Enemy Territory

Enemy Territory

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

C’mon. Seriously?

If Jesus told me I could choose which of His teachings I didn’t have to follow, this one would easily make the list. And I’ll bet that if you’re honest with yourself, you would feel the same way.

I’m supposed to be praying for the New England Patriots? I have plenty of results over the years that will demonstrate enough reasons why that shouldn’t have to happen. To pray for them—after the whipping they put on us in the snow and ice in Foxboro during the playoffs? I think I still have some ice crystals in my hair, or what’s left of my hair. That seems a little hard to swallow, frankly. It’s one thing to love my friends—that seems reasonable. But to love my enemies? To pray for my enemies?

The truth is, how many of us have problems loving the people who love us all the time? We hold grudges against them, fail to forgive them, get angry, and refuse to pray for them. So if we can’t even love those who love us, do good to those who do good to us, or pray for those who pray for us, how in the world are we going to love, do good to, and pray for those who don’t do any of those things?

Christ is exposing the root of the problem: our self-centeredness. The reason we’re unable to extend any of those loving gestures to others without His help is because we are the centers of our own universes. For many of us, it is all about us. Yet Christ reminds us over and over that life is about God, about others, and about loving the world with and for Him. That’s why He hung on the cross—for you and me and all those “enemies” of ours.

Thank goodness He wasn’t self-centered. No, thank God!

Uncommon Key > Make sure Christ is at the center of your universe, not you. You can’t forgive, do good, and love fully without Him, but He never asked you to. He showed you through the cross how to do all of that—with and through Him.