{"id":1060,"date":"2017-10-20T11:31:49","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T15:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gospelbillboards.org\/?p=1060"},"modified":"2024-02-20T06:25:52","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T11:25:52","slug":"real-christians-love-enemies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gospelbillboards.org\/real-christians-love-enemies\/","title":{"rendered":"Genuine Christians love their enemies"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"1060\" class=\"elementor elementor-1060\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-31ec189 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"31ec189\" data-element_type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-a1a2e00 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"a1a2e00\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.21.0 - 25-04-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">\u201cBut I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you\u201d\u00a0(Matthew 5:44)<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">This verse is part of the Sermon on the Mount, and you can read it in context\u00a0<a style=\"color: #00334b;\" href=\"https:\/\/ebible.com\/nkjv\/matthew\/5\/43\/-\/5\/48\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/span>.<\/a><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">Anyone can love people who love them back. But\u2026<\/span><\/p><ul><li><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">loving our\u00a0<strong>enemies<\/strong>,<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">blessing\u00a0<strong>those who curse us<\/strong>,<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">doing good to\u00a0<strong>those who hate us<\/strong>, and<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">praying for\u00a0<strong>those who persecute us<\/strong><\/span><\/li><\/ul><p><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">\u2026is much harder. We can do this only if we have the love of Jesus in our hearts.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">Luke 6:27-36\u00a0is an expanded version of\u00a0Matthew 5:44. It adds some practical examples to illustrate what loving your enemies means. For instance, if someone hits you on the one cheek, offer that he can hit you on the other cheek as well. If someone steals your cloak, offer him your tunic as well. Or, as the\u00a0<em>New Living Translation<\/em>\u00a0says, if he asks for your coat, offer him your shirt as well!<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">It is one thing to say that real Christians should love their enemies. But when we read passages like the one in\u00a0Luke 6, the challenge comes a lot closer home.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">Jesus not only taught us to do these things, but also gave us an example of how to do them. When the Roman soldiers nailed Him to the cross, He called out to God,\u00a0\u201cFather,\u00a0<strong>forgive them<\/strong>, for they know not what they do.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">How do you love your enemy and do good to those who hate you? Read\u00a0Romans 12:19-21. This passage lists three things you can do:<\/span><\/p><ul><li><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">Do not take revenge on your enemy for doing wrong to you.<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">If your enemy is hungry, give him food.<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">If your enemy is thirsty, give him something to drink.<\/span><\/li><\/ul><p><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">The Bible calls this,\u00a0\u201cheap[ing] coals of fire on [your enemy\u2019s] head.\u201d\u00a0What better way can there be to overcome evil than to overcome it by doing good?<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">What about blessing those who despitefully use you? And praying for those who persecute you, or misuse you? Our natural tendencies are to do the opposite of this. We like to get revenge in a way that somehow causes trouble for someone who has offended us. Often, we try to make sure our \u201crevenge\u201d is worse than what we have received. But that isn\u2019t God\u2019s way. The Bible tells us that \u201ca soft answer turns away wrath.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">Loving our enemies is another one of Jesus\u2019 teachings that is much easier to talk about than to practice. The key word in this passage is the word\u00a0<strong>love<\/strong>. It is easier to\u00a0<strong>love our enemies<\/strong>\u00a0if we remember how\u00a0<strong>God loved us<\/strong>. We were His enemy at one time. Yet He loved us so much that He sent His Son to earth to die for us.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">How can we do anything less than to love our enemies, if He did this for us? Maybe, through our love for them, they will see God\u2019s love and decide to accept it for themselves.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #00334b;\">\u201cAnd a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.\u201d\u00a0(2 Timothy 2:24-26)<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cBut I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you\u201d\u00a0(Matthew 5:44) This verse is part of the Sermon on the Mount, and you can read it in context\u00a0here. Anyone can love people who love [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,5,72,70],"tags":[81,83,82,80],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Genuine Christians love their enemies - GospelBillboards.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gospelbillboards.org\/real-christians-love-enemies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Genuine Christians love their enemies - GospelBillboards.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cBut I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you\u201d\u00a0(Matthew 5:44) This verse is part of the Sermon on the Mount, and you can read it in context\u00a0here. 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