By David ReayWednesday 12 Dec 2018LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 2 minutes
Read Matthew 5:43-48
43-48 “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. (THE MESSAGE)
In a roadside café, a group of tough bikies were bullying an old man who drove a big truck parked outside. The driver had enough of their spiteful behaviour and drove off. The bikies remarked to the waitress that he wasn’t much of a man to run off like that. The waitress replied that he wasn’t much of a driver either as he had just run over a row of bikes parked outside the café.
Revenge is very sweet. That is why Jesus warns against it. When others do their worst to you, don’t hit back. When others seek your destruction, you seek their good. Often this can’t result in practical action, but it can at least alter our mindset. Instead of chewing the cud of our anger and hoping something bad happens to them, we pray something good will happen to them. To note in passing: Jesus is not talking about criminal acts but personal insults. Crime has to be punished. The courts are not to turn the other cheek.
Quite unnatural of course. Jesus knows this and says that being nice to nice people is a piece of cake. It comes naturally. The love he describes comes supernaturally. As the saying goes, to return evil for good is devilish; to return good for good is human; to return good for evil is divine.
Blessings
David Reay