Love your enemy?

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven…” – Matt 5:43-45

Sometimes it can be hard to love your neighbor, especially when he blows his leaves into your yard, or his huge dog comes over and relieves himself in your next to your front walk.  I have a neighbor that throws some loud parties that go on well into the night.  These people can really get on our nerves, and love isn’t exactly the feeling that we are having. Yet we are still to love them. OK, I can do that.

But Jesus doesn’t just tell us to love our neighbor; He goes on to tell us to love our enemies. OK, so exactly who is our enemy? Is it the guy that cut us off from traffic?  Is it the woman who broke line in front of us at the movie theater? What about the guy that smashes out a car window and steals a laptop? These people may be harder to love, but hey we’re Christians!  We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!

But what about the men that spent years working on a sinister plan; learning how to pilot a jet airliner, studying flight plans, and figuring our what flights had the most people aboard. The men who boarded several planes, murdered the flight crews, commandeered those aircraft, and flew them and the passengers into the tallest buildings in New York city? How are we supposed to love the men who knew their actions would kill and injure thousands of innocent people? How are we supposed to love the people who are, even as I write this, planning more sinister attacks against us? Certainly no one, not even God, would expect us to love those men. Or would He?

Join us Sunday as we take the Lords Supper together, and reflect on Jesus teaching regarding love.

… till the whole world hears,

Pastor Clay