Post 2: Love Your Enemy: The "Too Hard to Be Fake" Rule 💔

 

Jesus never said it would be easy.

“But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

—Matthew 5:44 (NRSVUE)

The Propaganda: Love those who love you.

How often have you sat in your church or your synagogue or your mosque and you've listened to your religious leaders proclaim we have the truth! Cursed be the infidels! Let's have a crusade or a jihad or some other term used to mean let's go kill somebody.

I know I have sat far too often in a church and heard that message.

---

The unvarnished message.

It just doesn't get any clearer than Jesus demanding that his followers love their enemies and pray for those who were persecuting them.

He used small words and short sentences so that everybody could understand exactly what he meant. Did Jesus mean it literally?

I would suggest that as he allowed the Romans to crucify him and that the story is told that he prayed for them while he was dying on the cross, that yes he meant it literally.

---

The takeaway.

As I have pointed out in my previous post in this series many churches and many people in power in various states have given us a milquetoast Jesus. But the real, authentic, terrifying, Jesus proclaimed a path that was incredibly difficult to follow.

When it was decided that it was time for Marcos senior to leave the Philippines people power went into action. On the streets nuns were walking up to soldiers and placing flowers in the barrel of their rifle. They were loving their enemies, they were praying for those who persecuted them. And it worked.

The next time you go to protest ICE arrests can you love the Icemen? Can you pray for them? If you can, you just might be a follower of Jesus

---

Brian

📱 Optimized for phones — and still looks great on desktop. Thanks for reading!

To contact me, copy and paste: jbrianwaddington1@duck.com