love your enemies

Matthew 5, 6, & 7 are the 3 chapters we have come to call The Sermon on the Mount.

It's called that because it is Matthew's account of a long period of teaching that Jesus had t a large crowd sitting on the side of a mountain.

It is a teaching that is FILLED with all kinds of great stuff – it could be said that those 3 chapters covering Jesus teachings could be some of the most pivotal words in the New Testament.

If you've never read those 3 chapters, you really ought to. It is just an incredible collection of stupendous, revolutionary thinking & truth.

I'd like to share the last few verses in chapter 5.

After you read it, ask yourself the question...

“What would our lives & world look like if we did what Jesus says to be & do here.”

Matthew 5

43 "You have heard the law that says, 'Love your neighbor' and hate your enemy.

44 But I say,

love your enemies!

Pray for those who persecute you!

45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.

For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good,

and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.

46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that?

Even corrupt tax collectors do that much.

47 If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else?

Even pagans do that.

48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.