MacDonald on Loving One's Enemies

George MacDonald commented on Jesus' command to love our enemies, asking if our love for an enemy should be based simply on the fact that they, too, are human. No, he said. There is something deeper. It is because in them God has joined his divinity to their humanity.

He wrote:

"Why should we love our enemies? ...  It is in virtue of the divine essence which is in them that that we call our enemies men and women. It is this humanity that we are to love—something deeper altogether than, and independent of, the region of hate. “Is this humanity in every one of our enemies?” Yes, else there were nothing to love. Then we must love it, come between us and it what may.

But how can we love a man or a woman who is cruel and unjust to us? Who sears with contempt, who is self-righteous, self-seeking, self-admiring? Who can even sneer, the most inhuman of human faults, far worse in its essence than mere murder? These things cannot be loved. But are these the man? Lies there not within him a divine element of brotherhood, something which, once awakened to be its own holy self in the man, will loathe these unlovely things tenfold more than we loathe them now? Shall this divine thing have no recognition from us? Say rather, “My love shall come as near thee as it may; and when thine comes forth to meet mine, we shall be one in the indwelling God.”

MacDonald's understanding of the true nature of humanity starkly contrasted with the strict Calvinist environment of his childhood. He knew his own earthly father to be completely unlike the angry and wrathful God presented to him by religion. It was because of this difference in views that MacDonald was able to not only draw the best out of others through stories and imagination (just as Jesus did), but it is also why his hope for humanity's end was far more positive. I suggest it's that positive faith which undergirded his encouragement to us to love our enemies. MacDonald knew that ultimately, God would be all in all. As Scripture tells us, God is faithful to finish his work in us. That is true of both us and our enemies. We have no other reason but to love.

Consuming Fire : The Inexorable Power of God’s Love : A Devotional Version of Unspoken Sermons. 2015. North Charleston SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.