LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

Matthew 5:43-45
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust.

Teaching about Love for Enemies

43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.

In a sermon preached in 1957 by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., based on this passage and the subject ‘Loving Your Enemy’, he suggested three ways we might resolve conflicts. 1.) Forgive. 2.) Everyone has good and bad qualities. Any wrong they have done does not represent the total person. Find the good and focus on it. 3.) Seek to win a friend, not to humiliate an opponent.

Proverbs 19:20 say, “Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life.” This sounds like wise counsel to me.