Proclamation:
“...
Love your enemies, bless those that 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 which is in heaven ..." Matthew 5:44-45 (NKJ)
Explanation:
These are the words of The
Lord Jesus, The Christ, as recorded under the influence of The Holy Spirit of
God by the Apostle Matthew. Jesus spoke
these words to His disciples, and to the surrounding crowd, during His Sermon
on The Mount. He was contrasting how the
world acts with how a believer should behave.
The world says love your neighbor and hate your enemy. (Matthew 5:43) Jesus said that believers should love their
enemies. If they only love those who
love them then they are no different from the non-believers in the world.
(Matthew 5:46)
Application:
Sometimes being a Christian
is not easy to do. It is easy to love
those that love us. However, as
believers, Jesus has challenged to love those people who do not love us. We are told to love, bless, do good to and
pray for the people that we would normally hate, curse, want to get even with,
and want bad things to happen to. God's
way for us to treat people is not the way that we would normally behave. We are to treat them with kindness. Maybe this is what is meant by "killing
them with kindness". Our being nice
to them will be like pouring burning coals on their heads. Vengeance belongs to The Lord and He will
take care of them. (Romans 12:19-21) We
are to apply the "golden rule" to all people. We are to do unto others as we would have them
to do unto us. (Matthew 7:12) We are to
treat people like we would like to be treated, not as they treat us. As a believer we should live and love by a
higher standard. Sometimes being a
Christian is not easy, but it is well worth it.
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