Ultimate Respect

 

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

—Matthew 5:43-45

In our upside down culture today, many individuals, dissatisfied with a historical way of life, place an increasing emphasis on a celebration of diversity and the dissolution of any overriding cultural norms that might constrain behavior.

One of the methods they use to achieve their goals is to try to divide the people of our great nation into differing subgroups. They believe that if they can create division and dissatisfaction between different groups of people, in the resulting chaos, they will be able to dissolve any foundational beliefs that might prevent them from perpetrating evil.

This is the complete opposite of the approach that the Lord Jesus Christ urged upon His disciples. Please take note of His direct words, as recorded in Matthew 5:43-45:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

“He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Instead of a division—even a dividing of the people we like from the people we don’t like—Jesus instructs us to show love at every opportunity.

In place of creating a division, this prescriptive behavior will create unity. In fact, this purposeful display of God-breathed love will allow diversity to flourish, but also cause that diversity to exist within a love-bond of unity.

These are clearly marching orders for us on this new day. We should launch out into this day with the purpose of showing God’s love to all we meet.

Just as He allows rain to fall in order to water the crops of the righteous and the unrighteous, so we should allow the soft rain of His love to spill out from us on those we deem worthy and those we deem unworthy.

It is in this way that we will emulate the God who chose us to belong to Himself. We will, in fact, show God’s ultimate respect for everyone we meet.

 

_{Copyright © 2017 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

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