“You have heard that it has been said, ‘You must love your
neighbor and hate those who hate you.’ But I tell you, love those who hate you.
Pray for those who do bad things to you and who make it hard for you. Then you
may be the sons of your Father Who is in heaven. His sun shines on bad people
and on good people. He sends rain on those who are right with God and on those who
are not right with God. If you love those who love you, what reward can you
expect from that. Do not even the tax-gathers do that? If you say hello only to
the people you lie, are you doing any more than others? The people who do not
know God do that much. You must be perfect as your Father in heaven is
perfect.” Matthew 5:43-48
I’ve been thinking about this passage a lot today. I
recently heard a teaching on this that when Jesus was saying these words, it
was when the Romans ruled the world. The Romans were cruel; they used fear, torture and were basically
what we now call terrorists. They were the group that everyone feared. They
were the ISIS of the time.
Tonight my heart is heavy and grieving as I have read the
countless posts and news articles concerning the Syrian refugees coming here to
the States. Many do not want to allow the Syrians to come here for fear that hidden
among them is an extremists. I don’t know about the many hoops the Syrians will
have to go through before coming to the States, but I’ve heard and read that
they must go through a lot before entering our country. This is the one thing I
do know…..I met many Syrians who fled their country because if they stayed
there, they would be killed. I sat and listened to their stories of how they
children still have nightmares because of what happened to them in their
country; how a man was shot in the leg as he was simply going to the store to
buy food for his family. I heard of their longing to one day return to their
homes, their businesses…..their country.
There is so much fear and so much anger. Yet the words of
Jesus continue to go through my head.” Love your enemies; pray for them.” Our
world has a huge problem and it’s not ISIS or our President. Our world is in
desperate need of Jesus. Of the love and grace that only He offers. May each of
us who follow Him, live out the words He spoke so long ago.
