Luke 6:28

Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you ~ Luke 6:28


Those who create violence in their personal world want to get vengeance. It is an age-old reaction of mankind. You do wrong to me, and I will do wrong to you! Our world has had violence from the time of Cain and Able, and it will not leave until Jesus returns,
bringing in the New World. Even the Old Testament said, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot” (Deuteronomy 19:21). The thought that enters my mind is that I had better keep my wits about me, not trust anyone, and be always on guard. And, in some ways, so we should as Christians, for our enemy is not usually a person, but our enemy is found in spiritual warfare. Paul advised us to put on our armor – and keep it on to fight the spiritual enemy. Here, Jesus is not talking about the spiritual, but the actual enemy, and as usual, he is turning the thoughts of the world upside right. Where we naturally want to bring vengeance, Jesus tells us that that will not change the enemy but cause them to become even more evil and callused. It goes back to Proverbs 25 where it says, “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, in doing this you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.” In other words, they will feel remorse for hurting you instead of gaining the energy for even greater evil to pay you. Love in action tears down walls that are built to keep one safe from another. Prayer and blessing to those who may hurt you is the greatest way to love. Even if it does not change them, it will change how you feel and relate to them…and that has to have a positive effect even if it takes time to do so.

Pastor Julia

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