“You have heard it said, love your neighbors and hate your
enemy. 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”
Hold on Jesus. You mean to tell me that if I don’t
love my enemies, I’m not a child of God? Folks I’m looking for the escape clause here: I’m looking for the place right after
this verse, where Jesus says, “I’m just kidding. Go ahead and hate your enemies, you’re better than them
anyway”.
Or, “Love your enemies? That’s just some out of this world
ideal that I don’t possibly expect you to live out. Carry on, business as usual…”
But he doesn’t say that. What I discover instead is that Jesus won’t be tamed and his message of the Kingdom will not be watered down. And that stops me dead in my tracks every time.
