Luke 6:27 But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.
We all have grown up hearing the phrase, an eye for an eye. Do unto others what they do to you seems to be the norm. This is what the world teaches you. We, as children of our Lord Jesus Christ, must ask ourselves, are we to follow what the world teaches us or are we to follow what our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has taught us.
In Matthew 5:38-42 Jesus teaches us to not reciprocate the evil and hatred that others do to us. He tells us to turn the other cheek when anyone slaps us on the right cheek.
In this verse, Luke 6:27, Jesus is talking to those who will hear Him, the ones who accept Him as their Lord and Savior. To them, He is saying that we should love our enemies, and do good for those that hate us. Jesus is not saying reciprocate evil with evil, nor is He telling us to ignore our enemies, but He is saying love them and do good to them.
This is what differentiates us, the children of God, from the world. Is it easy for us to be like Jesus and follow his teachings? No, it isn’t. We can’t do this on our own. We need to lean on Jesus to give us the strength to be strong and follow the principles that He has taught us to live by.
Dear Lord, hold our hand as we learn from Your Word and follow in your teachings. Help us to forgive our enemies and to love them and do good to them.
