“… I would argue that the instruction to love enemies is ‘the very genius of Christianity.’ And this ‘genius’ command mandates nothing less than that we are to demonstrate to all people the kind of love God demonstrated toward us while we were yet enemies (Rom. 5:10; Eph. 5:1-2). This is precisely why, after defining the kind of love that characterizes God by pointing us to Jesus’s death on the cross, John immediately adds: ‘And we ought to lay down our lives for one another’ (1 John 3:16, italics added).” — Greg Boyd, Crucifixion of the Warrior God
