Matthew 5:46 (VOICE) It is easy to love those who love you—even a tax collector can love those who love him.
Beloved, it is good to love well those you already love. For all of us have moments where we are unloveable. So be reminded to persist in love regardless of how prickly someone you care about is being. Remember there are moments you yourself will need that same grace extended to you.
However, if the extent of your sacrificial love is only to those you already care about, you are falling short of the mark. Where the real challenge begins is in loving those who you don’t like and don’t agree with, even ones who have been hostile to you. There is the true challenge. People are prone to segregating into safe little groupings where everyone has shared belief sets. This feels safe.
However, true unity is accomplished when you are intentional to move beyond your safe place and allow yourself to be challenged. Choose to love those you may not like, and choose to seek peace with those you don’t agree with. That kind of love – that kind of harmony, reflects My heart and honors Me.
Matthew 5:44-48 (VOICE) But I tell you this: love your enemies. Pray for those who torment you and persecute you— in so doing, you become children of your Father in heaven. He, after all, loves each of us—good and evil, kind and cruel. He causes the sun to rise and shine on evil and good alike. He causes the rain to water the fields of the righteous and the fields of the sinner. It is easy to love those who love you—even a tax collector can love those who love him. And it is easy to greet your friends—even outsiders do that! But you are called to something higher: “Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.”