- Love Your Enemies
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“Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles (Proverbs 24:17).”
Have you ever encountered a person that you immediately knew that you weren’t going to like them? If we are all honest, we have gone to school, worked, or lived next to people we just plain didn’t like. But we could also take this a step further; we have probably all had people in our lives that we thought were out to humiliate us or they desired to see us fail.
These are difficult situations to navigate. It’s tempting to dish out that same type of behavior back at them. The pacifist Ghandi said, “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” Jesus told us to love our enemies and pray for their well-being. These are tough things to live out, but they are also world-changing ideas. These are the types of ideas that can make a lasting impact on our community. Peter the apostle says it this way “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing (1 Peter 3:9).”
There are blessings promised when we follow Jesus’s words and love our enemies. So this week, instead of laughing when someone falls, or feeling joy when they make a mistake, let’s lend them a hand and show them grace. God has been kind and loving to us. Jesus forgives us every time we trip and fall; let’s be like Jesus.