Love For All - The One Year At His Feet Devotional
Love for All
Read: Matthew 5:43-48
“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Matthew 5:44
“I am determined that I am going to love everybody, even if it kills me! I have set my heart on it. I am going to do it.”
—A. W. Tozer
IN WORD This command is so contrary to human nature that even those of us who have said for years that we are followers of Christ have usually not followed Him very far on this point. Loving anyone beyond our close circle of family and friends is difficult; we can manage if we try. But this command is more difficult than loving those people close to us who annoy us a little bit. It is more difficult than loving passing acquaintances and even complete strangers. This tells us to love those who actively seek to do us harm, those who have nothing but ill will for us and will likely mock any attempt we make to reconcile with them. There is absolutely nothing in it for us, at least on the surface. And yet it is not just a suggestion; it is a command.
IN DEED We are prone to withhold love from those who get on our bad side. We often use our love as leverage—a reward for those we like and a lost privilege for those we don’t like. But Jesus gives us no allowance for this. There is no one on the planet from whom we are told to withhold love.
Think about those whom you can consider enemies, or who have declared themselves your opponents. Perhaps they disagree with your faith or your politics; perhaps they have betrayed your confidence; perhaps it’s just a personality conflict. Make a list. Then review the list with an understanding that everyone on it is to be the object of your love.
Is this possible? Humanly speaking, no. We can no more manufacture love than we could save ourselves from sin. Ask God, the author of all love, to love them through you.
