Foolish Love?

What does it look like when you love your neighbor as yourself? That seems like a simple question, but it really is very deep. Having listened to a sermon that quoted 1. John 4:12 and watched a video about the love shown by some civil rights activists for those who had ill will towards them, I feel compelled to elaborate.
Who requires more effort to love: your friend, whom you like very much, or your enemy? And the answer is easy enough. It’s your enemy, of course. If we do not particularly feel drawn to a person, maybe because they are treating us unfairly or worse, we should still see them as God sees them, a child of the King. We should honor everyone, including our perceived enemies. And those who are different, and annoying, and hurtful and mean…When God says love your neighbor as yourself, and Jesus illustrated who our neighbor is with the story about the good Samaritan, who was in the most despised cultural group of the day, we know who he’s referring to (Luke 10:27-37). Our job-if we’re willing to accept it- is to love those we naturally want to hate. Returning hate for hate is unacceptable. Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek if someone strikes us, and if someone steals from us, give them more (Matthew 5:38-40). That’s insane! That’s complete foolishness in the world’s eyes. In our natural way of thinking. But we’ve been made into a new creation when we were redeemed from our sins and restored to our intimate relationship with our heavenly father (2. Corinthians 5:17). We are new. We now think with the same thought process as Jesus. We love the same way as our heavenly father, who, by the way IS love. I think I’m starting to put some puzzle pieces together here. We have to put self to death and live the new abundant life Jesus provided to us. Humility and complete surrender to God is required to achieve this goal. And it’s an ongoing process, but “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philipians 1:6)