words, despite sweeping, attention-getting, positive, and often successful spiritual campaigns, the battle to get people to live compassionate lives, win souls for Christ, and make the world run like God intended it continues to lose ground.

     Why? 

     Is there hope to turn the tide?

     The answer to the second question is a resounding "YES".  Remember, a tiny band of Jewish Christians turned the tide in the first century after the Resurrection, despite the opposition of a well-entrenched religious establishment, and even the might of Rome arrayed against them.

     "Why" it hasn't happened, despite the impact of so many exciting and successful Christian movements, is because we as individual Christians continue to let hate and rancor creep into our everyday faith.   Hate and rancor changes us

from powerful ambassadors of the Prince of Peace,

to roving bands of judgmental enforcement specialists. 

     The moment we let ourselves hate anyone, including outspoken enemies of the faith, we cut ourselves off from the fragrance of forgiveness and the power of redemption. Those two things, forgiveness and redemption are the only elements able to win hearts in any so-called culture war.  If we truly want to change our world, then we must light the brittle brushfires of hurt, present in epidemic proportions in the hearts of people around the globe, with the twin torches of forgiveness and compassion, instead of drowning them in streams of righteous rhetoric spewed in mean-spirited "gotcha" fashion.

     God's job is to judge, and ours is to forgive-even if someone's not yet demonstrated they're ready to be forgiven.

     We must let loose of any hatred we've let creep into our being.  Do we hate the boss who just fired us, the collection agent who's harassing us, the customer who didn't pay us? Or is it politicians we hate, right or left? Aliens, legal or illegal? Pro or anti-abortionists? Comedians who mock Jesus? News commentators or book authors who attack Christians or Christianity? The moment we grant ourselves permission to hate even those who hate us, we become one with them and not one with Christ. 

     We must live and love and look like Christ, "taking captive every thought" in a determined effort to mirror not only His amazing ability to love, but His utter refusal to hate.

     Movements and movies and books and revivals and awakenings push back the darkness but they don't change the world.  The world changes when people see Jesus Christ in the people who claim to be His children.  Do you call yourself a Christian?