{Luke 6:27}
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. We are like our physical parents. We may wish that we aren’t, but we are. We look like them, sound like them, think like them and act like them. We are also like our spiritual father. In the matter of loving others, the Lord Jesus tells us that the mark of a true child of the Most High God, is that we love our enemies the way our Heavenly Father loves His enemies.
The Lord defines an enemy as one who hates us, curses us, strikes us, and steals from us. The Lord goes further than identifying them. He tells us how to treat them, specifically in the area of money and possessions and states that if we do as He asks, we will be true children of the Most High.
We need look no further than Cain to see an enemy of God. Cain wanted nothing to do with God’s way. If he could have got a hold of God, Cain would have killed Him, but Cain settled for killing God’s child Abel. God dealt with Cain in grace and mercy. He gently warned Cain before he committed murder. He gently confronted Cain after the murder. In mercy God protected Cain from harm by others, and allowed him to live out his life and have descendants.
The Most High God is merciful and loving to His enemies and His true children are merciful and loving to their enemies. The apostle John identified Cain as the child of the devil and encourages all true Christians with these words in 1 John 3:11,12: “This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.”
May we today hear our Lord’s words and be true children of the Most High. May we love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who mistreat us.
O dear Lord Jesus, we need your help, we need your grace to be a true child of the Most High today!
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