You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Our elder brother, the Master Jesus gave the above admonition. As a Master, his first obligation, as is mine, was to fulfill the whole law. The law is summed up in two commandments, or instructions: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.”, and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Then he goes even further to show how you are to also love your enemies. On the cross, he even cried out concerning the very ones who had crucified him, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Even when confronted by the Pharisees who vehemently opposed him, and they asked him to show them the Kingdom, he responded by revealing to them that the Kingdom of God was within them. He was able to recognize something in them that they could not even discern about themselves.
The religious would have you to believe that you must join their religion in order to be accepted by God. They then condemn those who don’t accept their religion, and for the reason that they themselves cannot see God. Those who come from above, and have seen God, and do know God, are able to see God within all others, even those who seek to take advantage of us, or those who may even seek our lives.
So, we do good unto them. We don’t seek their judgment. We don’t desire vengeance against them. Why? Because coming from God, we know that none who knows God could ever behave as these do. Instead, my heart’s desire is that through my behavior, they may find the God within themselves. I have enough of the Father that I realize they only do the things they do in ignorance, whether willful or involuntarily.
𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁,
𝒮𝒶𝒽𝒶𝓆𝓊𝒾ℯ𝓁
