Uncommon Love (2)

Uncommon Love (2)

3. Love your Enemies: 
It is normal human nature to 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' but true to the Jesus Culture God would have us operate in, His son chose to push the limit of human endurance a great bit further by commanding all who would claim to be children of God, to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them.

God's desire as in Exodus 14:13 to 14, is that we are not to be afraid but to stand firm and await the deliverance the Lord will bring us, not tomorrow but "today."

He expects us to believe that the enemies we see today we will see no more as we need only wait on Him and for Him in faith, for He will fight for us as He promised in Deuteronomy 32:35, "it is mine to avenge; I will repay..." 

We need to always remember Ephesians 6:12,which reminds us that, "...our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

Jesus tried to explain the characteristic of God that we must emulate as the reason for loving our enemies by saying, "(God) causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."

Jesus also challenged Christians to think and behave out of the box of the norms of societyby asking us to love those we wouldn't even give a second thought as in Matthew 5: 46 to 47, where he said: 

46. "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? ..."
47. "And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? "

Our Lord then ended his lesson to his followers by commanding that we be perfect, as God the Father is perfect. 

Now this may seem a little too far fetched if not down-right impossible but we should dare to believe in the impossible by having the correct attitude about God's Almighty power to enable us do the impossible through our knowledge of the unfailing nature of His Word, that if He said it, we should dare to believe it, and that should settle it.

Do have a fulfilling experience at work and anywhere you find yourself this week as you fulfill your mandate as in Matthew 5:16, to "let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven," in all your endeavours.

Shalom.