Love your enemies...


Oh wait, I thought "love your enemies" was something that Jesus said...how did this get into Proverbs?? Well yes, "love your enemies" was something that he had said... (if this doesn't ring a bell, please go to YouTube and watch BonQuiQui at King Burger)...

However, tucked into Proverbs 17 is a verse that gives us another look at this same principle, but I believe, helps us to understand why the advice is truly for our own good, and isn't simply about being a nice person, or even about being a "spiritual" person...

"If a man pays back evil for good, evil will never leave his house."

Even though the writer of the Proverb is talking about paying back evil for good, I think there's a larger point here...if you pay back evil for evil, how is that any better? In Luke 6, Jesus says to love your enemies, and pray for those who hate you. Why?? In the big, big picture, some of what Jesus taught was designed to help folks see that they couldn't live up to these expectations without God's help...and in teaching this, he laid the groundwork for the Gospel message of transformation.

On a more daily level, I think we're wise to visualize the picture that the Proverb paints for us...if we pay back evil for good...or even evil for evil, evil will never leave our house. This is an unattractive...even repulsive vision of the future. But why do we find it so hard to love our enemies, and pray for those who hate us...or for those who would do us harm? I wonder if it's not because we feel like it lets them off the hook...?

The truth is, when we pay back evil for evil, it keeps us on the hook! If we pay back evil to someone, whatever the situation might be, we are always on the hook, captive to the very thing that hurts or angers us.

How do you love your enemies? Are you honest enough to identify a person or persons with whom you have an antagonistic relationship? Someone who you disagree with strongly on some matter of importance to you? Someone who has hurt you, or hurt someone that you love?

Give it some thought...and know with certainty that loving that person, or persons, and praying for their welfare, will be the best thing that ever happened...to you.

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