new church life : july / august 2017
do good through apparently evil deeds . For example , we do harm through a good deed if we give a needy robber money to buy a sword , even if the robber while begging doesn ’ t say that that is what the money is for ; or if we bail the robber out of prison and point the way to the forest , saying to ourselves , “ It is not my fault if the robber steals . I have helped another human being ”’
For another example , if we feed some lazy person and protect him or her from being forced to labor for work , and we say , “ Stay in a room at my house . Lie in bed . Why wear yourself out ?” we are encouraging laziness . Likewise , if we give dishonest friends and relatives of ours jobs in high places from which they can practice all kinds of malice . Surely anyone can see that these acts of goodwill are not done with any love for justice or with any judgment .
On the other hand , we can also do good through actions that look bad . Take for example a judge who lets a criminal go because the criminal is crying and pouring out devout words , praying for the judge to grant a pardon because the criminal is the judge ’ s neighbor . The judge would be performing an act of goodwill by imposing the penalty established in the law , because this would stop the criminal from doing any further harm and being a threat to the community ; and the community takes precedence as a form of the neighbor . ( True Christianity 459 )
When I was 18 years old a man at a bus stop asked for enough money for the bus fare home . I was a poor student at the time , but I decided to have compassion on him . Yet the moment the money was in his hand , he turned on his heel without a backward glance and walked straight across the street into a bar . I felt cheated .
As a result of experiences like this and teachings like these , I came to think that before we love people or do good to them , we should determine whether they are basically good or bad , so we know whether to love them or not . If I am in some doubt about what their motives are , it would be better to walk away than to let a potentially bad person take advantage of me somehow .
I was wrong in thinking that we should not love bad people . The goal of discernment in love is not to decide whom we should love so much as how we should love them . We are supposed to love everyone . Jesus said : “ Love your enemies , bless those who curse you , do good to those who hate you , and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you , that you may be sons of your Father in heaven ; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good , and sends rain on the just and on the unjust .” ( Matthew 5:44-45 ) Teachings for the New Church explain this further :
All individual members of humankind are the neighbor we are to love , but [ in different ways ] depending on the type of goodness they have . . . . Loving our neighbor is intending and doing good not only to neighbors , friends and good people but also to strangers , enemies and evil people . But we exercise goodwill in our dealings with the latter in different ways than we do in our dealings with the former . We exercise goodwill in our dealings with our neighbors and friends by benefiting them directly . We exercise goodwill in our dealings with our enemies and
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