I love being around people who are of the same mindset as me. We share similar beliefs, similar lifestyles perhaps. We tend to have many things in common we can talk about. When I am around those who are like-minded, I feel most comfortable. It is easy to be yourself without fear or worry of judgement or condemnation when you are around these type of friends. Likewise, we Christians would probably all say it is easiest to love those the Bible calls “the brethren”. Fellow Church members and followers of Christ. But what does Jesus tell us to do when it comes to loving others?
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;…For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
Matthew 5:44, 46
Love your enemies
The original Greek meaning of this word enemies means “one who is a hateful, hostile adversary or foe”. This means Jesus is commanding us to love those who are mean to us. The people around us who hurt our feelings. Those who insult us, our family, our children. Even those who persecute us, and make our lives more difficult. A daunting task. You know who we need to rely on to achieve this love? God himself! Jesus commanded us to love our enemies, and he KNEW we would have to rely on HIM to accomplish this.
Love those that curse you
“To express great loathing and hatred for”. This is the definition of the word curse as it is used here in Matthew 5:44. We are literally supposed to love those who hate us. And most of them are not afraid to let us know about their hatred for us either! Not only are we to love these people, but we are to bless them as well.
Love those that hate you
Have you ever experienced unrequited love? That love many experience as a young adult, where one person falls “head over heels” for someone who doesn’t love them back? In those un-mutual feelings can be a miserable place to dwell. The word hate in Matthew 5 is defined as someone who does not return love, and who detests someone to the point of persecution. Yep, we are to love those people who hate us. Also required: doing good to these haters.
Love those who despitefully use you and persecute you
These people we are commanded to love are the ones who insult, slander, falsely accuse, and threaten us unrelentingly. This task of loving others just gets more and more daunting! Not only are we supposed to love these despiteful users, but we are to pray for them! (Personally I think praying for them would be easier than loving them.) I have found in my own life, when I pray for others, God softens my heart towards them. And most of the time, he will work a miracle in the situation between you and the other person and he can heal hearts, and make it easier to love these people.
If we don’t love these…then what?
The Bible tells us if we only love the brethren or those who love us, then we are no better than the publicans. What was a publican back in this time? A publican was a tax collector. Doesn’t sound so bad, right? But many of these tax collectors were known for being shady with the money they collected. They had a tendency to collect more than Rome required, and then skim a little off the top for themselves.
If we don’t love others as Christ has commanded, what we are doing (like the publicans) is keeping a little of the love of Christ for ourselves. Just “skimming a little off the top”, and only giving a portion of His love out, as we see fit. And, really, who are we to decide who gets to receive the love of Christ and who doesn’t? Christ loved us so much that he died for us, while we were yet sinners. We didn’t deserve saving. We didn’t deserve his great love. He bestowed it on us anyway.
We were all once these enemies, hateful persecutors, and despiteful users. But praise God he showed us love. I’m so thankful he loves us still when we are wrong. I pray I can show that love to others, no matter what condition their soul/heart/lifestyle is in.
