Love and Forgiveness

By Courtney Rogers  

Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. Crazy isn’t it? You’re supposed to love and pray for the people who treat you poorly? The answer is: “Yes.” In fact, God commands us to do so in Matthew 5:44: “But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

Another hard thing to do is to forgive someone who has hurt you. Luke 15:11-32 tells a story of a man and his two sons. The youngest son told his father that he wanted all of his inheritance now rather than wait until his father passed away. The father divided up all of his fortune and land and gave half of the inheritance to the younger son. Soon, the son moved to a nearby country. He spent everything that his father had given him. As soon as the money ran out, so did his friends. He was left with nothing, and to make things worse, a great famine struck his country. He was hired by a man to feed pigs. The son was so hungry that he would eat the slop he was supposed to feed to the pigs. The son finally realized that he needed to go home to his father. He would understand if his father did not want him back as his son, and he would settle for a servant. When the son returned, the father took him back with open arms. The father even threw a party for his prodigal son! He forgave his son and loved him just as much as he did before his son had left.

Jesus is the same way this father was. It does not matter how much we fail or mess up, Jesus will take us back. He forgives us no matter what we do. Sometimes it seems difficult to love or forgive the people who treat us wrong. But think of it this way, God created each and every one of us. That makes all of us His children, which in turn makes all of us brothers and sisters. Even when your brother or sister mistreats you, you still love them. The next time someone treats you poorly, pray for them and continue to love them just like Jesus does.

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