love your enemies Archives — truthmission.net

Reasonable: Part 4–The Best of Your Ability

(Originally published 5/10/2020 during the lockdown)

If possible, to the best of your ability, live at peace with all people. (Romans 12:18 CEB)

Back in Part 3, we gave some examples of the characteristics we ought to be manifesting as we cling to what is good. Here are some more practical tips from Romans 12 on how to walk this out.

14 Bless people who harass you—bless and don’t curse them.

Most people know that Jesus commanded us to love our enemies. That notion was just as counter-intuitive 2,000 years ago as it is today. If we have the capacity for hatred, who better to bear the brunt of it but our enemies? Isn’t that what enemies are for?

Not so much, as it turns out. Even as Jesus was hanging on the cross, He forgave the people that put Him there.

Christians all around the world experience persecution at many levels. Since Truth Mission has readers all over the world, what you are going through as you read this could be quite different than my experience.

Some of you may be harassed on social media. Some of you may be feeling heat from the government. Some of you may actually have been beaten, fired from a job, or had loved ones tortured and killed for their faith.

There are two things we need to remember though. The first is that the people who persecute us are not our real enemies. We have one Enemy who seeks our destruction.

The second thing is that we have no control whatsoever over how other people respond to the promptings of the Enemy. We do, however have control over how we respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, to the best of our ability, we need to follow the example set in Proverbs 25:21-22:

If your enemies are starving, feed them some bread; if they are thirsty, give them water to drink. By doing this, you will heap burning coals on their heads, and the Lord will reward you.

The “burning coals” bit may refer to an Egyptian custom where people would carry a pan of hot coals on their heads as a sign of repentance. So the idea here is that if someone is harassing you, and you respond with a blessing instead of a curse, they may take note of that and see you, and God THROUGH you, in a different way.

Now will that happen every time? No, of course not. But if it doesn’t, that’s not your problem. To the best of your ability, you have followed Christ’s command. By your actions, you have shared the Gospel and offered a tacit invitation for your “enemies” to turn from their ways and join in the freedom that you enjoy. But it is up to them to RSVP to your invitation.

15 Be happy with those who are happy, and cry with those who are crying.

A healthy church functions as a family, so we always need to be aware of and involved with one another’s lives.

We celebrate together at weddings, graduations and baby showers. We also walk alongside each other at funerals, during illnesses, or when children go astray.

This unity has never been more important than it is right now. As I type this, we have been on COVID-19 lockdown for about eight weeks. The Enemy has used this “pandemic” as an opportunity to scatter the body of Christ by influencing our State government to keep the churches closed for far longer than necessary.

However, to the best of our ability, we must rise up inside this. We need to get over our technophobia and learn how to do Zoom meetings and participate in online church. Yes, it’s not the same as meeting in person, but a connection is a connection. We can’t afford to just float away from each other just because meeting virtually is inconvenient.

We must stay in the habit of gathering, not just for our own sakes, but for the sakes of those who do not have a church community. Think about it. If you are feeling lonely and disconnected right now, and you HAVE a church family, how do you think the people feel who have no one to do life with? These are the people we need to be reaching out to. They are more open than ever right now for conversations. So have some.

*16 Consider everyone as equal, and don’t think that you’re better than anyone else. Instead, associate with people who have no status. Don’t think that you’re so smart.***

And while you’re planning those conversations, which may be out of your comfort zone anyway, I would like to challenge you further to have conversations with people who aren’t like you. If God’s invitation is open to everyone, and he uses us to extend that invitation, then we should be doing this anyway.

By all means, we should talk to the people we’re around every day. However, we must also remember that someone who doesn’t live in our neighborhood or work in our office or walk in our social circle also has a gift and a passion that God gave them to build His Church. We need that person just as much as he or she needs us.

Are you educated? Think of the uneducated people you know. Do you see how hard many of them work, because they haven’t had the occupational privileges that come with a college degree? Don’t you think your church needs someone with that work ethic using spiritual gifts they may not even be aware of until you invite them in?

