Love Your Enemy: A Christian Response to Embrace Others

Authors

  • Hanna Dewi Aritonang Institut Agama Kristen Negeri Tarutung
  • Bestian Simangunsong Institut Agama Kristen Negeri Tarutung
  • Adiani Hulu Institut Agama Kristen Negeri Tarutung

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31098/iceiakn.v1i1.240

Keywords:

Religious Conflict, Love Your Enemy, Embrace, Others

Abstract

This article addresses the issue of conflict between religious communities that cause enmity amid society.  Hostilities must be overcome and resolved in accordance with the call of Christianity to live in love and peace. The study used the qualitative paradigm as the method of the research and the descriptive-analyses as the writing method by describing the research problems based on data collected from related publications.One of the powerful messages of Jesus's teaching is "Love your enemies." It’s one of the greatest challenges in life.  Jesus Christ gave an important doctrine about loving the enemy because love is more powerful than evil, hurtful deeds. Loving the enemy means canceling hostilities and violence, but instead, it promises acceptance of each other. The title of this study is "love your enemies": A Christian Response to Embrace Others. As the title of this study is "love your enemies," the reason for the selection of this article is because the author sees that "loving the enemy is a commandment from God that must be obeyed. This research question emphasizes how to realize "loving the enemy" amid hostility. This paper argues that Jesus's command to love the enemy is a proper Christian lifestyle choice in the midst of hostility. We use CS Song thoughts, which elaborated with other scholars' views on theology, loving, and embracing others. The purpose of the research was to gain understanding and build a theological reflection on Jesus' commandment to love the enemy. In this article, we first briefly discuss the portrait of life among religious people in Indonesia. Secondly, we discuss the conflict between religious people in Indonesia. Finally, we apply the command of Jesus to love our enemy as a Christian lifestyle in the midst of hostility to construct harmony amid hostility. We propose the command of Jesus to ‘love your enemy’ as a response to establishing sustainable peace by embrace others. Finally, the Christians must become a loving community because God so loved us, and we also ought to love and embrace others. 

References

Andavita, V. (15 Agustus 2019). GKI Yasmin dispute to be settled this year: Bogor Mayor. Jakarta: The Jakarta Post.

Fiddes, P. S. (2020). Creating a New Imaginary for Love in Religion. Journal of Theoretical Humanities Vol. 25, Issues 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2020.1717772, 46-53.

Foster, P. (2015). And Finally, Love Your Neighbor. The Expository Times Vol. 126(10) DOI: 10.1177/0014524615584711, 520.

Hefner, R. W. (2017). Christian, Conflict, and Citizenship in Muslim-Majority, Indonesia. The Review of Faith & International Affairs, Vol. 15, No. 1 https://dx.doi.org/10.1080-15570274.2017.1284403, 91-101.

Knox, A. (2018). Examining Self-Love of the 'Other' and Love the 'Enemy': A Reply to Mitchell . Global Discourse, Vol. 8, N0. 4 DOI: 10.1080/23269995.2018.15.30.917, 610-614.

Salim, A. (27 February 2017). Living Under Islamic Authority: Identity and Community Among Non-Muslim in Aceh. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame & Keough School Globa Affair.

Volf, M. (1992). Exclusion and Embrace: Theological Reflections in the Wake of "Etnic Cleansing." Journal of Ecumenical Study, Vol. XXIX, No. 2, 247.

Volf, M. (2000). Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Justice: A Theological Contribution to a More Peaceful Social Environment. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 29, No. 3, 861-877.

Volf, M. (2000). Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Justice: A Theological Contribution to a More Peaceful Social Environment. Millennium, Vol. 29, No. 3, 872.

Volf, M. (2000). The Final Reconciliation: Reflection on the Social Dimension of the Eschatological Transition. Modern Theology, Vol. 16:1, 107.

Downloads

Published

2020-12-07

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (1): 1st ICE IAKN

Section

Articles

License

1. Author and Manuscript

  • The author whose name appear in the above statement is declaring that he/she is the author of the stated manuscript
  • All of the authors, if any, has already aware of this agreement and give consent for the mentioned name to act on their behalf


2. Validity

  • The author stated that the manuscript is original and has never been published elsewhere.
  • The author has obtained permissions from other contributors, if any
  • The author has specifically mentioned and cited all external materials properly
  • Note: External materials refers to any material, writings, figures, tables, illustrations, or any other materials which is not being produced, made, or patented by the author
  • The author holds the sole responsible should there are any mistyping; unclear citation and holds responsible should there are any inappropriate manners such as unlawful, breaches, obscene, or any other reasons which are not aligned with the law and norm.

3. Deliverable of Manuscript and Other Materials

  • The Contributor/Author shall deliver their manuscript using the provided and acceptable format (doc. Or docx) in the assigned date as well as author copyright document signed.
  • Inability delivering the manuscript in the stated date and format will affecting the publication process thus, The Publisher have the rights to reject the manuscript and terminate the letter of acceptance or letter of offerings
  • Author is responsible to deliver the manuscript using the provided format. Note: All of the figures, tables, illustrations, or any other materials that will be inserted in the manuscript need to be in high quality
  • Should the author decided to alter the manuscript format, the fee will be charged and bore by authors

The Author give “Yayasan Sinergi Riset dan Edukasi” (here forth known as RSF Press) the unlimited right to publish the contribution identified above, without any restraints, in any form, at any time, directly or through others, to reproduce, transmit, archive, lease/lend, sell and distribute the contribution or parts thereof individually or together with other works in any language, revision and version (digital and hard), including reprints, translations, photographic reproductions, microform, audiograms, videograms, electronic form (offline, online), or any other reproductions of similar nature, including publication in the aforementioned book or any other book, as well as, the usage for advertising purposes. RSF Press will ensure that the Author’s name(s) is/are always clearly associated with the manuscript, and the publishers will not make any substantial change to the manuscript without consulting the author and ask for their consent. RSF Press is also entitled to carry out editorial changes in the contribution with the sole purpose of enhancing the overall organization and form of the contribution.

The Author retains the rights to publish the contribution in his/her own web site and thesis, in his/her employer’s web site and to publish a similar or revised version elsewhere, as long as it is clearly stated that the contribution was presented first RSF Press and the corresponding DOI is associated with the contribution.