This is devotional number three on the sermon on the mount for this week. Each day builds on the one before, or they can happen simultaneously. We have to transform into the light, which means hungering and thirsting for God the same way we hunger and thirst for food daily. We don’t hide that light under a basket, but we share it for all to see so that all may have the hope of Jesus. However, the authenticity of our transformation in Christ is especially tested when we are told to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Christ himself, while hanging on the cross, dying, cried out to God, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they have done”(Luke 23:34). When we humble ourselves before Christ, we realize that he was pleading to God for us and all of humanity, not just the Jews and Romans of that time. Whatever our enemies have done, or whatever we have done to cause division between us, God ultimately wants to reconcile, just as he has reconciled us to him through Christ. We may not see all of the reconciliation on Earth, but when we can show the same humility that Christ exemplified on the cross, we will grow in spiritual depth, learning to depend on him more, while also shining his light brighter.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?”
Matthew 5:43-46