Yes and amen.
I don’t know how to discern in a precise refined way . . .
. . . a time to plant, a time to harvest . . .
a time to forgive . . . always time to forgive . . .
sometimes, though . . . a time to discipline and even punish. And, in terms of evil, to terminate.
Only Holy Spirit can guide in such bone from the marrow distinctions, I think.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood . . .
We must at least have the CAPACITY to hear God direct our hearts and actions lovingly toward an enemy in a given situation.
. . .
Thx
Love isn’t hippy eyeglasses, like a lot of people seem to think.
Love is seeing our fellow man as a child that God died to save, who has worth and value.
Love is forgiving, but forgiving doesn’t mean to abrogate your duties, to forget that the person you forgive for injuring you could be a danger, or that we seem to think love means.
Love means letting go of the hate. Love means to give up the reasons we use to treat our fellow as less than human. Love means to give up the prejudices, the hate chains we use to stop seeing a child beloved of God and create a lesser being.
It doesn’t mean that if you are a judge that you refuse to sentence the person because he did wrong. It means you base your judgement on the law and the need to keep society safe rather than your fear or hate of the group he is from. If you have been wronged, you forgive the person, but not necessarily be friends with him, but treat him with the respect due to him as a human and not carry him around as a burning coal in your heart. And so on and so forth.
Love is not necessarily an emotion, any more than forgiveness is. It is an act of will.