Chapter 13 - The Enemy -- the "Extraordinary"
Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, ...and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you
Bonhoeffer- 'This is the supreme demand. Through the medium of prayer we go to our enemy ,stand by his side and plead for him to God. Jesus does not promise that when we bless our enemies and do good to them that they will not despitefully use and persecute us . They certainly will. But not even that can hurt or overcome us ,so long as we pray for them. For if we pray for them, we are taking their distress and poverty , their guilt and perdition upon ourselves , and pleading to God for them. We are doing vicariously for them what they cannot do for themselves. Every insult they utter only serves to bind us more closely to God and them. Their persecution of us only serves to bring them nearer to reconciliation with God and to further the triumphs of love.'
My thoughts--
Prayer. Praying for someone, making supplication for another person. Seeking God, asking for His intervention in another's life. When we seek God asking Him to be with those who are hurting us, we are recognizing the NEED our persecutor has of God. We are comprehending that the person abusing us needs forgiveness- God's forgiveness, our forgiveness. We are understanding the VALUE our Savior places upon EVERYONE! We have NO way of knowing who will be God's and who will not. The worst of offenders may plead for forgiveness and accept Christ into His life, while the mildest, meekest person who never offended anyone in their lives will NOT accept Christ as their Savior.
We don't know, we can't know.
We are told by our Savior to PRAY for those who are our enemies. We don't know the even if our enemies will be Christ's or not, but we MUST pray that they will be!
Even knowing the majority of people will NOT be Christ's when He comes, we must pray for all and NEVER ever become complacent in our salvation.
Our life is one of discipleship to our Savior and that means comprehending His words, His instructions to us, and living by them, making them a part of our lives.
When He tells us to PRAY for our enemies He means for us to PRAY for them, truly pray for them.
Bonhoeffer's saying this-- ' Their persecution of us only serves to bring them nearer to reconciliation with God and to further the triumphs of love.'
-- seems strange, doesn't it? Whenever we are persecuted and we do PRAY for those persecuting us, we are bringing the nearer to GOD. It makes sense, doesn't it? Remember this--
Act 16:22 And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them.
Act 16:23 And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:
Act 16:24 Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
Act 16:25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.
Act 16:26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.
Act 16:27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
Act 16:28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.
Act 16:29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,
Act 16:30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Act 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Act 16:32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.
Act 16:33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
Act 16:34 And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.
Act 16:35 And when it was day, the magistrates sent the serjeants, saying, Let those men go.
Act 16:36 And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore depart, and go in peace.
Paul and Silas beaten and imprisoned- prayed and sang songs!
Their jailor was ready to kill himself when he thought they'd escaped, and instead that jailer accepted Christ and was baptized.
They PRAYED.
One who was IMPRISONING them was SAVED.
We have NO way of knowing what the result of our prayers will be. We do know prayer WORKS. Prayer is NECESSARY. Jesus prayed! It's a blessing to have the ability to pray to our God. It is a blessing to be able to pray for our enemies knowing that we are bringing them up to God and by HIS grace bringing them closer to SALVATION in CHRIST.
All through HIM!
Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, ...and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you
Bonhoeffer- 'This is the supreme demand. Through the medium of prayer we go to our enemy ,stand by his side and plead for him to God. Jesus does not promise that when we bless our enemies and do good to them that they will not despitefully use and persecute us . They certainly will. But not even that can hurt or overcome us ,so long as we pray for them. For if we pray for them, we are taking their distress and poverty , their guilt and perdition upon ourselves , and pleading to God for them. We are doing vicariously for them what they cannot do for themselves. Every insult they utter only serves to bind us more closely to God and them. Their persecution of us only serves to bring them nearer to reconciliation with God and to further the triumphs of love.'
My thoughts--
Prayer. Praying for someone, making supplication for another person. Seeking God, asking for His intervention in another's life. When we seek God asking Him to be with those who are hurting us, we are recognizing the NEED our persecutor has of God. We are comprehending that the person abusing us needs forgiveness- God's forgiveness, our forgiveness. We are understanding the VALUE our Savior places upon EVERYONE! We have NO way of knowing who will be God's and who will not. The worst of offenders may plead for forgiveness and accept Christ into His life, while the mildest, meekest person who never offended anyone in their lives will NOT accept Christ as their Savior.
We don't know, we can't know.
We are told by our Savior to PRAY for those who are our enemies. We don't know the even if our enemies will be Christ's or not, but we MUST pray that they will be!
Even knowing the majority of people will NOT be Christ's when He comes, we must pray for all and NEVER ever become complacent in our salvation.
Our life is one of discipleship to our Savior and that means comprehending His words, His instructions to us, and living by them, making them a part of our lives.
When He tells us to PRAY for our enemies He means for us to PRAY for them, truly pray for them.
Bonhoeffer's saying this-- ' Their persecution of us only serves to bring them nearer to reconciliation with God and to further the triumphs of love.'
-- seems strange, doesn't it? Whenever we are persecuted and we do PRAY for those persecuting us, we are bringing the nearer to GOD. It makes sense, doesn't it? Remember this--
Act 16:22 And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them.
Act 16:23 And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:
Act 16:24 Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
Act 16:25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.
Act 16:26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.
Act 16:27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
Act 16:28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.
Act 16:29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,
Act 16:30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Act 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Act 16:32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.
Act 16:33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
Act 16:34 And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.
Act 16:35 And when it was day, the magistrates sent the serjeants, saying, Let those men go.
Act 16:36 And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore depart, and go in peace.
Paul and Silas beaten and imprisoned- prayed and sang songs!
Their jailor was ready to kill himself when he thought they'd escaped, and instead that jailer accepted Christ and was baptized.
They PRAYED.
One who was IMPRISONING them was SAVED.
We have NO way of knowing what the result of our prayers will be. We do know prayer WORKS. Prayer is NECESSARY. Jesus prayed! It's a blessing to have the ability to pray to our God. It is a blessing to be able to pray for our enemies knowing that we are bringing them up to God and by HIS grace bringing them closer to SALVATION in CHRIST.
All through HIM!
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