Yquotes.com

 

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.
--
Illustrated London News (16 July 1910)

 

Gilbert Keith Chesterton

» Gilbert Keith Chesterton - all quotes »

Similar quotes

 

I believe in God, not because the Bible tells me that he is, but because my heart tells me so; and the same heart tells me we can only have His peace with us if we love Him and obey Him, and that we can only he happy when we each love our neighbour better than ourselves.

 

James Anthony Froude

 

Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. That’s why Jesus says, "Love your enemies." Because if you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption. You just keep loving people and keep loving them, even though they’re mistreating you. Here’s the person who is a neighbor, and this person is doing something wrong to you and all of that. Just keep being friendly to that person. Keep loving them. Don’t do anything to embarrass them. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with bitterness because they’re mad because you love them like that. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.

 

Martin Luther King

 

An even more basic reason why we are commanded to love is expressed explicitly in Jesus' words, "love your enemies....that ye may be children of your father which is in heaven." We are called to this difficult task in order to realize a unique relationship with God. We are potential sons of God. Through love that potentiality becomes actuality. We must love our enemies, because only loving them can we know God and experience the beauty of His holiness.

 

Martin Luther King

 

Dr. King was also radical in his beliefs about violence. He learned how to successfully fight hatred and violence with the unstoppable power of nonviolence.
He once stopped an armed mob, saying: "We are not advocating violence. We want to love our enemies. I want you to love our enemies. Be good to them. This is what we live by. We must meet hate with love."

 

Cesar Chavez

 

Today people want love. I can truly and sincerely tell you this Knowledge is over-brimmed with love. This Knowledge is, you know, I can't explain how much love it contains. There is so much love that if you take the water of the whole seas around and on one side we put this love and on the other side we put the whole sea, the sea will be small, the love will still be more. If we take every human man's weight, add it, then we add the love of his love, this Knowledge will be still much bigger than any man's weight. And this Knowledge is love. This is it. This is the love. A thief cannot take if from you, this love is so much. Nobody can cut this love. You can experience it whenever you like.

 

Maharaji (Prem Rawat)