Pastor’s Corner: “Controlled by Love”
Matthew 5:43-44 (NIV) – You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Booker T. Washington once said, “I will never allow another man to control my life by allowing him to make me hate him.” I love his statement. It gives us an entirely different perspective on freedom. We cannot control when another person treats us unfairly, but we can control whether we are enslaved in bitterness and resentment by how we respond to injustice.
Unfairness is part of the human condition. You can’t live on this earth for long without feeling like someone has treated you unfairly. Maybe it’s a parent who put you through a miserable childhood. Maybe it’s an employer who treats you differently than your co-workers. Maybe you feel like you were treated unfairly by the legal process. It even happens in churches, the last place we would expect this to happen. Because we live in a broken world filled with hurt people who hurt people, we should not be surprised but rather prepare ourselves to respond in grace and in love.
You can choose to respond to the people who hurt you by hurting them. That’s the easiest choice to make, no doubt about it. But God gives us another option in his Word: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:43-44 NIV).
When people hurt you, they expect you to retaliate. They expect you to seek revenge. But God wants you to do the exact opposite. He wants you to respond in love. Respond to mistreatment with love, and you keep the other person from controlling you. Just because you respond to an offender lovingly doesn’t mean you continue to allow injustice. On the contrary, we must lovingly seek justice. We must work for justice in the world without retaliating. The Bible commands us to “be fair-minded and just. Do what is right!” (Jeremiah 22:3 NLT)
Shock your enemies! Romans 12:20-21 (NLT) – 20 Instead, “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.” 21 Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good. If you’re serving the Lord, you can expect your share of enemies. Don’t let a root of bitterness grow up because of them, but rather seek to win them over with gentleness, kindness, and even love.
That’s our calling as followers of Jesus. Unfairness and injustice may be part of the human condition, but we must not feed into it. Loving your enemies is not a burden but a blessing. You begin to experience new freedom. Your enemy no longer controls your feelings toward them. Hatred is no longer your automatic reflex to a painful memory. Loving your enemies is a gift of God that helps you experience God’s love for you in a deeper and more powerful way. Every time you love an enemy, you realize again that while you were God’s enemy, Jesus loved you and died for you- Romans 5:10.
In His Grace,
Pastor Hamilton