The Hardest Commandment Of All

• Which of God’s commandments do you find the hardest to obey?

• How does God want us to treat people we don’t get along with?

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.”
Luke 6:27

We all know that people can be cruel sometimes. No matter how hard we try, or how nice we are to others, at some point, someone will be mean to us. Sometimes people are unkind to us because we are kind to others and because we love Jesus.

But God wants us to love everyone. Even our enemies. Especially our enemies.

It’s easy to love the people who love us back. But to love our enemies, we really need to draw on God’s power. The truth is that we can’t love our enemies on our own. We need to ask God for help. We need to let God’s own love for these enemies move through us.

And when it’s really hard, we need to remember that the love we’re giving to the person who is mean to us might be the only love that person gets. Our enemy might meet God through us.

PRAYER
Dear God, please help us to forgive people who are unkind to us. Please help us to love our enemies, to care about them, and to show them kindness. Please let your love shine through us. Amen.