The definition of God’s love (Part 3)
Verse of the day: Mathew 5:44: “ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you”
The verse of the day can give the impression of being in a fiction movie, far away from the reality. I have heard many sermons on this passage but I was hardly convinced because I did not understand how to love an enemy, and especially praying for those who persecute me. I wondered why I should pray for him and finally I tried to understand what kind of love Jesus spoke?
Jesus equipped the disciples with a series of tips on the behavior and attitude they had to have the day he would be gone. At the end of the verse, he speaks of those who would persecute them, i.e. those who would abuse them because of the name of Jesus or because they are his disciples.
We all know that God does not love sin but He loves the sinner and on the following verse (Matthew 5: 48), He asked the disciples to be like their Father (God) i.e. thinking and seeing things as God. If God loves sinners, we must love them also; If He wants everyone to be saved (2 Peter 3: 9), I should not wish hell to anyone.
Here one must be careful and not believe that all the mess is permitted in the name of God's love. Paul was clear when he wrote to the Corinthian church because he had learned that there is sexual immorality as is not even named among the gentiles, that a man has his father’s wife (1 Corinthians 5:1).
Regarding those who brought disorder in the church, look at what Paul recommended: "But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person"(1 Corinthians 5: 11).
Paul has strictly forbidden any contact with such a person but as he knew that Jesus died for him, he asked that he should be delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 5: 5).
You see that despite the anger and the disappointment of Paul, he was still worried about the spirit of this man because Jesus died for him and God's will is that he would be saved.
To be continued in Part Four
Chris Ndikumana
