Love Our Enemies

Some of you are probably wondering, “Why on Earth would I want to even consider loving my enemies?” Well, the answer is simple. Because Jesus has commanded us too! That’s right, Jesus, our Lord and Savior has told all of His followers to love our enemies.
In Matthew 5:44 Jesus tells us to love our enemies. “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”
Not only does Jesus tell us to love our enemies, He also tells us to do three other things. We’re told to bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us, and pray for those who use and persecute us.
Now this is something that hits close to home for me. Recently, I’ve been having trouble with one of my friends, in fact she hates me. I’m still not sure what caused her to hate me, and I had been really struggling with this. Then one day as I read this passage in Matthew everything came into focus. Even though *Misty* (not her real name) still hates me I need to do good to her, pray for her, love her, and bless her. It’s hard I’ll admit, but I know that it’s what Jesus would want me to do.
If we as Christians continue to hate our enemies what does that do for our testimony? It harms it more than helping it. People won’t want to listen to what you have to say if you go around hating you enemies because they won’t see any difference in your life compared to the way everyone else lives. We as Christians should be known for our love.