“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
God loves even those who hate Him; we are to do the same. OK, this is very hard, with a capital “H”. How often do we think of this command when we speak to someone who is so far away from God that not only their actions, but their words totally blaspheme? I don’t know about you, but I get so angry when people take the name of the Lord in vain. Think about that. That’s like someone disparaging the name of one of your family members… they actually are!
I think about how Jesus was mocked, stripped naked, blindfolded, and spat upon… Yet He didn’t say a word or fight back. He actually forgave. Wow! That takes Holy Ghost power! Then I think of how I act when I get rubbed the wrong way by a difficult person. The Bible is crystal clear… difficult people can be won over by love. Evil is always overcome by good. But it’s only possible for those who give themselves fully to God. Like I said, only He can deliver people from our natural selfishness. Yes, it’s natural for us to be selfish in the flesh. We must trust the Holy Spirit to show love to those for whom we may not feel love for. If we love our enemies and treat them well, we will truly show that Jesus is Lord of our lives.
This brings up the next thing I wanted to talk about…Witnessing! The best way to witness is to let your life do the talking. Don’t hide your past. So what if you’ve messed up on a grand scale? So what if you’ve made gargantuan mistakes along the way. Don’t secretly lock it shamefully away in your heart; you need to tell others about it. Make whatever it is that you’ve done, yield… to help build your character and strength! By sowing seeds or simple truths about Jesus, or by telling others what He’s done in our lives (regardless of the reactions we get), we’re doing so much more good than we know. And what is more loving than changing someone’s eternity?