Turning the other cheek - even when it's sore

Ever had people say things about you that just weren't true? Ever been ambushed by someone that you trusted? I have and it's not fun at all. In fact, it makes me want to lash out & strike back. But Jesus famously said in Luke 6:27 that we're supposed to love our enemies. It might be natural to strike back or do the passive-aggressive thing, but it's still wrong. So what should I do?

Here's a verse that kicks my butt regularly: If anyone says "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:20) The truth of this verse absolutely rocks me: that means that I can only love God as much as I love the person that I love the least. Wow - that really stomps on my own toes.

I sometimes try to convince myself that I can simultaneously have a lot of love for God and have almost no love for my enemies. But the Bible says that the amount of love I have for the people who attack me is like a "lid" that reveals the upper limit of how I really feel about God. So I'm going to "raise the lid" and go out of my way to show God's love to the people who are acting like my enemies. Do they deserve it? No. But I didn't deserve it when God did it for me either.