How to Treat Your Enemies

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Scripture: Luke 6:35-36 (ESV)

 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36 Be merciful, even as your father is merciful.

Devotion:

            It is not even possible to read the scripture above without being convicted by the Holy Spirit. We so often do not love others as Jesus says we should. Was love for your enemies really that important for Jesus? The answer is a resounding YES! There are three verbs clustered at the beginning of this passage are love, do good, and lend. These three verbs are all imperatives in the Greek meaning that they are all commands to the reader to follow. We are such fallen human beings that we despair of ever being able to follow these commands.

            The secret to being able to follow these commands is simply to realize that Jesus would never command us to do something at which we would always fail. Rather, Jesus gives us a challenge that we can only meet if we are filled with the Holy Spirit. If we try to live like this without the Spirit’s help, we will fail. We need to remember that even when we fail, the Father is merciful toward all.

            However, we should make every effort to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we may succeed and receive the reward that is promised in this verse. We need to always remember what the promise means to us. To be children of the Father is an honor that poor sinners such as us do not deserve. As the scripture says though, our heavenly Father is kind even to the ungrateful and evil. Such a God is as this is utterly amazing. How do we respond to such grace? We must trust in Him to do what is right and be amazed at His incredible mercy and grace.

            We, unfortunately for us, do not love even our friends, our brothers, and sisters in Christ, all that well sometimes. So, loving our enemies will always be a challenge. We must keep repenting of all known sin in our lives that the Holy Spirit may have free reign in our lives. It is only in the Spirit’s power that we can genuinely love our enemies. We are directed in Matthew’s version of the sermon on the mount to not only love our enemies but also to pray for them, (this too is in the form of a command). (Matthew 5:44) Let us take some time right now to do that.

Prayer:

            Lord, praying for our enemies is hard to do. Yet we know that we must obey your command and so we open our mouths and hearts to speak words of consolation and love for our enemies. Help us to see them as your beloved children created in the image of God and worthy of our respect and love. Help us to forgive any injury or evil done to us, no matter what it was. Help us to always remember that you sent your son Jesus to die for all the ways we offended and continue to offend your holiness. Even so Jesus died for those we consider enemies. So, we must pray for them. Give us strength to do this. Amen.

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