The Opposite Way

Luke 6:27-31

To you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. (Luke 6:27-28)

THE AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT provoked many emotions and prompted wildly differing responses. Some of those responses were nonviolent, while others were downright militant. But woven throughout the entire era, and continuing into today, are occasional examples of unexpected love—stories of black leaders expressing love toward a KKK member or former racists embracing their neighbors of any color or belief. Past militants tell stories of how their hatred was overcome by the love of their enemy. Why? Because the nature of God changes the brokenness of the human condition.

You will find this dynamic to be true not only in cases of love versus hate, but also in any other showdown between the nature of God and the ways of the world. When we enter an environment of greed, we can strip it of power with a spirit of generosity. When we find ourselves in a climate of pride, we can defuse it with a spirit of humility. Where there is despair, we can undo it with hope; where there is fear, we can overcome it with faith. We break the power of the world by living out its opposite.

While the world surrounds us with its distortions, you will find that those distortions are almost always the antithesis of something good, beautiful, and true. And when you choose the good, beautiful, and true counterpoints to the world’s ways, you will begin to unravel them. We are told that we can “conquer evil by doing good” (Romans 12:21), and it’s true—if we will put it into practice. The culture of heaven always overcomes the culture of earth if we learn to see ourselves as carriers of heaven’s ways.

{Father, the reality of your nature is far greater than the counterfeits and distortions of this fallen world. So why do I so easily conform to them rather than to you? May the power of your Spirit overcome every adversity in me and around me. Amen.