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.
Matthew 5:43:47 NLT
Have you ever read through God's word and especially the teachings of Jesus and find yourself glancing over or moving on when you read something that doesn't make sense or is really hard to do. This verse from the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is one of those verses for me.
Can you fathom what Jesus is asking us to do in this verse? I'm not only supposed to love the likable and kind and great people in my life, but also the difficult ones as well. I know I am not alone here. We all have difficult people in our lives and Jesus rightly points out (doesn't He always?) we're not doing any favors for the Kingdom if we ignore those that say rude things to us or give us cutting or sarcastic remarks or are just downright mean.
The type of love that Jesus is talking about here is from the Greek word, agape. You've probably heard this word in your days in church and the key component to the meaning is selflessness, not doing something for someone because we are looking for something in return. Imagine that. This was the type of love Jesus poured out for us on the cross. He loved us so much that He was willing to die so we might have eternal life.
This verse from Matthew came to me after reading in 1 John 4:7 where it says, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. How do I know if I love God? This verse says if I am loving others and Jesus says that includes those we don't know or don't like.
Identify the difficult people in your lives. Maybe it's your boss, your neighbor, your co-worker or maybe it's someone closer like a relative. Now I won't say that all difficult people are non-believers, but even if they know Christ, they musn't know His love very well. Think of ways to just love on them. Meet a need, say hello, send them a text, but try something.
If we're doing the tough things that God call us to do, like love everyone imajine the impact we can have. Our minds can get so cluttered with God stuff at times lately I have been going out the door in the morning telling myself to just love people and love them expecting nothing in return.
Because it won't be nothing you get since God will have noticed and He will receive the glory. Isn't that why we are all here?
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