Friday 6 April 2018

Love your Enemies

Love your enemies
Jesus said,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  
  And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?”  Matthew 5:43-47.
Do you love your enemies?
Martin Luther King jr. at the height of the civil rights movement in the United States when African Americans were being persecuted and attacked said,
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”
                                                                                    Martin Luther King, Jr.
The apostle Paul defines love this way,
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, 
it does not boast, it is not proud.  
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, 
it is not easily angered, 
it keeps no record of wrongs. 
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 
Love never fails....
And now these three remain: 
faith, hope and love. 
But the greatest of these is love.”  
                                         1 Corinthians 13:4-8a,13.
Thus the questions I would ask you the reader are,
1/ Do you Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you?
2/ Is the love you show to those around you friend and foe alike the same love that the apostle Paul defines when he wrote to those in the Corinthian church.
Please think about it.

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