You have to go back 50 some years in American history to recall events similar to those we are seeing now and on top of that we have that little thing called a pandemic. To hate, as many on both sides of the issues are doing, is easy. It is human nature. To seek to justify our view and to paint the attitudes and actions of those on the other side as misguided, unpatriotic, or just plain evil again is human nature, our nature, at its finest. We want to highlight the sin of the other person, all the while excusing any short coming in our own behavior. What should be the “Christian” response to all that has happened over this past week? Righteous Anger? Moral Outrage? An eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth? There is that voice in each of us that cries, “Yes and even more besides, after all they deserve it!”
If you have been following my lessons from the Sermon on the Mount on Facebook or YouTube you may recognize the eye for an eye scripture. Jesus references it in HIS sermon, and says that is not to be our way. We need to turn the other cheek. At the National Prayer Breakfast this year even President Trump acknowledged that is a tough one, but he’s working on it. We all need to be, and no it isn’t easy. And Jesus goes beyond just turning the other cheek, he then says we are to pray for those who hate us, to engage in acts to reach out in love to that person (read Matthew 5:38 – 48).
So what is our response to the events of this past week? Pray, not just for those you side with against the evil forces, pray for the evil forces. When you look past your anger over their actions and ask yourself why they are doing this, you can then begin to pray for them and seek good for them. Make a commitment to find a way to want to love them and to stop hating on them. Hate never really did much good, but love covers a multitude of sins. These are certainly hard times we are living in, but that is when Christ shines the most and now more than ever the world needs to see Christ in us.
Don
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