Love your
enemies and pray for those who persecute you…
- Matthew
5:44
Jesus’ command here is
an extremely difficult one. It goes against our natural grain. In the heat of
conflict, when feelings of resentment are running hot, we want to hit and spit
at our enemies, not kneel and beg God to show them mercy. Sometimes we secretly
want to see them “rot in hell.”
But if we allow
ourselves to become vindictive, we’re letting a flood of hatred into our
hearts. Floods cause immense damage. By being vindictive, we’re actually
letting people hurt us all over again (even though vindictiveness feels so
delicious), and when we’re infecting our insides with the poison of bitterness.
As one person so wisely put it, “When you carry a grudge, it’s you who are
doing the heavy lifting.”
Retaliation spawns more
retaliation. If we all live by an eye for an eye, pretty soon the whole world
will be blind.
It is not enough to
drain ourselves of the demon of vindictiveness. It will soon seep right back
in, like water in a deep hole below the water line. The only safe dike against
the flood of contempt for our enemies is, in imitation of Jesus, praying for
God’s mercy and goodness to fill us – as well as our enemies.
