Love Them Anyways
Matthew 5:44 KJV
"But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you."
Over the years, "an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth," has been used out of the wrong context. We have used it to validate our repayment of wrong for the wrong done unto us, but Jesus offers us another way. As written in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells us to not only love our enemies but to pray for those who persecute us. Why? Because we have no control over the behavior of other people. We can't change people. However, God can. Here's an example of what praying for your enemies can do: In Acts 7 and 8, Stephen was stoned for his faith. But in Acts 7:60, the scripture tells us that while being stones, Stephen kneeled and prayed before dying, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." We then see in Acts 8:1 that Saul approved of the death of Stephen. It took humility and the desire to live in likeness with Christ to pray for those who were killing him, but instead of trying to run or get even, he prayed for these people. We later see in Acts 9 that God heard his prayer, and He changed the heart of Saul when He changed his name to Paul and used him to not only plant an abundance of churches across Asia Minor but also to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles.
So, my point here is this: What good is revenge when a change of heart is what this earth needs? Why repay evil for evil when we're called to love one another? We complain about what a hateful world we live in, but then treat others the way they treat us (not the way we would want to be treated). But with one simple prayer, God could change the trajectory of that person's path. Just as He changed Saul into Paul and turned him from a Christian hater to a true Christian himself, He can impact your accusers as well. And even if our enemy doesn't see the light, we can continue to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, living a blameless life, because we have chosen to carry out the new commandment that Jesus left us with, which is found in John 13:34, "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." In loving and praying for our enemies, we are better able to peruse that Christ-like life that we as Christians are called to live and we will be one step closer to seeing our reward in Heaven that we are promised through Christ.
Add comment
Comments