Luke 6:27,35 NLT
”(27) But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. (35) Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High..."
I love how right from the start of this passage of Scripture, Jesus is speaking to those willing to listen (verse 27). To be willing to listen, means to not only hear what you are told but make a choice to truly take what you are being told to heart.
Now that we've established the concept that God wants our attention, we must now find out what it is He wants to tell us. Jesus wants us to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us. Wow. I don't know about you, but to have to show love to someone who I (may) have hatred towards is just about the last thing I want to do. Even though the idea of loving those who wrong us is hard to swallow, I have concluded that God tends to know what He's talking about. After all, there is a reason He tells us to live our lives in this way.
If you think about it, God is love. When we show love to those that are harder to love, it is as if we are exhibiting the attributes of God in our lives. He is the greatest example we could ever have, and to live and love as He can bring change to the world.
Humans are very selfish people, and without God to break down our barriers of pride, we can never get to this point of unconditional love and grace. Almost as if loving our enemies was not hard enough, God also wants us to do good to them, even to the point of lending them something, without expecting repayment! The joy we have in times of testing is this promise given to us by God. Our promise is the inheritance of a great reward in Heaven. As if that isn't good enough, we also gain the title of those who act like and are Children of the Most High. I don't know about you, but that gives me a lot of hope. It is one thing to be a Child of God, but to live that out intentionally, is what differentiates us from others.
In closing, always remember that loving our enemies will not be in vain. The promises we have from the Lord are worth so much more than our pride and unforgiveness could ever give us.
Prayer:
Dear Lord, I pray that You will help me show love to everyone, just as You do. I pray that any barriers of pride or pains of unforgiveness will be cast away, so I can love the way You want me to. I thank You for the hope of our reward in Heaven, and help us to keep living to glorify You and You alone.
Amen
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