Are you financially well-off? Try walking your Labradoodle on the other side of the tracks today and wave to everybody you see. (Or go shake hands once we’re done with social distancing.) That act by itself won’t save many souls, but you have to start somewhere.

Are you well-versed in scripture? Instead of correcting people who misinterpret the Bible in your Facebook feed, maybe you could start an online Bible study group with them and ask them to invite friends that have questions.

Bottom line—if we are all equal in the eyes of God, then we should be all equal in one another’s eyes as well.

17 Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. (NLT)

This one is a challenge for all of us. Our first instinct when someone wrongs us is to get even with our harasser. Some people just repress that instinct better than others.

Nevertheless, repress it we must. To the best of our ability, we must leave room for God to deal with our accusers.

Revenge is a control issue. When we are wronged, we feel that we must take control of the situation by restoring balance to the equation. If we take an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth, then we feel that we are restoring the equilibrium of justice.

But if that were our job, then what would be the purpose of Judgment Day?

A reasonable assumption for those who have put their trust in Jesus is that God is in control. And if God is in control, then the only control we need to be concerned with is self-control.

Therefore, to the best of our ability, we use this self-control to resist conforming to the pattern of this world. We use it to restrain ourselves from following our own understanding when discerning what is evil from what is good. Finally, we exercise our self-control to avoid being conquered by evil, but rather to conquer evil by doing good.

That sounds reasonable, right?

Do Unto Others: Part 3–Respect

It is God’s will that your good lives should silence those who foolishly condemn the Gospel without knowing what it can do for them, having never experienced its power. You are free from the law, but that doesn’t mean you are free to do wrong. Live as those who are free to do only God’s will at all times. Show respect for everyone. Love Christians everywhere. Fear God and honor the government. 1 Peter 2:15-17 (TLB)

Many Christians love this passage . . . right up until you get to the last three words.

Honor the government? But what do we do if the government is not honorable? Do we still have to submit to a president or a congress that does not have our best interests at heart?

The answer, though we may admit it reluctantly, is yes. Let’s break down this passage.

Verse 15 says that God wants us to shut up the ignorant folk who think we are deluded or even dangerous. But He wants us to do this not with our words, but with our lives.

Verse 16 says that being free from the penalty of God’s law does not give us license to do whatever we want, but to do God’s will. And what is that will?

To show respect to everyone.

The remainder of verse 17 gives examples of this. Love Christians everywhere. Fear God. Honor the government.

This isn’t multiple choice. ALL of these examples fall under the heading of showing respect to everyone.

“Everyone” also includes the people in verse 15, whom one might describe as enemies of the faith. But remember in Part 2 when we talked about loving our enemies?

There’s just no getting around this, so what do we do with it?

First, as painful as it may be, we simply have to accept the fact that the world is full of stupid people.

Second, and equally painful, we must realize that no matter what good people we may think we are, not everyone is going to like us.

The third thing we must do, and this is where the freedom enters in, is to stop caring about the first two things.

Live quietly & mind your own business so that you may win the respect of others and have need of nothing. 1 Thess 4:11-12

We don’t solve the problem of finger-pointing by employing the method of sign-waving. We don’t stifle the ignorance of idiots by yelling louder. And we don’t solve problems in our government by advocating revolution or anarchy.

A Christian should never be concerned about other people’s issues when our primary function is to meet other people’s needs. Whoever they are, their chief need is Jesus, whether they realize it or not.

It all comes down to respect. Honor. The Greek word Peter uses in the passage above is “timao.” It means to add value. A synonymous word in English would be “to appreciate,” but not in the sense we casually use it today, for example, “I would appreciate it if you would put away your laundry.”

No, this is in a much larger sense. It means to esteem, by giving someone his or her due. By showing a full understanding of their inherent value, especially how it relates to you. To consider another more important than yourself.

