Love your enemies...
                    ...first take the log
                       out of your own eye.
                                                  -- Matthew 5:44, 7:5
                                                   

How do you conquer an enemy?
First, you eradicate
all that strikes him as hostile
or self-interested in yourself
so that he's no longer intent
on building a defense
against you, but lets
himself be vulnerable
to your influence.
Only when he finds 
your way worth imitating,
will he be no more
an enemy, but brother.

How do you make an enemy?
By attempting to make 
a neighbor be like you.

                                                                -- Mahlon H. Smith 

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* Note: This reflection on Jesus' social ethic is from an entry
in the author's journal
dated 12 June 1969
and published here for the first time.
It is no less relevant in January 2005
as Christian U.S. leaders pledge
to spread "freedom" around the globe.


Collected Poems
of
Mahlon H Smith

copyright © 2005
all rights reserved