But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ~ Luke 6:27-28
One of the most difficult commands that we find in Scripture is for us to love our enemies. This feels impossible sometimes, because all of us at some point have been hurt or mistreated by someone else, and it’s hard to love someone who has been so unloving toward us. However Jesus doesn’t just give us this command and leave us to figure out how to love our enemies all on our own, He gives us three ways that we can accomplish this.
1. Do good to those who hate you.
Sometimes the best way to reach someone who is being unkind is to show undeserved kindness toward them. After all that’s what God has done for us. We don’t earn or deserve His grace, but He gives it anyway, and that’s exactly what we should do for the hard to love people in our own lives.
2. Bless those who curse you.
Not only should we act kindly toward our enemies,but we should also speak kindly toward them & about them. We are called to be set apart, and what would make us any different than our enemies if we speak unkind toward them or about them.
3. Pray for those who mistreat you.
We have been commanded to act kindly toward our enemies, and speak kindly toward our enemies, but we don’t stop there. We have also been told to pray for our enemies. Often times that’s the last thing we want to do, but it’s through prayer that people are changed, so what better way to show love toward our enemies than to pray for them.
Pray that God will take hold of their hearts and change them to be people who love rather than people who hate. Pray that God, through His grace & mercy would save them just as we have been saved. Through our prayers God may change not only them, but us as well, because the more that we pray for our enemies the more we grow to have compassion for them. 💛