Matt. 5:44 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 and persecute you.
I heard a message about a Pastor that was hated by a certain man. No matter what he did he could never make this man like him. So one day he decided that he was going to stop doing and just love the man. He loved the man with kindness. And guess what, he is best friends with this man now. So it does work! It might take lots of time and lots of patience but it works. Sometimes it is not a easy thing to do. Our human nature makes us want to do the opposite. Lets take a closer look at Matt. 5:44.
There are 4 phrases or words that show our enemy: curse you, hate you, and despitefully use you and persecute you. We are also shown in this verse how to deal with them that do this to you.
First part, says love your enemies. Isn't it our nature to want to hate the one who hates us. But in this verse Jesus is telling us to LOVE your enemies. We may not love what they did but we can still love them. Love them with kindness. Love is a attribute of God.
Another section I see is, Bless those who curse you. Wow, that can be a hard one but with Jesus you can do it. When people use words that hurt make sure you don't throw hurtful words back. Remember love them with kindness. Bless is a attribute of God.
Then we have, do good to those who hate you. When we know that someone hates us we tend to shy away from them. We might even let our thoughts not be good. But, this is not the attitude that we that our Christians should have. Remember the first part of the verse says love your enemies. We can show love by words and actions. Kindness! Good is a attribute of God.
The last part of this verse says, pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Pray! I think that prayer can change a person's heart. We as Christians know the power of God. Prayer is a attribute of God.
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this. Thanks for reading.