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Love Your Enemies

         “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:43-35)

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)

            We’re less than a week from Valentine’s Day. We’re also in what looks like another Cat 5 Schizogenesis storm, in which society is bracing for a “perfect storm” with storm surges of hatred of 100 feet, and wind gusts of intolerance rated at 200 mph. And sadly, those who claim to loving and tolerant, and those who are charged to be loving and forgiving seem to be the warm Equatorial waters in which this maelstrom is born and gains strength. Today’s first passage is both “natural” and necessary.

            So is the second. When the winds pick up and the rain of anger and hail of fear pelt our lives, we need to remember that our neighbors and the people we encounter aren’t the problem. If they thought the way we think, we’d probably think them wonderful. It is their ideas that we should hate, not them. Unfortunately, they are visible as a target. We find it hard to separate their ideas from them. We tend to see attack or withdrawal as our means of combat.

            But Jesus said we’re wrong. Love (which does demand truth) and prayer are the solutions. And it’s our lack of faith in God that makes us think these aren’t sufficient

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