We Are All Connected, Even to our “Enemies”

“We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone — we find it with another.” Merton

The greatest need we have as humans, after having food, is to feel connected with other human beings and to be part of a community.

Fulfilling this primary need of our soul was an essential part of Jesus' ministry. He dedicated most of his ministry to connecting those who sought him with the community and with God. His primary mission was to assure his followers that they were loved by God. That they were not alone. His message was: God loves you and desires to restore your lives by restoring the relationship with Him and with one another.

Scripture reminds us: "We love him, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Jesus invited: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). God saved us "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy" (Titus 3:4-5), and declares to us: "I have loved thee with an everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3).

God suffers because we have believed the lie that God is angry with us, that we are enemies of God. One of the most beautiful truths is that God desires to have an intimate and permanent relationship with each person. There are no prerequisites. On God's part, there is nothing that prevents that relationship. We are the ones who have believed the lie that God is inaccessible and requires rituals and religion to approach Him.

God has never departed from us. We have lost the sense of connection with Him. Human philosophies and religions have taught us that God is far away and that we are undeserving of His company and love. The truth is that God needs nothing and no one to love us, not even the cross of Calvary.

This tragedy of our apparent separation from God, we also experience among ourselves and our neighbors. I recently attended a worship service where the preacher spoke for 35 minutes about the need for unity among Christians, but spent the last ten minutes enumerating false gospels, categorically declaring that he could not cooperate or unite with those who professed one of them. I felt completely disappointed. That night I heard a preacher who felt comfortable excluding me from the church. For my part, I would never exclude him.

We have been taught by religions and political ideologies to consider as enemies others who do not share our way of understanding life. We have used categories to create fictitious and diabolical divisions: language, our ethnicities, nationality, culture, social class, political affiliations, gender, religions, and doctrines that Christianity has developed.

Too many people not only feel comfortable living with these false human divisions, but they promote and defend them. God's heart is grieved when we prefer to promote divisions among us.

Christian doctrines are a human construction, an effort of our minds to make sense of what the scriptures teach us. Doctrines are fallible. The apostle clearly said: "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part" (1 Corinthians 13:9). The only thing that is not fallible is God's love. His love that resides in us is the only thing that cannot err.

During the last ten years, powerful forces of evil have dedicated themselves to creating a state of "them against us," making us believe that our neighbors are our enemies.

Our neighbors are not our enemies. Our colleagues in ministry are not our enemies. We are all loved by God. If anyone could consider us enemies, it would be God; and God does not do so. God loves us.

Jesus never taught that we should separate ourselves or consider ourselves enemies. When we teach that some are our enemies because they don't think like us, we are sowing weeds and opposing the work of the Spirit to restore and heal humanity.

When you look at another person, especially if they are a believer, do not look at them with pity or with disdain because they don't think like you. Never see them as an enemy, because for God they are not. He or she is simply a pilgrim on this sacred journey we call life. Let us reject every religious or political effort that pushes us to condemn our brothers and sisters, and let us widen our arms and hearts to include and love just as God does.

Rev. Carlos L. Malavė is the president and founder of the Latino Christian National Network (LCNN). Carlos is also a pastor in Southern Virginia. LCNN is a space for Christian leaders from all Christian traditions who are willing to set aside our differences to learn and grow together while working to build up the church and our communities.