How To Love Your Enemies

“You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” Matthew 5:43-44 ESV 

In a culture where hatred is all around us there is a way to rise above it. To love our enemies and pray for our persecutors was a foreign concept that Jesus introduced in His day and still is a difficult concept in our day. This is especially true when we feel some are not deserving to be loved because we have deemed them unlovable.

The mandate to love our enemy can only be fulfilled when we allow the love of God to transform our life through the new birth. It is when we are born of God that we take on His divine nature which gives us the capacity to love as He loves. Because of the divine nature we are able to love even our enemies. "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." 1 john 4:7-8 ESV. To the extent that we know God is the extent of our ability to love others. Because God is love if we are born of God then we are born of love. As His followers we now possess the capacity to love because it is part of our new nature in Christ.

TODAY’S PRAYER

Thank you Jesus for the mandate to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. Let your love transform us so that we can love those who are difficult to love and fulfill the mandate you have given us. Help us to love as you love.

God bless,

Pastor Matt