“Love your enemies, bless those that curse you, do good to those that hate you, and pray for those

who speak evil about you, and persecute you,” Matthew 5:44. The Gospel of Luke, in Chapter 6, gives

us a similar recitation. It’s a tall order, but one we Christians need to revisit and reevaluate, especially

in light of the current divisiveness in our world. It seems that Jesus has become a kind of brand, and

not an intrinsically vital component to the believer’s daily life or the motivation for our personal faith.

We listen to pundits and not our hearts. We read snippets and memes, and not the Gospel. We gossip

about others instead of praying for them. I know this as a Christian, because I’m guilty of all of these

things.

This is not an age of piousness or selflessness. Yet Jesus tells us that meekness is a virtue. Humility

and gentleness are to be revered. We are instructed to be merciful because God is. Jesus

emphatically informs us followers that we are not allowed to judge others, because it robs us of our

ability to forgive. When we lose our willingness to forgive, we lose our compassion. That turns us into

an Us vs. Them clique of elitists, and that is not only not Christian, it is in fact quite the opposite.

Jesus did not choose sides. He did not lend himself to endorsements. This is because Jesus was for

all of us, because we are His creation. He even loved the people who killed him — while they were

killing him! Luke 23:34: “Then said Jesus, ‘Father, forgive them: for they know not what they do.’” Like

it or not, that is our model to emulate.

But it gets tougher. Jesus loves us all. His sacrifice was for all of humanity. If we are to follow this

example, we must see the worth in all God’s creatures and “love our neighbor as ourselves.” Heady

stuff, for sure, but pretty straightforward nonetheless.

Mathew 5:9 states “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the Children of God.”

Peacemaking has as an intrinsic component the element of understanding at least two sides of an

issue or enmity. Bringing reconciliation to the front to allow for mutual respect and comprehension of

disagreements is likened to God himself. Peacemakers truly are blessed. And courageous. Further,

they don’t allow themselves to be captured by the traps of labeling or casting aspersions. They

reconcile out of love. They bring together parties in hope of healing. They do not stir the cauldron to

further enhance hate and animosity. They don’t drive wedges, they unite. I don’t have this gift. I’m too

sardonic. But it gives me a goal to shoot for.

As Christians we often forget that Jesus doesn’t belong to anyone. We belong to him. He came for us

even when we were dead set against it. Repeatedly in the Gospels Jesus informs us to “love one

another.” Collectively, we Christ followers seem to have a hard time with that.

When all else is stripped away, the eternal things that remain are Faith, Hope and Love.(1 Corinthians

13:13). And the greatest of these eternal remainders is love. Now, if we can just teach ourselves to

really believe that and act on it like the Children of God we keep telling everyone that we are, we may

actually help create a peaceful place to inhabit (1 John 4:7-8). “Beloved, let us love one another,

because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever

does not love does not know God, because God Is Love.”

‍