Thursday; October 23
I have been reading a book by Randy Harris called “Living
Jesus: Doing What Jesus Says in the
Sermon on the Mount”. In the section
where Jesus observes, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your
neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to
you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you …” Randy asks
how many of us actually have enemies.
There may be some people who have sworn enemies that we can’t stand, but
a lot of us don’t have relationships that have deteriorated to that level. So, can we ignore this verse? Unfortunately, the author challenges to us
think about the “irritants” in our lives.
How could this passage change if we reworded it to include, “But I say
to you, love your irritants and pray for those who irritate you …”. Ouch!
That’s not as much fun as passing over this message because we get along
with most people, but I really believe it is a vital message for the 21st
Century. In addition to issuing the
challenge, Randy tells the story of someone who was an irritant in one of his
classes, then goes on to explain, “We
all know a John, an irritant. We had a
few students, our most mature students, who befriended John because they
believed that you just don’t love people who love you back, you love people
even who are incapable of love or friendship, whether they’re your enemies or
irritants.”
Do we have more irritants
than enemies in our lives? Are we
dedicated enough to the Lord and mature enough to love them?
Think About It!