Slideshow image

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[i] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. - Matthew 5:43-45

There is a lot going on in the world today. With the war in the Ukraine, the conflict in Israel and Gaza, global
warming, overconsumption of the earth's natural resources, and the list goes on and on. I feel that all of the changes we are experiencing are driving a major shift in our culture. The church is more and more on the outside of culture looking in. We have become in many ways irrelevant to the world we live in. This difference in the viewpoint of the church and the current culture has created an adversarial relationship. You don’t have to dig too deep into any social media platform before you see evidence of this growing divide. It is this growing divide that has made this passage in Matthew 5 more important to me. I’m not smart enough to figure out the answer to reconciling the church and the current culture. But I know that we need to resist the temptation to react to the culture with anger. Christ encourages us, no He commands us to love those that align themselves against us. He commands us to pray for them, and I don’t think He meant the “God, smite these heathens” type of prayer either. He commands us to love and pray for them. How do you pray for people you love? Do you pray “God-given them what they deserve!” No, you pray “God help them, God bless them, God be with them.” God has called us to be a source of healing and hope, and for us to be what He has called us to be we first need to commit to love and pray for those who align against us