Matt 5:44 But I say to you, Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, (45) So that you may become sons of your Father who is in the heavens,
There are many sins which we do not realize are sins. But once we know, we should say, "God, I have sinned! I need Christ to live out His life!" I can testify that once a man mistreated me and I said a few rash words to him. I knew that it was wrong to say rash words to others, but I argued that he was more wrong than I and that he had not apologized to me. I was wrong only a little. Should I have apologized to him instead? Yes, God wanted me to do this. The person had offended me, but I had forgiven him and was no longer angry with him. Yet I still had to apologize. I thought I was doing quite good already, but I was still short of the standard of Matthew 5, which says that we have to love our enemies. ...I had written a letter acknowledging my rash words, but since I could not love him, I decided I would not send the letter. I decided that I would write another one when I could love him. I did not hate him, and I had forgiven him, but I could not love him. Only God could love him. God says that loving is the truth and not loving is sin. I wanted to overcome, and I wanted to fight with faith. I said to the Lord, "If You do not cause me to love him, I cannot love him." When I said that I could not love and that God is the only One who can love, I found myself loving him. On the one hand, the truth tells us that we should love. On the other hand, grace supplies us with the strength to love. Such dealings sometimes take a few seconds and sometimes take a few days.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Watchman Nee, The Overcoming Life, pp. 152-153. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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