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How many times have you had your enemies come against you? How did you react? Did you get mad at them? Did you join in the argument and say something that doesn’t represent your heart and would hurt your reputation as a Christian? How should we react when we are put in these situations? The Bible tells us in Romans 12:9-21 the marks of a true Christian. It tells us to let love not be hypocritical. That means that we should love everyone no matter if they have done us wrong. The scripture references this again a couple of times in different ways. In verse 14 the Bible says “bless them which persecute you: bless and curse not.” We can pray blessings on people and that blessing may be the one that helps them to see the love that Jesus has for us.
Now we get to the hard part and that is to live peacefully and forgive those that have upset us or done us wrong. I know that is a tough thing to do, forgive the person who has been evil to us or caused us grief. Just think what would have happened if Jesus had not forgiven those who were against him had he held a grudge towards those who spoke against him.
Where would we be today? But praise the Lord he forgave them and fulfilled the gospel. All of the grudges we hold onto and things we just can’t forgive people for have already been paid at Calvary. Now that person who you have a grudge against or have a hard time with, if they came to you and said “I am so hungry and thirsty” would you feed them and give them something to drink or would you be like “that is not my problem.”
Romans 12:20 gives us another hard pill to swallow. “Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.” Now I know what you are thinking, that, “well that would be easy if
I was casting hot coals on their head, that will teach them.” Romans 12:19 tells us to not avenge ourselves for vengeance is his. Well, these coals of fire are the ones that burn in us as Christians. It allows us to show the love, mercy, and grace that burns within us hoping to pass that fire to their heart. When they face conviction in their hearts that they may see they did you wrong. Yet, you showed them love and by that we can feed them the gospel and lead them to Christ through love and forgiveness so they can also drink the living water with us. That is the ultimate goal in our walk with God, to follow him and show people his love and share the gospel with people. But, how can we lead people to Christ if our hearts are not a reflection of Jesus? Just an example of that in closing is how Jesus overcame the evil that he faced in his time walking this earth. He fought evil with good. I leave you with this in Romans 12:21: “Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.” Go out this week and let your love not be hypocritical. Let go and forgive those who have done you wrong, and finally overcome evil with good and feed those who have wronged you the gospel and let them drink of the water of life by letting the water of life flow through you this week.
(Trevor Waycaster is the Youth Pastor at Harmony Freewill Baptist Church)