Love Your Enemies Matthew 5:45

45"that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.




Here we find the greatest preacher that ever lived delivering the greatest sermon ever preached. He tells His disciples, "43"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44"But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you."


Jesus is telling us that we need to be different from the rest of the world. We need to stand out, not as the Pharisee who went into the temple and stood along side a tax collector and thanked God for all the good things that he had done and that he was not like the tax collector who stood beside him praying, "God be merciful to me a sinner."


We are to love our neighbor and our enemies! We are to bless those who bless us and bless those who curse us as well. We are to pray for everyone, those who like us and those who don't. Jesus goes on to make what seems to be a very unusual comment with respect to our relationships with those around us. He says, ""that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."


God makes the sun to shine on the evil person just as He does the good or righteous person. He sends rain on the just as well as the unjust. We tend to think, "God will look on the just or the righteous person and refuse to look down on the unjust person." There are two thoughts that come to my mind as I think on this statement as it relates to our relationships one to another.


First of all, as God sends the rain on the just and the unjust, He is being merciful as well as redemptive; because the unjust man may well come to realize that God must love him for God has blessed him in spite of his failure to look to God and allow His mercy and grace to make a difference in his life.


The second aspect of this sunshine and rain falling on the just and unjust has to do with the strengthening of just. People are watching everything we do as God's children. How we respond to the lack of rain is just as important to that person who is on the outside looking in. The world needs to see God's children acting differently as we live our lives and we learn to lean on the Lord for His strength and His guidance as we go through this life. We must learn to lean on the Lord in prayer so that our response will be one that will be seen by others who will know that what they have seen could have only come from the Lord!


When I love the unloving person and I reach out to that individual who has done everything that he can to hurt me, then I have gone beyond my own abilities and demonstrated God's abilities and that is what a lost and dying world needs to see in all of us!