While We Were Yet Enemies
A Brief History of Christian Conflict
The Editors
October 1, 2001
I'm not particularly paranoid, nor do I harbor delusions of sainthood. And I'm certainly not a masochist. But I need my enemies-in fact, I'm not sure what it means to love without them. I have come to believe that enemy love is the only kind of love Jesus brings. It was while we were yet enemies, the apostle Paul says, that God sent his Son to die for us. And it was because of the dividing wall of hostility, a rift in humanity itself, as Paul puts it elsewhere, that Christ shed his blood. In other words, God's love is supremely manifested in the fact that we exist estranged from God and each other. We are even our own enemies. And it is precisely this state of contrariness that connects us to love and to each other.
Dale showed up one Sunday to participate in a Bible study class I was teaching. I was making a point about the narrow way evangelicals tend to understand salvation, when Dale raised his hand to ask what seemed a genuine question. "Tell me again," he began, "what you understand by the kingdom of God." I tried to answer him succinctly, and he appeared satisfied. A few minutes later he asked another question. Again I offered a brief response. Before I knew it, I was under attack, being peppered with one question after another.
The next week Dale appeared again, this time with a couple of friends. Almost before I got started, the questions started flying. Then all hell broke loose. Dale stood up and began a diatribe against me. He accused me of teaching a false, humanistic gospel that reeked of communism. I quickly went on the defensive and started to argue my case, point by point. We were getting nowhere fast. Fortunately, a member of the class stood up and asked Dale to stop and leave. "We came here to learn," she ...
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