Love your Enemies

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In our day, cultures are increasingly based on hatred and rage. But the Lord Jesus Christ commands us to love our enemies. And bless them.

 

 

The Lord Jesus Christ calls us to be agents of love and unify. We welcome both Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female.

We cherish difference. Different peoples and cultures are a great treasure. They encompass the span of humanity and enrich the human experience.

However, the fallen human heart is suspicious of outsiders. Anyone who is different. Deep within, we feel a tiny flicker of fear.

In recent decades, newscasters and others have fanned that flicker into a forest fire.

They deceive people into acting on their  worst impulses, and hating of people who are different.

White people hate people of color. Men are sexist toward women. Foreigners are viewed as enemies.

Anyone with a different political opinion is not patriotic.

These things must stop. The Bible shows us the way.

 

 

Numbers 23:11. Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them altogether.”

Numbers 23:20. Behold, I have received a command to bless. He has blessed, and I can’t reverse it.

Job 42:10. The LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends. The LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Psalm 28:4. Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings. Give them according to the operation of their hands. Bring back on them what they deserve.

Psalm 35:13. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I afflicted my soul with fasting. My prayer returned into my own bosom.

Proverbs 24:17. Don’t rejoice when your enemy falls. Don’t let your heart be glad when he is overthrown;

Matthew 5:44. But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you,

Matthew 25:40. The King will answer them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

 

Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.