This past Sunday was the final in our 4 part mini-series called "Did Jesus really mean what he said, when he said..." This week was "when he said, Love your enemies."
Of course the answer to all of these was YES! But the reason for exploring the questions is that often we ignore, skip over, push to the margins, or explain away the tough teachings of Jesus and when we do that, we are giving the answer, "no"!
Looking at Luke 6:27-36, we find several ways that Jesus encourages us to do something that is humanly tough! All of these fall under the general category of "do something unexpected!" First Jesus says, "Do good to those who hate you." then "Bless those who curse you." then "pray for those who hurt you." None of these are the typical response to someone who hurts us or we perceive as an enemy. While none of these are easy... we can all pray. By praying for someone, we are taking the relationship to another level and by responding to hate, cursing, or hurt in an unexpected, non-typical way, we defuse the situation. Abraham Lincoln says, "do we not destroy an enemy when we make them our friend?"
And Paul teaches in Romans 12:18, "as far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." You and I can't make someone love us or treat us nicely, but we can change our response to them. And by changing our response to them... by doing all we can to do good, bless, and pray, doing the unexpected, we just may change the way they treat us. Because Jesus proved that in the end, Love ALWAYS WINS!
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