While we were still enemies of God, out of His love for us, He sent His Son to die on the cross and reconcile us to Himself. “While we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His son.” Romans 5:10 Paul, in Romans 5:10 explains the depth of God’s love for us before we even knew him, He didn’t wait for us to start loving him, he took the initiative. God loved us first before we even knew who he was. We have no excuse because any level of love that God calls us to display to another human being, has already been extended to us by God more deeply than we can hope to understand. We have no excuse not to love everyone, including those who grind our gears, or even those who persecute us. This lie couldn’t be farther from the truth. We think that if we don’t feel loved by someone then we don’t have to show love to them. Often, when we read passages of scripture that command us to love our enemies we come up with a ton of excuses to absolve us of our responsibility. When we sin against our neighbor, enemy or not, we sin against God. The sin of David is different than the sin of failing to love our enemies but the same concept applies. He understood that by sinning against Bathsheba, he also transgressed against his heavenly Father and it rocked him to the core. “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgement.” Psalm 51:4ĭavid got it. King David illustrates this fact beautifully in Psalm 51:4 after committing adultery with Bathsheba he cries out, Likewise, when we despise our enemies we also despise God because He made everyone in His image, even our enemies. By loving our enemies we show love to God. Therefore, we can’t separate our love for God from our love for humankind. “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me’” Matthew 25:40Īll humankind is created in the image of God. If we deliberately ignore God’s command to love our enemies, we are in dire need of a spiritual self-evaluation. We should strive to produce the fruit of showing love to our enemies. “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.”Īs children of God, loving our neighbors isn’t optional, God expects us to love our enemies if we call ourselves His children. Recall the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:44-45, More than that, we should love our enemies because it is one of the trademarks of being a son or daughter of God. We should love our enemies because God commands, and anything God commands us to do is for our benefit. It’s clear that Jesus calls us to be counter-cultural by loving our enemies, but why should we? “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” Matthew 5:43-45. How can God insist that we love our co-worker who has been spreading rumors about us, or our mother-in-law who we can never seem to be good enough for? How can we be expected to love those people who are so unloving to us? In Matthew 5, Jesus teaches us that we are to love even our enemies. We are not exempt from loving anyone, not even our enemies. However, the call to love stretches far beyond our inner circle. Many people think that when the Bible says “love your neighbor” it means we are supposed to love our family, friends, acquaintances, and maybe a few strangers along the way. God calls us to love Him above all else and love our neighbors as ourselves. As Christians, our highest calling is to love.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |