Yes, I Meant That

Daily Reading: Matthew 5

Scripture Focus: But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. (Matthew 5.44)

Devotional Thought:  In this most difficult passage, Jesus calls us to love our enemies.  Did he mean that?  Yes, he did.  It was not a call to feel something, but to be and do something: forgive and pray.  We love them in our attitudes and actions.

That kind of love extends to more than our enemies.  Followers of Jesus are to "bear with one another and ... forgive each other; as the Lord has forgiven you" (Colossians 3.13).  The Bible also says, "Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law" (Romans 13:8).  God loved us so much that he gave his Son for our forgiveness.  That prompted John to write: "If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another" (1 John 4:11). The Greek word translated “ought” in this verse is a financial term, referring to indebtedness.  There is a debt-debtor relationship in the gospel.  Since God so loved us, we owe it to God to love others.  And, when others are unlovable (our enemies, for example), we can remember that we’re called to love them because God chose first to love us.

We do not need to adopt the ways of the world.  Instead, we are in a position to "overcome evil with good" (Romans 12.21).  That is exactly what we are doing when we make the decision, in the Lord’s strength, to love, forgive, and pray for our enemies, for those who persecute us.  Justice belongs to the Lord.  In the meantime, we are called to be “joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” (Romans 12:12).

Jenny Wade

Prayer: Jesus, I know that you meant it when you said I am to love my enemies and pray for their salvation.  Help me to do that in your love and strength.  And, Lord, I also know that those in the church (including me!) are not as lovable as they ought to be.  Help me to love them, too.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 80.8-19

8 You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.

9 You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.

10 The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches.

11 It sent out its branches to the sea and its shoots to the River.

12 Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?

13 The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it.

14 Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine,

15 the stock that your right hand planted, and for the son whom you made strong for yourself.

16 They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of your face!

17 But let your hand be on the man of your right hand, the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!

18 Then we shall not turn back from you; give us life, and we will call upon your name!

19 Restore us, O LORD God of hosts! Let your face shine, that we may be saved!