Enemies.

Mat 5:43  Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 

Mat_5:44  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 (Luk_6:27)

Yesterday we talked a little about serving those we love, today let's talk about serving those who hate us.  I couldn't say- loving those we hate- because let's be honest, we are not to hate others. The worst of the worst, the worst we could ever imagine- belongs to God's judgment, not ours. No, I'm not saying we don't lock up in prison or mental health facilities those worst of the worst, I'm saying we do not judge their eternal life.

In the news very recently was an article about a man hugging a woman in a court room, the man was the brother of the one the woman killed, and he was hugging her because he was forgiving her for killing his brother. There was quite the uproar in the media about the judge allowing the hug, and giving the convicted killed her Bible.

Will the hug or the giving of the Bible stopped the woman from serving time in prison for her crime? No.

Loving our enemies, and out of that love we can be called to serve our enemies. People often asked women and men alike, why they stay in what others believe are abusive (mentally, and possibly physically) relationships. Sometimes, not always, but sometimes it is done knowingly by the abused because they truly are loving their enemy. NO, I'm not saying women or men should stay in abusive relationships, I'm saying sometimes people do stay in them because they feel called to love their enemy in that manner- suffering under the abusers hand. And sometimes, NOT always by a long shot, the abuser will alter their ways because of the long suffering of their partner. And yes, sometimes the abused are killed by their abusers, and vice versa.

Jesus tells us to - 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.

Love our enemies- yet we are often filled to overflowing with hatred for them.

Bless them that curse us- yet we are often cursing those cursing us.

Do good to them that hate us- yet we are often plotting our own ways to get revenge against those hating us.

Pray for those who despitefully use us- we often do not pray but rather curse and seek retribution against those using us despitefully.

Pray for those who persecute us- yet we often pray for revenge using the hatred we feel towards those who are persecuting us.

Our natural inclination is revenge, retribution, returning hatred for hatred, cursing for cursing. Some times our knee jerk reaction is to give back the abuse we are given.

I see it all the time on the messages in various groups I belong to on Facebook- there the so called 'Trolls' come out and attack what people are saying with snide, awful remarks and in turn those who don't consider themselves trolls become the revenging defenders of the ones being hurt by the trolls- giving that troll just the same if not more abuse than the troll gave out. Hate for hate, not love for hate. However, to be honest, I have seen plenty of people taking that higher road and ignoring and pitying the trolls.

Loving our enemies.

Who is our enemy?  It isn't like we have clear cut lines drawn such as those found in wars where you know the enemy your fighting against by their nationality. The Americans fought the Germans- our enemy- Germans unless you were German and then your enemy was American. Distinct lines and it was easy to simply classify all soldiers from the opposing country are enemies. 

As we live day to day in a time of peace or rather a place where there is no active war going on, do we still have enemies?

Dictionary definition of enemies - somebody who hates or seeks to harm somebody or something.

Yes, we still have enemies. There are people who hate others based on race and it has nothing to do with the individual but the color of their skin. There are people who hate those who are rich, poor, a different gender, have a different sexual orientation. There are people who hate those who are smart, snobbish, shy, nerdy, fat, ugly and the list goes on. There is a lot of hatred in our world, and there are a lot of enemies.

As a Christian your enemy could be any non-Christian, or other Christians with different beliefs.  An enemy could be a member of your own family, or a friend who decides they no longer want friendship.

Jesus wants us to LOVE those who hate us and seek to harm us. And that love is HIS LOVE.

More on this tomorrow by the GRACE and WILL of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, now and forever!!!!!!!