I told you at the end of January that February would be about love and especially love in action. And last week it was easy to speak about love, Valentine’s day was so close but when I thought about this Sunday I wasn’t sure about the Bible passages. Then I looked for the common lectionary and I had the answer since every passage which was offered was about love. The Old Testament says: Love you neighbours. Then Jesus in the New Testament says: Love your enemies.

I heard from many people asking: Who is my neighbour? Just show me my neighbours and I will love them. And we can think about it for a minute. So tell me who are your neighbours and if you know them do you love them too? I am very happy with our neighbours, they are nice people, especially the Watsons. They have good eggs and John Watson can help with the snow. We don’t really know our other neighbors. It’s not enough to know their names or occupation. But I think we are working on to know them.

And of course we have to speak about all those people who are around us whether we know about them or not. According to Jesus everybody can be our neighbour and we are asked to love them. And it’s easy, isn’t it? We love everybody and everybody loves us and we fulfilled this commandment. Of course sometimes it’s easier to say this than do it. When I say we love everybody, do you have a bothering feeling that yes, maybe we can love everybody although we have bad days and there are or only there is one person who we just cannot stand. I think we can agree that our task would be to love everybody. And we want to do this. We want to love all those who are around us, who are in need, who love us.

But let’s go back to what Jesus asks: Love your enemies. Who is your enemy? Do you have an enemy? A person who you cannot love; cannot stand? How many of you can think about a person who can cause you uncomfortable moments and you don’t want to see that person at all? When that person steps into the room you feel your anger. Are these familiar situations to you?

I can tell an example. I was an elementary school student and one of my class mates didn’t like me at all. I didn’t know why but she always laughed at me and I felt terrible sorry for myself and spent lots of time out of my precious time just thinking what her problem was. I thought it would be better to be friend with her, tried to like the same things, music, clothing she liked and maybe she would change. Of course she didn’t change but I am still thinking how important was for me not to have a single person in the world who couldn’t love me. I had many friends, but because this girl wasn’t my friend, it bothered me.

And I can tell you that this was my weakest point in my life. I always wanted to be loved. And for this reason, I was ready to be nice and smart. I wanted lots of friends without any conflict. I hated conflicts. But see, I wanted everybody to love me because I didn’t want them to speak behind my back. Were these real friendships? No, not at all. My real friends were those who told me that I had to change; and had to care about real friends. And they were right. Those relationships when I wanted to be loved by everybody were about my frenemies. Have you ever heard this word: frenemy?

Jesus says love your enemies. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?

What’s the problem with all those who are loved by the tax collectors? The tax collectors loved people because they wanted something from them. IT’s like me when I wanted my enemies to be close to me like my friends.

So yes, frenemies those who are close to you, they could be your friends, but actually they are not your friends. You want to keep your frenemies close to you because you want to know about your actions in time.

How many of you have frenemies in your lives? People who are close to you because you can get something from them. Tax collectors loved those who loved them. Why? Because they got money from them. But is this about real love?

Jesus asks us to love our enemies. Do not make frenemies from your enemies, because it’s not about love.

Love means a radical step in your lives when you decide to go close to others without even thinking about your own vulnerability. It’s about openness toward others, toward your neighbours.

Did Jesus add something extra to the Old testament saying: Love your neighbours? Not at all. But He pointed out who your enemies are. Maybe your enemy is your frenemy who is close to you but still not your friend. Love that person as your real friend.

This is the way of Jesus, when you realized that yes, you have enemies, you have frenemies but you want to love them. Is it easy? No, this is one of the hardest things in the world. You can imagine the situation when next time you will see your enemy and you will think about this message that you should love them.

The Bible says in I John 4: ²⁰Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. ²¹And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

It says if you hate your brother or sister you cannot love God. If you feel that you cannot love somebody, pray for that person. Ask God to help you. Tell God that you cannot love somebody because that person hurt you or laughed at you or you don’t really know why but you are not able to love him or her. Tell God. Tell him about your pain because He has power to take away hatred and pain too. Don’t wait with this prayer. Tell Him right now.

Tell Him because the Bible says that if you say you love God and hate somebody you are a liar. You have to work on this. And if you ask why? The answer is so simple: you cannot love God and hate somebody.

Ask God today to transform your heart, feelings and life. And I know it’s possible. As I know I don’t have enemies and I also don’t want frenemies and I don’t want to be loved by everyone. What I want today is to share the love of Jesus Christ with my neighbours, friends and with you. And I also want to ask you to trust in Jesus who passionately loved us so much that He was ready to die for us. And today He is the risen Lord who can help you to live real life with real love. Amen.