The apostle we now know as St. Paul was from a devout Jewish family—in fact, his original name, Saul, was likely a tribute to Israel’s first king. Because of his Jewish heritage and strict legal training, Saul was someone who thought the early Christians were corrupting the true ways of God. Therefore, he not only rejected, but also persecuted those who threatened the sanctity of his convictions. In describing his past, Paul mentions that he dragged Christians off to jail, and facilitated beatings and even stoning.

It’s clear: you didn’t want to get on Saul’s bad side. To disagree with his convictions was to position yourself as his enemy. But God changed him. After His resurrection, Christ met Saul on the Damascus Road, blinding him physically, changing his name to Paul, and commissioning him to work with the very Christians he had hated so much.

What’s it like to be on your bad side? How do you treat those who you think are wrong? It’s ironic: our enemies might know a side of us that our friends don’t! Like Saul, it’s easy for all of us to be so convinced of the righteousness of our viewpoint and so unable to see the merits or truths in other people and their perspectives that we justify being rude, overbearing, or even cruel.

We might not stone people like Saul did, but do we damage others’ reputations? We might not drag people off to prison, but do we lock them behind the bars of their flaws and mistakes? The way I treat the people I disagree with says a lot about me, and the way I treat my enemies may be the single most revealing test of my likeness to Christ.

Because God loves us, we can love others, even our enemies. Christ showed with His own death what it means to love people who hurt or oppose us. And Saul’s conversion to Paul provides a vivid example of how God makes us right with Himself and then gives us the basis and the power to get right with others, especially those we don’t like or don’t agree with. It was Saul who made every effort to harm those who disagreed with him, but it was Paul who wrote, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil” and “Bless those who persecute you” and “If your enemy is hungry, feed him.”