Love Your Enemies
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 children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:43-48
Spoken under Roman occupation to people with real enemies. The passage ends with the summit of the sermon: be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect, whole and complete in love the way he is.
Anyone can love the lovable. Jesus points at the Father, who sends sun and rain on the just and unjust alike, and says: love like that, love that does not check credentials first. This is the perfection he calls us toward, love brought to completeness.
Pray for your enemy by name today, for their good, not their correction. It is nearly impossible to keep hating someone you genuinely pray for, which may be exactly why he commanded it.