Loving our worst enemies

Loving our worst enemies

Bible:Matthew 5:43-48

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven (V.44).

Reading

During World War II, a fifty-year-old church leader named Henry Gerecke became a military chaplain. After the war, when others returned home, Henry spent time with twenty-one Nazi war prisoners during their trial at Nuremburg, entering each cell to talk and pray with every man. How could he serve his country’s worst enemies? Henry learned to see every man—criminal that he was—as an important person God had made. We don’t like the thought of looking out for and caring for abusive people, hurtful people, even the weird kids in class—anyone who seems different or horrible. Yet Jesus challenges, “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you” (MATTHEW 5:44). Jesus is telling us to live out a God-like love that looks to bring good even to those who hate us. Surprisingly, Jesus goes on to say that loving our enemies results not just in their good, but in our good as well: “Love your enemies . . . that you may be children of your Father in heaven” (VV.44-45). As we care about and pray for people who hate us, we copy the love God has for us. Once we ourselves were enemies of God (ROMANS 5:10) and now we are his children (1 JOHN 3:10). If God can do that for us, can we learn to see our enemies as God sees them? Children who He wants to bring into His family

WHEN WE LOVE OUR ENEMIES,
WE LOVE LIKE GOD DOES.

YouTh Edition – Our Daily Bread Ministries