“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.
If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back. Do to others as you would like them to do to you.
“If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much!
And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return.
“Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid.
Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.
Luke 6: 27-36
Today we are going to learn what Jesus says about loving others, especially enemies or people who hurt you today.
You see, just like everyone else I have feelings too and I do get hurt by people and also by you guys online too whenever you post hateful or nasty comments and reactions.
When Jesus said these words, He was showing us the depth of His love for us and also teaching us not to only love those who are nice to us today.
Jesus contrasts the normal reaction we all have against hating haters but instead of hating them more, Jesus is reminding us to express love towards them by wanting to pray and help them.
Jesus challenges believers like you and I to on top of treating each other in true love to also have a desire to love also those who hated you and I.
Bless Those Who Curse You
I share Jesus on a weekly basis on Tiktok and I can tell you I get cursed by so many people every time I stream online and I know how it feels to be cursed by you guys who are listening or watching online.
But here Jesus challenges us as Christian to love those who curse us ( Luke 6:28 ). Is it something easy to do, of course not. But through the power of the Holy Spirit and the love of God I have learned to love my haters even more than before even if they do not want this love from God.
The key to loving those who hate you is to pray for them and pray like how Jesus has taught us below:
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” – Luke 23:34
Those who hear these words will be egotistic and deny this truth but it’s alright, we pray that one day they will look back in their life on how they have said pray the love of God will be filled into their life.
They just do not realize how much hate has consumed them and the pride they have in them that they do not even care about your feelings and just want to spread the hate to others to make themselves feel good.
What is amazing is learning from experience and sharing Jesus, most people who hate God or Jesus or you usually have nothing to do with what you just said.
If you do spend time to go deeper into it, most time it was because of bad experiences they had in the past that lead them to hate God or Jesus.
One good example is people who might have believed in Jesus and prayed to Him for help and did not get what they wanted and they got disappointed with God and went into this lifestyle of hate for God just because they did not get what they want. Or maybe they experienced people who are Christians are not behaving correctly as Christian which gave them a bad impression of Christ that led them to hate Christians.
How Do You Love Someone Who Hates You?
It’s very simple actually, just pray for them. Yes, pray for them! Praying for someone is a form of love for someone. Offer to pray for their life even if they did not ask for it. They might reject it, but it’s ok. Do you know why? Because every time you pray for them, you are praying against the spirit that is on a leash on their souls to be set free from the satan that they do not realize they are blinded by satan to see the truth.
I know this too well because I was once an Atheist for 24 years of my life and during that period I had no interest in God but only in the interest of wealth and money to be RICH! Money was my God! But what transform me, was when God showed me there is more to life than just money and He showed me that through His grace to save my father from a car accident that he nearly died from.
To love someone, you should also learn to adapt to do good and offer help to your haters whenever you can. Treat them just like how you want to be treated ( Luke 6:29 ). Be merciful and forgiving just like how Jesus has done for everyone who seeks His face.
If you are unsure how to respond to someone who hates you, ask yourself this question to help in your response to them
“If you are Jesus? How would you respond to this hater? Today?”
Jesus Wants You To Have Selfless Love
We read in the Bible that Jesus has done many things that were selfless. And today I want to remind you and encourage you to always remember to practice selfless love and be a concern for others, especially those who hate you today.
However, you also at the same time have to have discernment not to allow this love to be taken advantage of by others just because you are trying to love them.
One good example, many people in my stream post nasty comments when in reality they really have no interest to know you or understand your topic but their real GOAL is just to get your attention. Haters love the attention that’s who they are and the more you feed them with the attention they get excited because they get to be more prideful in their so-call “wisdom” that they are so proud of.
They will never admit they are in the wrong but always want you to admit you are wrong then just let them be RIGHT my friend. Just let go of your pride and let them be right even if you know they are wrong. It’s OK! That’s called humility.
Someone just like you, I might accidentally say things that might offend people or see give people an idea that I am proud or something like that. Just do this, apologie to them 😊 I am human after all and we will make mistakes along the way trying to love these hard-to-love people.
Why Love Haters?
Jesus says that the reward for such behavior in forgiveness to those who hate you is great! ( Luke 6:35 ). Jesus also added that we are also forgiven or pardoned too ( Luke 6:37 ).
Here’s the key thing you need to understand, what others say about you does not matter at all. Because at the end of the day EVERYONE regardless you believe in Jesus will face God one day so just focus on honoring God then what others see what you are on this earth.
So I pray today, that you learn to forgive those who hate you or curse you today.