Monday, 13 March 2017

Matthew 5:44 I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you… Jesus commands that we love our enemies. This means love the people that are the hardest to love. The people you hate to love. Love the one you do not like, you find unlovable. Love those who never love you, but only hurt you. Love those on the other side of every difference and barrier, those who are completely unlike you, think differently than you, look differently, act differently. Love no matter what they are, what they do, or how they treat us. Love means both a desire for the good of the person and an action of doing good to the person. Some have right attitude but they don’t act. Some have right action but resentment in the heart. Pray from the heart for the good of the person. Love does not mean you like a person, you are attracted to a person, or admire a person. In fact, if you someone to be treacherous and a liar, you are not bound to trust him. If he is evil in his actions, you are not bound to live in community with him. But still you must love him. You must love your enemy because you love God. because God loves that person. Jesus says later: (vv 47) If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? This is ordinary human behavior. Everyone does it. Even bad people do this. Welcome those they like, those that like them. There is no heavenly reward for that. Jesus asks “What are you doing more than others?” Jesus teaches Christians to do more than all others, to do more than ordinary human behavior. The Christian, because of his love for God, will love the person that others can’t. Do you find this impossible? Do you believe in the Holy Spirit? Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with the love of Jesus for that one. This is a prayer that God will answer. It still may be painful and difficult to love. But you will be able to love: to desire his good, pray for his good, and do him good.