Love your Enemies

Matthew 5:43 "You have heard that is 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? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

There is no doubt it can be extremely hard to love your enemies. People who have said rude things or done mean things or just aren't nice people. Why in the world would you want to love them? Do they deserve it? Do you "owe" it to them? Probably not BUT does two wrongs make a right? Life is hard and some people have had very tough lives. Some people have never experienced love and forgiveness before so they have no idea. Think about it, if you never experienced love would you know what love is? Would you know how to show it or what it looked like? If you never experienced forgiveness could you forgive someone? Would you know how or what it looked like? If no one ever said to you "Hey no big deal man, it's in the past" but instead said "You owe me for this and that and until you pay me back your life is going to be hell" what would your life be like? How would you treat others? Would you think someone always owed you something? Wouldn't it be wonderful if by showing someone love and forgiveness over and over again even when they didn't deserve it, it helped that person to become a more loving and forgiving person. You changed that person's life because you chose to help the situation instead of keeping the cycle going.

God's word tells us to love our neighbors and our enemies. He says that even pagans love those that love them. To be Christians then we need love those that don't love us. Examples; when someone is rude to you for no reason, don't be rude back, instead be the bigger person and show kindness. Or if someone isn't a team worker at work, help him anyway. When someone does something that isn't right, don't retaliate. Repaying evil for evil won't make our world any better. God's advice is great because if we can follow it, it could lead to world peace and a much more loving and kind world.