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How often I recall reading about Corrie ten Boom who after surviving the hideous treatment of a concentration camp, was confronted by one of her captors who had subsequently found Christ. Talk about an enemy! As she looked at him approaching her, after having shared her marvelous testimony with a large crowd, she felt welling up within her anger, hatred, loathing and every physical sign that might accompany such feelings. How could she even speak cordially, let alone lovingly, to this man who had been so vile and cruel, Christian or not! But she remembered this verse, “Love your enemies,” and knew that she could not be disobedient to her Lord. As an act of obedience, not of love, she reached out her hand, sweaty palm and all, and offered a greeting to “her enemy.” At the moment her hand touched his, every vestige of hatred drained from her body, and she was healed, healed of the ungodly thoughts that were poisoning her body and her spirit. Then miraculously those poisonous thoughts were replaced by love, love for a brother in Christ.

More than once the Lord has walked me down the same path. No, I have never experienced the abuse of Corey, but I have been the victim of rumor and other abusive treatment by those who I had once perhaps even trusted. My first reaction is to withdraw, protect myself, write them off, and avoid them at all costs. But then the Lord has brought them to cross my path, and as He did, He would remind me of His command, “Love your enemies.” Each time that I have reached out in obedience, God has replaced the resentment with love. You see “love your enemies” is only something that He can do through you. He commands the kind of love that you cannot generate yourself.

Christ said that He came to seek and to save those who are lost; that includes our enemies. The Bible says, that even while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Yet, he calls us “friend.” How can we hesitate to obey when he commands, “Love your enemies”?

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: Do you have an enemy who should be loved today?