To “love your enemy” is a sentiment that most people would approve of, but few would be capable of fulfilling. It is generally recognized as revealing the highest degree of spirituality.  

To love your enemy is directly commanded by Jesus in the Bible: “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).  

In Buddhism, the attitude of Loving-kindness (Metta) is directed towards others, including enemies. It encourages compassion, understanding, and helping those who are struggling with ignorance and unhappiness.  

The Quran advice to treat enemies with respect and extend forgiveness instead of revenge. The Torah also encourages forgiveness and treating enemies with respect.  

Love is mostly understood and expressed as a desire for someone or something. It mostly coveys a strong emotional attachment, stronger than liking, and it is self-directed. In this sense, to love your enemy does not make sense.  

To love, in the most general sense, means to value greatly. Most of the things we love, we love for the pleasure or the satisfaction it gives us, in one way or another. In contrast, love with spiritual intention is directed towards another.

Charity is intended to help others, but there is always some tinge of conceit. Our personal relationships are by nature reciprocal. The love we have for our children is greatly for their sake, but there is always some degree of self-gratification.

To love an enemy would be the most unconditioned form of love, or the purest spiritual love.  But this kind of love is not natural.  With respect to the drive of nature, or survival of the fittest, this love is rather insane.  

The Buddha understood that all forms of dislike and hatred are the offspring of ignorance. Ignorance of what truly brings about peace of mind, or happiness. Hatred, lust, avarice, jealousy, discrimination, and the like, are all strongly self-directed. They are all based on cravings and will inevitably lead to suffering.  

As I have discussed, our relationship with others always conforms to the Red Rule of Morality. That is, you do unto yourself, what you do unto others. This is because, since our consciousness is not anything, we become what we keep in mind. So, for our sake, is good to do good to others.

This understanding makes the love of our enemy more palatable and sensible. But it does not justify a purity of love, an unconditional love.

The general conviction that to “love your enemy” is good can only be justified by a moral universe. That is, pure love must be in the fabric of the universe.  

There is really no middle ground here. Either “love your enemy” is a divine love, or it is pure nonsense.  

To love your enemy means to value and respect the humanity of others. In practice, it means being patient, understanding, and self-controlled. It demands not harboring ill thoughts and having empathy for what others are going through:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

Let none deceive another, or despise any being in any state. Let none through anger or ill-will, wish harm upon another. . .So, with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings, radiating kindness over the entire world. (Metta Sutta Sn 1.8)

To love your enemy is to understand that we are all awakening from ignorance, each at our own pace and individuality. To respect and value the humanity of another is to respect and value our own.

Our enemies can manifest in many forms. They can be political figures, an employer, customers, coworker, neighbor, friends, parents, siblings, spouse, or child. They can be present or in the past as memories.

It takes much maturity and discipline to stay calm in the face of an aggression. This goes strongly against our animal nature. It entails not putting up with but in doing what is morality correct. Our enemies can bring out the best or worse in us, and in this way help us become better persons.

To love our enemies means to uphold a pure morality and its unfathomable and mysterious source.