Matthew 5:43-48: Love; Hate Not

I watched the most recent Star Wars last month with my daughters. Do you remember the original trilogy? There is a pivotal moment in the movie franchise, Star Wars, where Darth Vader is trying to turn Luke from the Light to the Darkness; how does he try to do this? He tries to do this by making him hate. He tells Luke that only his hatred can destroy his enemy: this is a lie of Darth Vader and this is also a lie of our enemy, the Enemy, the devil. In the real world, hate cannot defeat evil; hate can only become evil. Hate is what turns a good person, bad; it is love, Jesus’ love, which redeems us.

Martin Luther King Jr said, “Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.” “Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.” “I have decided to stick to love...Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

‘Do you know what the stupidest expression in the world is?’ - a firefighter once asked me - ‘fight fire with fire;’ ‘you don’t fight fire with fire; that just causes a bigger fire!’ It is the same with hate. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. If I get drawn into hating someone because they hate something or someone than I have just caused love to shrink and hate to grow. If on the other hand we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, then even we may be called children of our Father in heaven. If we love more than just those who love us than indeed we may even be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. Therefore let us resolve to love one another and let us wish each other well - even those who may wish us ill.

What does it look like to love our enemies?

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Originally presented to the Riverside Cafe, 10 February 2017 by Captain Michael Ramsay

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