Matthew 5.44

"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.

Abraham Lincoln was a master of forming alliances between peoples of divergent opinions. He incorporated people who disagreed with him into his personal staff. This didn't always promote harmony in the White House. One day one of his advisors came to him and said, "Mr. President, you really have to destroy your enemies." Mr. Lincoln smiled and said, "Isn't that what I do when I make them my friends?"

There is great wisdom in that statement. Yet that wisdom predated Lincoln by 1800 years. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus announced a revolutionary way to deal with your enemies. He said, you return kindness for injury, love for hate, courtesy for dishonor. It seems backwards, but it works. It's really very hard to hate someone who is busy loving you and doing good for you.

In addition, it is baffling to them. They can't understand what is up. They wonder why the person is not retaliating or snubbing them. The smile on that person's face is like a spotlight of conviction. It eventually becomes too difficult to go on hating the other. It also becomes futile since that person really isn't hurting. Curiosity arises and the person begins to wonder what is there about this person which causes them to remain friendly when others are not. That curiosity leads to questions which can eventually lead to the only answer worth giving.

That answer is that we love those who hate us because God did the same for us. In Romans 5.10 Paul writes: "When we were enemies [of God], we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." God defeats his enemies by making them his friends. Indeed he goes one step further and makes them his sons and daughters. Praise God that I was one enemy he destroyed by recreation of my soul.

Lord, let us remember that we were once your enemies and you loved us. In that same way let us love and convert those who oppose us. Amen and Amen.