daily java

Daily Java:

But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back. Do to others as you would like them to do to you. (Luke 6:27-31)

A lot of what the Bible says goes against our every grain. And this is surely one of those things.

The Bible says, be nice to those who are ugly to you. This was a hard lesson for me to learn. And it is a hard lesson for most to learn.

What do you do when someone does something that you know was designed to hurt you? Do you hurt them back? Do you wait a while. “Revenge is a dish best served cold” is the old saying. So wait until they do not expect it?

Or is there another response God wants of us?

The answer, of course, is yes. God expects the response that the one who is doing damage to us does not expect: mercy and kindness.

You look at the example: Jesus. When he was on the cross, and people were killing him, he forgave them. And he did this before they asked to be forgiven. Not only that, he forgave those who did not ever care whether or not he did so.

Someone walks in who has hurt you badly, has hurt your family and has hurt your church. What do you do? Shun them? Ignore them? Walk over and lovingly kick their chair out from under them?

Jesus said, you bless them and you pray for them. You do good to them. And above all, you love them.

It is hard. It was one of the hardest lessons I have ever learned. Walk over, speak nicely and kindly to them, shake their hands, smile at them. It doesn’t say you have to have them over for cake and coffee. It doesn’t say that you have to become BFF with them. It doesn’t even say you have to hang around with them in any way.

You just have to love them. And be nice.

It goes against every grain. What you want is revenge, to “crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.” You want to be like Conan the Barbarian and kill the whole bunch.

But, of course, you can’t. For one thing, they would not live long enough to realize you were right. Nor would they have a chance to repent and find Jesus. And God looks unfavorably in the New Testament era on his people killing other people.

I’ll tell you one side-effect of this. It scares the fire out of them. Paul said in Romans 12:19-21:

Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord. 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.” Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.

People know when they have done wrong and when they have sinned against you. And they expect you to do what they in their sorry little lives would do: strike back. They would do it so they expect you to.

When you don’t, it startles them. And maybe, just maybe they will recognize the stupid things they did.

So – bless, pray, offer, give, do as you would like them to do to you. Not an easy task, but it is part of a changed heart. He did it, and so can you.

Not of your own volition, mind you. You aren’t that strong. But he will make you strong enough to do so.