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Read: Matthew 5:43-48
Listen: Matthew 5

You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.”  Matthew 5:43

Jesus speaks to a wildly fractured group filled with tension. The Jews hate their Roman occupiers. Yet they’re divided about what to do. The Sadducees collaborate with Rome to maintain power and keep peace. The Pharisees believe God will bless them for keeping the law and separating from culture. Zealots want to take down Rome by any means. Tax collectors work for Rome and pocket the profits. Each group despises the others as enemies. Jesus speaks into this sizzling tension about loving their enemies. He invites a tax collector and a zealot into his inner circle. Jesus defines love as behavior that is radically different from what they’ve ever heard. In Jesus’s kingdom, love equals kindness.

Taking Jesus seriously means being kind to people who are unkind to us. The Apostle Paul later expounds on Jesus’s teaching, showing us how love behaves. Love lives out patience and kindness. Love doesn’t envy or boast. It isn’t proud, self-seeking or easily angered. Love doesn’t keep a record of wrongs (1 Corinthians 13). The Holy Spirit empowers us to live out these behaviors when we don’t feel like it. Jesus’s teaching on loving enemies is good news for us. Whether it’s an angry ex-spouse, bitter parent, wayward child, gossiping coworker or callous neighbor, we can grow in love. Like a muscle that strengthens under strain, love can grow when life is hard by the power of God’s Spirit.

TODAY: Read 1 Corinthians 13 and substitute the word “love” with your name. ________ is patient. _____________ is kind. As you read through the passage, ask God to show you where you need to grow in loving behavior toward difficult people.