Love Your Enemies
Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
- Luke 6:35-36
I think this passage carries this love thing just a little bit too far. Love my enemies? How can they be my enemy if I love them? That is a real conundrum. Can a person really be my enemy if I love him?
That may be the point. Others may want to be my enemy, but we make it very difficult for them when we give them kindness instead of responding to their assaults and insults with the same as they give us.
We can all agree that it is very difficult, if not impossible to love those who treat us as enemies. It looks like that is another point Jesus is making. He is giving us a task that is impossible for us to perform in our own ability just to see if we will trust him to work his will through us.
I don't know about you, but I find it impossible to love my enemies. At least in my own abilities. So what is Jesus trying to tell us?
If it is impossible to do this in our natural self perhaps Jesus is trying to tell us that we must depend upon the supernatural nature of the Christ in us. If God is love, as it says in 1 John, and if God truly does live in us, then wouldn't it carry that our new nature, our God-nature, would also be love?
Maybe this whole "love your enemy" thing is a test to see if we are still living in our old nature or if we are living in our new nature. That is something to think about.
Prayer: Lord, all too often I find myself having less than loving affection for my enemies. Grant me the grace of full surrender to your nature so I can fulfill this command of Christ to love my enemies. In Jesus name, amen.
Message: Jesus is trying to tell us that we must depend upon the supernatural nature of the Christ in us in order to love our enemies. If God is love, as it says in 1 John, and if God truly does live in us, then wouldn't it carry that our new nature, our God-nature, would also be love? Maybe this whole "love your enemy" thing is a test to see if we are still living in our old nature or if we are living in our new nature.
Affirmation: I do not have to try and love my enemies, I just have to submit to God’s love and he will love them through me.
Reflection: Think of someone you have considered to be an enemy. What would it take to love them as Christ loves them? Here is a good idea: Think of what they should do to show you that they aren’t an enemy, then do that to them as if they weren’t your enemy.
Get the full month of devotions about Love : JUST CLICK HERE
Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
- Luke 6:35-36
I think this passage carries this love thing just a little bit too far. Love my enemies? How can they be my enemy if I love them? That is a real conundrum. Can a person really be my enemy if I love him?
That may be the point. Others may want to be my enemy, but we make it very difficult for them when we give them kindness instead of responding to their assaults and insults with the same as they give us.
We can all agree that it is very difficult, if not impossible to love those who treat us as enemies. It looks like that is another point Jesus is making. He is giving us a task that is impossible for us to perform in our own ability just to see if we will trust him to work his will through us.
I don't know about you, but I find it impossible to love my enemies. At least in my own abilities. So what is Jesus trying to tell us?
If it is impossible to do this in our natural self perhaps Jesus is trying to tell us that we must depend upon the supernatural nature of the Christ in us. If God is love, as it says in 1 John, and if God truly does live in us, then wouldn't it carry that our new nature, our God-nature, would also be love?
Maybe this whole "love your enemy" thing is a test to see if we are still living in our old nature or if we are living in our new nature. That is something to think about.
Prayer: Lord, all too often I find myself having less than loving affection for my enemies. Grant me the grace of full surrender to your nature so I can fulfill this command of Christ to love my enemies. In Jesus name, amen.
Message: Jesus is trying to tell us that we must depend upon the supernatural nature of the Christ in us in order to love our enemies. If God is love, as it says in 1 John, and if God truly does live in us, then wouldn't it carry that our new nature, our God-nature, would also be love? Maybe this whole "love your enemy" thing is a test to see if we are still living in our old nature or if we are living in our new nature.
Affirmation: I do not have to try and love my enemies, I just have to submit to God’s love and he will love them through me.
Reflection: Think of someone you have considered to be an enemy. What would it take to love them as Christ loves them? Here is a good idea: Think of what they should do to show you that they aren’t an enemy, then do that to them as if they weren’t your enemy.
Get the full month of devotions about Love : JUST CLICK HERE
RSS Feed
