The following was written by A.F.C Vilmar, in 1880 and quoted by Bonhoeffer in 'The Cost of Discipleship.' It's dated 1880, which is extraordinary, given it's timeliness today. It's long, but well worth reading in full...
The commandment that we love our enemies and forego revenge will become even more urgent in the holy struggle that lies before us and which in part we have already been engaged for years. In it love and hate engage in mortal combat. It is the urgent duty of every Christian soul to prepare itself for it. The time is coming when the confession of the living God will incur not only the hatred and fury of the world, for on the whole it has come to that already, but complete ostracism from human society as they call it.
The Christians will be hounded from place to place, subjected to physical abuse, maltreatment and death of every kind. We are approaching the age of wide spread persecution. Therein lies the true significance of all the movements and conflicts of our age. Our adversaries seek to route out the Christian church and the Christian faith, because they can not live side by side with us, because they see in every word we utter and every deed we do, even when they are not specifically directed against them a condemnation of their own words and deeds. They are not far wrong. They suspect too that we are indifferent to their condemnation. Indeed, they must admit that it is utterly futile to condemn us. We do not reciprocate their hatred and contention, although they would like it better if we did, and so sink to their own level.
And how is the battle to be fought? Soon the time shall come when we shall pray, not as isolated individuals, but as a corporate body, a congregation, a church; we shall pray in multitudes (although relatively small multitudes) and among the thousands and thousands of apostates we shall loudly confess and praise the Lord who was crucified and is risen and shall come again. And what prayer, what praise, what hymn of confession will it be? It will prayers of earnest love for these very sons of perdition who stand around and gaze at us with eyes aflame with hatred and have perhaps already raised their hands to kill us. It will be a prayer of peace for those erring, devastated and bewildered souls, and prayer for the same love and peace we enjoy ourselves, a prayer that will penetrate right to the depths of their souls and rend their hearts more grievously than anything they can do to us.
Yes, the church which is really waiting for the Lord and which discerns the signs of the time of decision must fling itself with the utmost power and with the panopoly of it's holy life into this prayer of love.
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