“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you . . .” Matthew 5:44, TLV
Love the Haters? Really? And pray for those who go out of their way to persecute us? Those haters that, well, hate who we are or what we believe? Oy! It gets even more complicated with vs. 45:
“. . . so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” (5:45, TLV)
Wait.
That’s how we’ll be recognized as truly redeemed children of our Heavenly Father? We love and pray for our enemies? Yep.
Uh oh.
But, what about those who say horrible things about our faith? Yep, we’re supposed to love and pray for them. What about those who fire us from our job because we spoke out about our faith? Or said, “God bless you” to a customer. Yep, we’re to love and pray for them, too.
Think about this: Yeshua [Jesus] was preparing His followers for real persecution. The type where bodily harm could be the outcome. Torture. Death. Think of Stephen who prayed for his persecutors even as he was being stoned to death. (Acts 7:57-60) And who was in that crowd of persecutors, Sha’ul/Saul/Paul (Acts 8:1-3). One day this hater would be an emissary of Yeshua and pen a significant portion of the New Covenant writings.
Uh oh.
I realized something, had our Father in heaven NOT loved us when we were His enemies — when we didn’t love Him or what He represented — we wouldn’t be His children today.
This is love—not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atonement for our sins. 1 John 4:10, TLV
We love, because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19, TLV
What if our Heavenly Father only sent His Son to redeem those who weren’t His “enemies” — souls who already loved Him and served Him wholeheartedly? That list would be quite small.
Our path and destination would certainly have looked a whole lot different. Can we all say, “Toda raba! Thank You very much!” that He prepared our redemption while we were still His enemies?
Let’s say it the: Toda raba! Thank You very much! And then, let’s follow Jesus’s command, “Love our enemies and pray for them.” Because we know how that feels.