This is what respect is. You may not feel respect for Donald Trump’s character or for that of Barack Obama before him, but you are called to respect the office of the president, because:

Every person must submit to and support the authorities over him. For there can be no authority in the universe except by God’s appointment, which means that every authority that exists has been instituted by God. So to resist authority is to resist the divine order of God, which results in severe consequences. Romans 13:1-2 (TPT)

Bottom line: if you call yourself an American, then THE president is YOUR president, the same as if you call yourself a Christian, then God is your God.

And your pastor is your pastor. And your teacher is your teacher. And your boss is your boss.

You may disagree with them. You may cringe at the sound their voices. You may even find yourself making voodoo dolls of them in your spare time.

But they are all people, the same as you, and made in the image of the same God as you. And this same God has commanded the same respect for all.

&
nbsp;

Do Unto Others: Part 2–Mercy

If you love only the people who love you, what praise should you get? Even sinners love the people who love them. If you do good only to those who do good to you, what praise should you get? Even sinners do that! If you lend things to people, always hoping to get something back, what praise should you get? Even sinners lend to other sinners so that they can get back the same amount! But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without hoping to get anything back. Then you will have a great reward, and you will be children of the Most High God, because he is kind even to people who are ungrateful and full of sin. Show mercy, just as your Father shows mercy. (Luke 6:32-36 NCV)

Many people believe in the Golden Rule—Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Yet, it seems that many folks are waiting to be done unto before they do any doing.

In the passage above, Jesus is advocating a totally different strategy—mercy. Mercy is not concerned with everyone behaving properly or with showing favoritism toward those who do.

As Christians, we are called to set ourselves apart by being merciful as our Father is merciful. So what does that look like?

Romans 5:8 says, “…while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus didn’t wait for us to get in line to meet His standard (which is impossible anyway). He didn’t ask, or even consider, what we could do for Him. He went first.

This is probably the easiest way to define mercy—mercy goes first. Mercy looks to the needs of others, and sets about meeting them before considering anything else.

This doesn’t come naturally to most of us. In our culture, we’re used to “getting what we paid for.” If we are going to exchange our money, time or talent, we generally expect to get something in return. For this reason, it seems natural for us to think about how we’re going to be paid back before we make an investment.

The thing is the people who are the most in need of mercy tend to be the ones who CAN’T pay you back. But they CAN pay your mercy forward.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you relied on someone else’s mercy, knowing you wouldn’t be able to reciprocate? You might have felt gratitude at first, but later, the sense of indebtedness might have made you feel guilty.

Don’t go there. There’s a better way. Instead of focusing on what you can’t do for the person who helped you out, think instead of what you ARE able to do for someone else who is in a more desperate situation than you are. There’s always someone.

Here’s the catch, though. The person most in need of your mercy might be someone you don’t like.

This is where the “love your enemies” bit comes in. Jesus never asked us to LIKE our enemies. Remember though that agape love is not a feeling; it is an action. As such, it is perfectly possible to show mercy toward someone who has been adversarial to us, even if there’s still a part of us that wants to push them down the stairs.

But here’s the part we all need to remember. We were just as adversarial to God when He chased us down. He continues to bless us, even when we don’t thank Him. So if we are endeavoring to be “sons of the Most High,” we shouldn’t be standing around waiting for thanks either. It feels nice to be appreciated, but remember, this is not the goal of mercy.

This is mercy–to listen with compassion to the people who annoy you the most in order to learn what their greatest burden is, then to speak only that which will help relieve them of that burden, and if that is not possible, to remain silent and allow God to do His work in them, rather than burden them further with opinions and judgment.

And that is what God offers to us all day, every day. Think about that for a second. How does it make you feel to know that you don’t ever have to put on a fake face for God to receive His mercy?

Now how does it make you feel to know that you have the power to make somebody else feel a little bit of that? So go do it. And focus more on the “you’re welcome” than the “thank you.

(Come back for Part 3–Respect.)

Shop ORLY’s selection of Rich Renewal Cremes!