{"id":952,"date":"2017-08-11T16:00:34","date_gmt":"2017-08-11T20:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gospelbillboards.org\/?p=952"},"modified":"2021-03-18T15:01:24","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T19:01:24","slug":"love-enemies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gospelbillboards.org\/love-enemies\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Love your enemies&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><span style=\"color: #993300;\">Jesus Christ said this:<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">But 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, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.<\/span> (Matthew 5:44-45)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #003366;\">Jesus said this during the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5-7<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #003366;\">It is not normal for people to love their enemies. Jesus not only taught us to do this, but gave us an example of how to do it. When the Roman soldiers nailed Him to the cross, He called out to God, \u201cFather, forgive them, for they know not what they do.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #003366;\">How do you love your enemy? Read Romans 12:19-21. This passage lists three things you can do:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #003366;\">Do not take revenge on your enemy for doing wrong to you<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #003366;\">If your enemy is hungry, give him food<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #003366;\">If your enemy is thirsty, give him something to drink.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #003366;\">The Bible calls this, <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">\u201cheap[ing] coals of fire on [your enemy\u2019s] head.\u201d<\/span> What better way can there be to overcome evil than to overcome it by doing good?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #993300;\">An Illustration:<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #003366;\">On a stormy winter day, a trucker was driving on a snowy, slippery highway. The road was dangerous and the snow was deep. A car came flying past him on the passing lane, its horn blowing. About a quarter mile up the road the car started to weave and went into a tailspin. It spun around several times, then dived trunk first into the ditch.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #003366;\">The trucker had two choices.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #003366;\">He could drive by, tooting his horn in derision. That is what they did to him. Let them stew. It might teach them a lesson.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #003366;\">He could stop and see if he could help them out. The Bible teaches us to <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">\u201cdo good to them that despitefully use us.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #003366;\">Guess what he did!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #003366;\">Hint # 1: he was a professing Christian who went to church regularly.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #003366;\">Hint # 2: he felt good about what he did.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Answer<\/strong>: he drove by, sounding his horn. Sadly, he didn\u2019t put this teaching of Jesus to practice in his life. He lost a good opportunity to show God\u2019s love to someone who didn\u2019t deserve it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jesus Christ said this: But 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, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:44-45) Jesus said this during the Sermon on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2028,"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":[71],"tags":[83,13,82],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Love your enemies&quot; - GospelBillboards.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you...\" \/>\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\/love-enemies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;Love your enemies&quot; - 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