Matthew 5:43-48\u00a0<\/b>\u2013\u00a0\u201cYou have heard that it was said, \u2018Love your neighbor\u00a0and hate your enemy.\u2019\u00a044\u00a0But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,\u00a045\u00a0that you may be children\u00a0of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.\u00a046\u00a0If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?\u00a0Are not even the tax collectors doing that?\u00a047\u00a0And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?\u00a048\u00a0Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Leviticus 19:18<\/b>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/span>\u201cDo not seek revenge\u00a0or bear a grudge\u00a0against anyone among your people,\u00a0but love your neighbor\u00a0as yourself.\u00a0I am the\u00a0Lord.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n We all know what can be our \u201cnatural\u201d response when we are attacked, we want to defend ourselves.\u00a0 Often that means to attack back.\u00a0 Yet we know that we are called to not do that.\u00a0 Jesus states that not only are we not to attack back, but we are love our enemies and pray for them.\u00a0 The lament rises from the church pews that obeying this command from Jesus is too hard.\u00a0 Jesus did not ask us to do what He was not already doing.\u00a0 The Word says that God loved us while we were still enemies to Him.\u00a0 In fact while we were an enemy, Jesus died for us (Romans 5:10<\/b>).\u00a0 Therefore, our supreme example, Jesus, has shown us by His own actions how we should live and love (1 Peter 2:21-25<\/b>).<\/p>\n While the \u201cflesh\u201d rises up against the will and the desire to love those who hurt us, the Spirit of God calls us to obey the Word.\u00a0 The inability to do so really comes down to the inability to submit our will to God, to be willing to live out His will.\u00a0 If we are fully submitted to the Lord, to His Holy Spirit, then we submit.\u00a0 Of course this is a continuous work on our part.\u00a0 We get better as we learn to submit.\u00a0 Still, are we purposely dragging our feet?\u00a0 Are our heels dug in?\u00a0 Is there that one incident, or series of incidents, or person, or persons that we refuse to forgive?\u00a0 Do we think the Lord would say to us \u201cOh, I know I said to love and pray for the offender(s), but I didn\u2019t know that would happen to you?\u00a0 Wow you are excused!\u201d\u00a0 Silly, right?\u00a0 There are no excuses not to love and forgive those who hurt and wound us.\u00a0 None!<\/p>\n Let us bring our rebellious nature and will before God and ask Him to make us like Him that we might obey.\u00a0 Let us cast aside our rebellion and display our love for our Savior and Lord by displaying our love for others.\u00a0 If we are not submitted to Christ, if He is not truly our Lord and Master, is He our Savior?\u00a0 Yes, we are saved by grace, but Jesus said that if we love Him we will obey Him (John 14:15<\/b>).\u00a0 Lacking love is a very ominous and foreboding sign (1 John 4:8<\/b>).\u00a0 When speaking about love the Apostle John once told His congregation \u201cWhen you learn to love, I\u2019ll move on to another subject.\u201d\u00a0 Family, it is a lifelong battle that we only win by surrendering our will to God.\u00a0 By loving God.\u00a0 Then it is possible to love all others.<\/p>\n Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.<\/p>\n Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matthew 5:43-48\u00a0\u2013\u00a0\u201cYou have heard that it was said, \u2018Love your neighbor\u00a0and hate your enemy.\u2019\u00a044\u00a0But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,\u00a045\u00a0that you may be children\u00a0of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[100,2454,101,94,90,17,10],"class_list":["post-1297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-john","tag-leviticus","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-peter","tag-psalm","tag-romans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1298,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1297\/revisions\/1298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}