Love Your Enemies
Do you have any enemies?
Verse of the Day
‘But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!’
Today’s Devotional
“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48)
Sometimes I get stuck. In the above passage, I can miss the point because I get stuck on that last verse: “But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Since it is impossible for me to be perfect, I can easily dismiss everything that comes before it.
I can also be dismissive of this particular teaching of Jesus because I don’t think I have any enemies. But…what if I’m wrong. Here’s how I could obey this teaching in my life today.
-I can pray that God’s love would be evident and unmistakable to the people who irritate and frustrate me.
-I can pray for God to bless members of my family (or church or workplace) that I find challenging.
-I can look for ways to show kindness to strangers.
-I can pray for God’s Kingdom to advance on all sides of our current political system, not just for the party I support.
-I can pray for God to inhabit the relationships I have with people I don’t like.
-Sometimes I am my own enemy, especially my mind. I can pray for God to inhabit my thoughts. I can ask for God’s help to not be critical of my own humanness, instead seeking His help to surrender, exactly as I am today.
One of the most powerful (and difficult) things I’ve ever been asked to do was to pray for someone who had hurt me. I was told not to pray that God would change them, or punish them, or that they would realize the error of their ways. I was told to pray for them to receive all the blessings from God that I would like to have. I was challenged to do this every day for 30 days. And do you know what changed? My heart.
And even though I have direct experience of the positive outcome of obeying this teaching of Jesus, it is still one of the hardest things for me to do. I have a person in my life right now who is very unlikable. My job is not to change this person. My job is to love this person. I can show love by obeying Jesus and simply lifting this person up to the Father. Every single time this person comes to my mind. And even though I don’t always want to obey in the moment, I do want to be a disciple of Jesus. Which sends me back to the verse which started this whole study. “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Do we want to be free?
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
Do you have any enemies? If so, how can you pray for them today?
What is Jesus teaching you?
How can you be obedient to whatever Jesus is teaching you today?