The Mark – 18, Have You Hugged Your Back-stabber Today?
Sunday, November 20, 2011 at 09:10AM The commands of Jesus are the Mark, the target for the perfect life. To aim for and to hit the Mark is to conform to the image and likeness of God. To ignore, neglect, or miss the Mark is to sin. The commands provide stepping stones through earthly life, upon which the child of God survives tempests and deflects the boomeranging darts of pride. Adhering to the Mark aspiring immortals gain victory.
“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for He makes the sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
Matthew 5:44
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who abuse you.”
Luke 6:27-36
Do you have an enemy? Is there or has there ever been someone in your life who obviously hates you and wants evil to befall you? Someone who [figuratively] puts their foot out to make you trip when you walk by or someone who tells lies to ruin your reputation? Has anyone poisoned your coffee lately?
In nature the sun rises on you both. But human nature is more selective. Human nature only wants to shine where there is already light. Human nature prefers to make the dark even darker. It makes you behave like your enemy, fight back and try to win by hurting him more, or if you are the passive type human nature makes you simply ignore your enemy.
Jesus Christ, in His luminous supernatural superman way, tells you to walk on water. He tells you to override human nature, even the passive type, by loving in tangible ways the person who wants to destroy you. Why?! This command begins to make sense when you see that He is telling you and me to be the light of the world as He is, a child of God as He is, so we too can destroy darkness. Love of enemies is the litmus test for His immortal children.
I hope you have no enemy, but I hope even more that if you do, you can love him or her. Some enemies will dissolve as fast as the wicked witch of the west when the water was poured on her. Others, the more insidious enemies, will see the overtures as weakness and go for the kill. Don’t worry; this is when being a supernatural child of God really comes in handy. He will shield you.
Love your enemies; our world needs more luminous, immortal, supernatural children of God in it.
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