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LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.” Luke 6:35 ESV

One of the most difficult things a Christian will face is offering genuine forgiveness to those who have deeply hurt us. When Jesus commands us to love our enemies and offer our forgiveness to them, it’s hard for us to believe that He knew what He was talking about. Yet, he does understand and commands we forgive precisely because He understands. Jesus knows that even the deepest wounds can heal through his blood.

Corrie Ten Boom worked against the Nazis in World War Two, hiding Jews in her home. When she was caught, she was sent to a concentration camp where she was stripped of her dignity, saw her father and her sister (Betsie) die, and suffered more at the hands of other people than we could possibly imagine. Here is her story. Let the Holy Spirit minister to you as you read it:

“It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower door in the processing centre at Ravensbrück concentration camp. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly, it was all there – the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face. He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. ‘How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein.’ He said. ‘To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!’ His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who preached so often to the people in Bloemendal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side. Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him. I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so, again, I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness. As I took his hand, the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand, a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me. “I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!” And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on his. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.”

PRAYER POINTS

ME: Have you noticed that love & forgiveness are not ours? We extend Jesus' love to the world with our forgiveness. Open your heart to the Holy Spirit to give to you such a love.

US: It is only among brothers and sisters in the Church that true reconciliation with former enemies is possible. Pray that the Church will set the example of this heart transformation so that unbelievers will have to acknowledge that God is real and loves them.

THEM:Pray that Christians will not only reconcile with their enemies but also become ministers of reconciliation in their own communities and spheres of influence.

"There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness." - Josh Billings