But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Các ngươi hãy mến yêu địch thù, và hãy thi ân, hãy cho vay mượn, cho dù không trông báo đền. Và phần thưởng của các ngươi sẽ lớn lao. Và các ngươi sẽ là những người con của Đấng Tối Cao, vì Người nhân lành với những kẻ độc ác vô ơn. Các ngươi hãy biết thương xót như cha các ngươi là Đấng thương xót.
God wanted to instruct His people on how to live, so God gave Moses the 10 commandments on two stone tablets. By following His rules the people would have less sadness in their lives. God just wanted to protect them. That’s why our parents give us rules to protect us: to look both ways before we cross the street, to not hit our brother or sister... they give us rules because they love us and know what's best for us.
God gave a very important commandment, “Thou Shalt not Kill”. Now God doesn’t necessarily mean killing someone and taking their life. Hurting someone emotionally and physically also breaks this commandment. He does not want us to hurt each other, He wants us to love one another. “God wants everyone to be saved, and to live forever with Him in His Kingdom” (1 Timothy 2:4).
Satan convinced Adam and Eve to reject God's revealed truth. He convinced them that God had lied when He had told them they would die if they ate from the fruit that grew on the forbidden tree. Satan told Eve that she would become a god herself if she ate the fruit that grew on the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He told her that once she ate the fruit she would be able to decide for herself what was right and what was wrong. Eve believed Satan's lies. She wanted the fruit that was pleasant to the eye, and a fruit that, she believed, could make her wise. She picked the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to Adam who also ate the fruit. Since that time the majority of mankind has rejected God and His Word. Mankind has done what was right in his own eyes. Most don't want God (or anyone else) telling them what to do. They believe they can decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong.
Because Adam and Eve rejected God, their thinking changed. By their willful disobedience they had cut themselves off from God. They had chosen to live by “getting” instead of God's way of “giving”. God didn't place a curse upon Adam and Eve, but He could see that the way they had chosen to live would result in a life of misery for themselves and all future generations. It wasn't long after they left the garden that Adam and Eve's son Cain killed his brother Abel in a fit of anger and jealously. Cain broke the fifth commandment and murdered his own brother!
God made men and women to be in His own image. When people kill one another they are taking the life of someone who belongs to God. And, more importantly, someone made in God's own image and likeness. Therefore, when we hurt others, we also hurt God. When we fight with one another physically, we hit and kick God. When we say mean things to each other, we are saying mean things to God. We must remember that God made each and everyone of us. When we hurt one another, we hurt God’s creation.
When people don't like to remember God and His commandments all sorts of terrible things take place, even murder. We are told that because such evils exist the love of many will grow cold (Matthew 24:12). Jesus doesn't want our love to grow cold. He wants us to love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to people that hate us, and pray for those that insult us, and persecute us (Matthew 5:44).
God's way is a way of love and outgoing concern. When we walk in the Spirit, (God's way of love and outgoing concern) good things happen. When people give in to temptation and negative feelings, bad things happen, including murder on a grand scale - war. God wants us to be happy with what we have and not give in to our temptations and negative feelings. If God had treated Adam and Eve the way we would when someone hurts us, we would not be blessed with His love and His creation. If He had ignored the cries of the Israelites, Moses would not have freed the people and led them to the Promise Land. Our history, would have been so different if God had treated us the way we angrily treat others.
John and Paul are not friends. Paul is always making fun of John and calling him names. This hurts John’s feelings, and so he always gets mad when Paul does these things. One day John can’t take it anymore and decides to push Paul to make him stop. Instead of stopping, Paul gets angry and hits John in the face. The two continue to fight until a teacher stops them. Now they are both in serious trouble at school, and with their parents who have been called into the principal’s office, and they still dislike each other. We can see that giving into our anger didn’t resolve anything, it only made things worse.
Terrorists attacked the Twin Towers in New York and killed and hurt many people. This caused President Bush and the government to get angry and start a war in Iraq which is now hurting women, children and innocent people. Many US troops have died, and there are many troops still in Iraq that will not get to see their families for a long time. The Pope does not support the war. God never wants us to go to war although many times world leaders will say they are doing it because God wants them to. This is false, God never wants this to happen. When bad things like this happen, it’s difficult not to fight back in violent ways because our feelings are so strong. However, a good example of not giving in to our anger, was how African American people, who were physically and mentally abused by some white people, used peaceful sit-ins to demonstrate the unfairness they felt. They did not hurt others, they simply sat in one place to prove their point. Today, African Americans and many other minorities are not treated as poorly as they were before. It’s sometimes hard to be the bigger person, but it’s not impossible.
God tells us not to get angry and try and 'get even' with others. God tells us that HE will punish those who do bad things to us (Romans 12:19). God doesn't want those who do bad things to continue doing bad things to innocent people. So God has set up human rulers on this Earth to punish evildoers. But sometimes human leaders make mistakes. Sometimes they don't catch the evildoer, sometimes they punish the wrong person. Why does God allow this to happen? Why doesn't He stop man from killing one antoher?
The answer is that mankind turned his back on God in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve decided to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Ever since that time the majority of mankind has been doing things that are right in their own eyes. Often times those things lead to hurt and even murder.
Even though bad things happen in this world, God promises to give us eternal life if we continue in 'good works'. “8If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit” Galatians 6:8. This means that if we love as God loves (the Spirit) we will have eternal life with Him. But if we give in to temptation and anger, we will ruin ourselves and become very unhappy people.
Dear Lord, please give me the patience and strength to love my friends, my family, strangers, and especially my enemies. I pray for peace between myself and my enemies, that we can be friends and be happy rather than angry. Please help me not to hurt others physically and emotionally because I know it means that I am hurting you. I am sorry for those I have hurt, and I am sorry for hurting you. Amen.