“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, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the gentiles do the same?  Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48)

Love.  I’ve thought a lot about love.  If we are called to share Jesus with a lost world, how can we do that unless we truly love them? How can we do that unless we deeply care about them?  Many times I have read this passage and thought, ‘Ok, today I am going to make myself love my enemies,”  but it didn’t last long.  It was frustrating because I thought if Jesus could do it, why can’t I do it?  But it was too big for me, loving people who didn’t love me back.  It used up my energy very quickly. 

So how did Jesus do it? How did he have such great compassion on everyone that he saw?  He received this love from the Father.  Jesus prayed all the time; he was ‘plugged-in’ to the Father.  Everything he did, all the compassion that led him to act, all that came from the Father.  “Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise’” (John 5:19).  To share Jesus love we must be able and willing to love not just our friends but also our enemies.  We cannot do this alone, but we never were meant to do it alone.  “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you” (John 7:7).  Jesus was ‘plugged-in’ to the Father and it was from God that Jesus received the love he had for the people, from the Father Jesus received the direction of where to minister and to who, from the Father, from the Father.

We are called to love others, we are called to share Jesus love for other people and the message of freeing salvation that comes in Jesus.  How do we do this, where do we do this, who do we share to?  Let us first ‘plug-in’ to the Father so he can give us the love for lost people; so He can show us where He wants us to share.  Let us pray!