“For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” – Matthew 5:46
How are you doing at loving your enemies? How are you doing at praying for those who oppose you and your faith? As Jesus points out in this verse, any sinner can love people who love them back. That isn’t special. Those furthest from God still manage to love those close to them. We’re called to be different! As a follower of Jesus, you’re called to something much, much harder – loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you!
This is a virtue that seems to have utterly fallen out of favor (if it was ever in favor) in our culture. Today we’re obsessed with beating our enemies, outmaneuvering them and “owning” them by humiliating them publicly. We paint everyone who disagrees with us as utterly evil and depraved, an existential threat to the faith, the nation, or the human race. That isn’t the way of Jesus! That can’t be how you operate if you follow Him!
Spend time right now considering how you feel about those who disagree with you politically? How do you describe those who are very different from you – socially, ethnically, religiously, or generationally? Those who look very different or speak very differently? Is there love in your heart for them or contempt? Is there love or fear? Is there love or anger? Is there love or hate?
If there isn’t love for those you consider “different” or “opponents” then begin doing what Jesus commanded. Start praying for them every day. Ask God to bless them – He knows what’s ultimately best for them. Pray for God to let you see them with the eyes and heart of Jesus. Pray for God to help you earnestly desire and lovingly pray for their salvation and restoration to relationship with Him. As you pray for them, God will help you learn to love them as Jesus does so that you can minister to them, care for them, and introduce them to Jesus in His way rather than the way of the world.
#FollowJesus