Gift Wrapped for Your Enemy

By Richard

Jesus calls us to love our enemies. This is a hard concept if you think about it. I like how The Message takes the idea of loving our enemies further. Instead of begrudgingly showing love we must joyously love. We read, “If someone drags you into court and sues you for the shirt off your back, gift wrap your best coat and make a present of it!” Don’t just give your enemy your coat, “gift wrap” your coat and “make a present of it”. If we showed this kind of love…WOW…the world would change.

But then reading this, this morning, God’s Word does what it so often does; it comes around and challenges me from a whole new angle. I was thinking, maybe sometimes, because of a lack of emotional attachment, it’s easier to love our enemies than those we love who've hurt us. Maybe that’s why we find in the Sermon on the Mount, before the call to love our enemies, the challenge from Jesus that when we are before God and remember that there’s a friend (family member) who has something against us then we need to go and make it right with that person.

If you think about it love is not easy. It’s a word that is easier to say than to do.