By loving our enemies we show love to God. Therefore, we can’t separate our love for God from our love for humankind. “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me’” Matthew 25:40Īll humankind is created in the image of God. If we deliberately ignore God’s command to love our enemies, we are in dire need of a spiritual self-evaluation. We should strive to produce the fruit of showing love to our enemies. “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.”Īs children of God, loving our neighbors isn’t optional, God expects us to love our enemies if we call ourselves His children. Recall the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:44-45, More than that, we should love our enemies because it is one of the trademarks of being a son or daughter of God. We should love our enemies because God commands, and anything God commands us to do is for our benefit. It’s clear that Jesus calls us to be counter-cultural by loving our enemies, but why should we? “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” Matthew 5:43-45. How can God insist that we love our co-worker who has been spreading rumors about us, or our mother-in-law who we can never seem to be good enough for? How can we be expected to love those people who are so unloving to us? In Matthew 5, Jesus teaches us that we are to love even our enemies. We are not exempt from loving anyone, not even our enemies. However, the call to love stretches far beyond our inner circle. Many people think that when the Bible says “love your neighbor” it means we are supposed to love our family, friends, acquaintances, and maybe a few strangers along the way. God calls us to love Him above all else and love our neighbors as ourselves. As Christians, our highest calling is to love.
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