Virtues of the Sublime and the Divine
The Confounding, Redemptive Power of Compassion, Grace, and Forgiveness
It is always in the midst of tragedy and violence that Christians have the best opportunity to win over those who have no affiliation with the Gospel, no relationship with Jesus Christ, or a negative view of Christianity. The way Christians respond to the worst forms of violence ought to stun and confuse these types of people. Expressing forgiveness, grace, and compassion towards people who murder is perhaps the greatest litmus test to those who profess Christianity: it proves their faith is authentic. It is the telling sign that Christ indeed abounds in their hearts and gives them a transcendent form of love that does not exist naturally. Christianity is the only religion that practices this form of love – the mind-bending command that Jesus taught, saying, “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.”[1] Without an authentic relationship with Jesus, I think it is fundamentally impossible to love your enemies. For those who disagree, pray tell, why and how would a man love another man who murdered his loved ones? Loving our enemies is so contrary to the human experience. Yet multiple examples abound.
On June 17, 2015, when nine members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church were gunned down in a violent racial hate crime, the response from multiple congregants of the victims was nothing short of astounding: Felicia Sanders, a survivor who also lost her son and aunt, amazingly, incomprehensibly, even invited the shooter back to the same bible study.
Alana Simmons, granddaughter of Daniel Simmons:
“Although my grandfather and the other victims died at the hands of hate, this is proof – everyone’s plea for your soul is proof they lived in love and their legacies will live in love, so hate won’t win. And I just want to thank the court for making sure that hate doesn’t win.”
Anthony Thompson, representing the family of Myra Thompson:
“I forgive you, my family forgives you. We would like you to take this opportunity to repent. Repent. Confess. Give your life to the one who matters the most, Christ, so he can change your ways, no matter what happens to you, and you’ll be OK. Do that and you’ll be better off than you are right now.”
Nadine Collier, daughter of Ethel Lance:
“I forgive you. You took something really precious away from me. I will never talk to her ever again. I will never be able to hold her again. But I forgive you and have mercy on your soul. It hurts me, it hurts a lot of people, but God forgives you and I forgive you.”
10 years after the horrific beheading of 20 Coptic Christians and a converted Ghanaian man by the Islamic State in Libya, the parents of these 21 martyrs continue to forgive, give grace, and pray for their sons’ murderers.
“Girgis is with Jesus, and that is what matters now. I surely miss him every second. I have forgiven the militants who killed my son. They did not know what they were doing… Why shouldn’t I forgive? The Lord forgives us every second, and He forgave His own persecutors. My son is a martyr for Jesus, and that is a blessing. I pray for those who killed him – that they may see the truth and follow the light.”
On June 22, 2025, when 31 Orthodox Christians were shot and bombed at St. Elias Greek Orthodox church in Damascus, Syria, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Theophilos III, concluded his statement with the following:
In this moment of pain, we call upon all people of goodwill to renounce violence and to embrace the Gospel’s call for compassion, forgiveness, and sacred human dignity. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).
May the souls of the departed rest in the eternal light of Christ’s resurrection.
Christ is risen! Indeed, He is risen!
And most recently, Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk, powerfully addressed the man who murdered her husband, beginning with the very same words Jesus spoke when he was dying on the cross:
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.“ That man. That young man. I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did and is what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love.
Either all these responses are feigned and performative, or there is something far deeper here, something sublime, something divine. The consistency of these responses – across cultures and denominations – speaks volumes about the power of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit’s ability to minimize our human nature and maximize in us His Godly nature. This is not a nice, feel-good statement. This is scriptural. Jesus spoke of the coming Helper in John 15 and 16. He said, “He, [the Helper or Holy Spirit] will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.”[2] Humans only have the power to love their enemies precisely because such virtues come from the work of the Holy Spirit – hence their divinity. Humans can only escape the natural inclination of hatred, bitterness, and resentment – the exact opposites of these virtues – likewise through the work of the Holy Spirit – hence their sublimity. Jesus promised that the effect of practicing these virtues is perfection, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in Heaven is perfect.”[3] St. Peter, in his 2nd epistle, writes about this beautiful exchange, “His [Jesus Christ’s] divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness” and “that through these [promises] you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”[4] St. Cyril of Alexandria, an early church Father, writes in one of his Festal Letters, “For he lowered Himself, as I said, unto what is ours, that we might gain what is His, since we have been enriched in a certain way by His poverty.”[5]
Here I intend to avoid the topic of Theosis, which is the Greek word for deification or “union with God.” Such a deep theological topic comes from St. Athanasius, another early church father, who wrote in his book On the Incarnation, “He, indeed, assumed humanity that we might become God.”[6] It is a topic more appropriate for theologians to discuss. I merely aim to point out that the virtues of grace, forgiveness, and compassion are sublime and divine in nature – they come not from man’s nature, but God’s.
By praying for the very people who murder these Christians cut through the malice and the vitriol of murder. By asking God to save their enemies, they make a mockery of humanity’s true common enemy, Satan himself. By forgiving their enemies, they throw cold water on the fire of vicious rhetoric and retribution. By giving grace – indeed, providing an excuse for – their enemies, they open wide the door of true repentance for their enemies to walk through. The power of these responses is both redemptive and confounding: it moves people towards Christianity not because it makes sense, but precisely because it does not make sense. Yet, these virtues come from somewhere, or better, Someone. Thus, skeptics and antagonists of Christianity alike are right to question how these Christians can be so compassionate, graceful, and forgiving. Because what they really see is the work of the Holy Spirit speaking through these people, glorifying God and exchanging the earthly for the heavenly.
[1] Matthew 5:44
[2] John 16:14
[3] Matthew 5:48
[4] 2 Peter 1:3-4
[5] St. Cyril of Alexandria, Festal Letter, (440 AD)
[6] St. Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria, On the Incarnation, Christian Classics Ethereal Library, (54) (318 AD)