A Deeper Blessing

Read: Romans 12

Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. Romans 12:14

IN WORD

Few revolutions bless enemies or even attempt to honor them. Ours does. That’s because we are revolting not against the world itself but against the captivity in which it is bound. There are spiritual enemies, to be sure, and we will be glad to evict and exile them. But our human opposition? We want the best for all of them—to preserve their lives, to bring them into a healthy and whole environment, and to introduce them to the King Himself. So we have nothing to gain by cursing anyone. Even the hands that oppress us are great candidates for grace.

That goes against our instincts, of course. Much of the Kingdom culture does. That’s why this instruction—along with belonging to one another and radically honoring one another—comes after a command to change the way we think. If we continue to think as the world has taught us, we will never be able to express the Kingdom culture in any distinctive way. But if we reorient our minds to envision the Kingdom and its counterintuitive ways, we represent a decided difference in how to live. We demonstrate something altogether greater than the ways of the world. We prove ourselves to be rooted in something that goes much deeper than petty offenses or even brutal ones. We reveal that we are children of God.

IN DEED

God has already demonstrated that this is His modus operandi. While we were still in rebellion against Him, He sent His Son to die for us (Romans 5:8). He has shown us His mercy and called us to be like Him. Just as Jesus forgave those who executed Him, we are to forgive those who offend us or attack us. And not only do we forgive; we bless. We wish heaven’s best on them. We offer them the life of the Kingdom because clearly they haven’t yet experienced it. If they had, they would not be persecuting children of God. Their only hope is for someone to show them what real life is like—by offering a blessing from another realm.

ADDITIONAL READING: Matthew 5:43-48

He that returns a good for evil obtains the victory.

THOMAS FULLER