One of Scripture’s hardest passages is Today’s Reading. In Mt 5: 43-48:
Jesus said to his disciples:
“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,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
“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,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
. . . . .
This is HARD! Our enemies want to enslave and kill us. Our enemies turn our children into drug addicts while they’re in school and put them in jail for taking the same drugs when they leave school. Our enemies kill our unborn children. Our enemies replace freedom with stricter control and regulation. Our enemies drive us into poverty. Our enemies are invading Christian nations, taking over institutions, and persecuting Christians. Our enemies destroy jobs. Our enemies are more interested in Imaginary Problems than in helping their neighbors. Our enemies make medical care expensive and difficult to obtain. Our enemies destroy our neighborhoods. Our enemies destroy morality, decency, chastity, wisdom, restraint, and honor.
Our enemies are the lying, murdering, thieving scum of the earth. Loving our enemies begins by understanding how much they hate us. And, Jesus has said: “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Loving our enemies begins by understanding how much they hate us.
First, we have to realize how desperately they are driven to destroy us. We have to understand that they literally want us and our children to be their slaves while we can work. Then, they want us dead. Their souls are filled with hate. Loving our enemies begins by understanding how much they hate us.
Why were we given this very difficult, unnaturally hard direction to follow? So we can rise above earthly concerns. By loving our enemies, we make obedience to Jesus more important than our material possessions and earthly relationships.
It was hard to obey: “If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood, you do not have life in you.” It’s harder to “Love your enemy.” He’s a tough Boss.
