Love Your Enemies

I have been thinking about mercy and justice lately, and this passage has never come easily to me. Loving enemies feels as difficult as turning the other cheek or giving away one’s cloak. When someone wrongs us, our instinct is not mercy but justice.

As I prayed with these words, I began to see that praying for someone is not the same as excusing what they have done. It is not pretending harm is good. Rather, it is asking God to work in the heart that caused the harm. It is entrusting both justice and healing to Him.

Jesus points us to the Father, who causes the sun to rise on the good and the bad alike. Mercy is not weakness; it is participation in God’s own way of loving. To be children of the Father is to allow His generosity to shape our response, even when it feels undeserved.

There is also a quiet warning here. If I insist only on justice for others, I must be prepared to receive justice myself. But if I ask for mercy, I must be willing to give it.