Bless and Curse Not
Many years ago, the Lord ministered to me His words recorded in Matthew 5:43-49,
43Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. 44But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? 47And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? 48Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Initially, without spiritual understanding, I thought, "Well, I can do that! It won't be too hard! You see, I have been described as an easy-going, laid-back, low-keyed individual, and during the first thirty years of my life, I usually got along with most people in the world. The few that were difficult, I was able to avoid. In this walk, however, if we are to fulfill what Jesus describes as "perfect" or complete as the Father, we have to face and overcome with all people. Furthermore, I had no clue how broad or to what extent this undertaking would be. It has been difficult to accept the opposition that I have experienced over the past 28 years has occurred within the association of people in the so-called Body of Christ. I just could not for some time imagine people who professed to love God and supposedly followed the same path as a Christian would oppose one another. Finally, I began to accept people who were not part of this fellowship and followed contrary doctrine were obviously against us. After all, it is because of disagreements over the Word that brought about all the different denominations, which God did not ordain. Also, I could see that Jesus' primary enemies were the religious people in the synagogues that God sent Him to confront. Ultimately, they were the ones that condemned Him to die on the cross. What I was not prepared to experience nor expect was the opposition and resistance from those that supposedly are called brethren. I came to understand, though, that Jesus declared in Luke 8:21,
"My mother and my brethren are those which hear the word of God, and do it."
Therefore, anyone who would resist and oppose us instead of endeavoring to be in one accord as we are instructed cannot be called brethren. Remember Jesus said in several places,
"He that is not with me is against me!"
Also, do you recall that the chosen apostles disputed among themselves who would be the greatest in Matthew, Mark, and Luke's accounts? Therefore, if Jesus' chosen leaders experienced strife between each other, I guess it should not be a surprise to experience strife with those around us.
Reluctantly, I began to accept what Jesus was saying because I knew He is right, but it was difficult because I do not nor never have had a heart that knowingly hated anyone period, let alone for no apparent reason. However, with open verbal false accusations, physical attacks, and spiritual torments, Jesus was teaching me the solution to overcome all of them! Specifically, I pray as the Spirit leads from Matt. 5:44,
"Bless those that curse you, and pray for those that despitefully use you!"
One definition for the word "despitefully" literally says "to falsely accuse". Sometimes I pray collectively for "all who have cursed me or despitefully used me" or specifically by name as the Lord leads. The question is asked, "How do you know for sure that you're blessing someone opposing you?" It does not hurt to bless anyone as all of us need to be turned from iniquities, and Peter spoke in Acts 3:26 that God sent his Son Jesus to bless us, in turning every one of us away from his iniquities. So bless me all you desire, and I can assure you that I am thankful to receive those blessings! However, I also encourage you, when you experience physical and/or spiritual torments, to follow Jesus' instructions in Matthew 5. We have overcome these attacks time and time again by doing just that. In fact, it not only has worked individually with me, but Kathy and all three of my daughters had attacks against them physically at different times over the past two weeks, and we overcame them all! Praise God! Remember Paul stated in Romans 12:14,
"Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not."
The nature of most flesh is when a person discovers someone is against them, they want to show payback, become bitter, and strive! Of course, if you are a follower of Jesus, you know that won't work! In fact, it will cause you more problems! However, I have discovered if I can keep my heart right believing the Gospel and go to the Father in Jesus' name, the power that raised Jesus from the dead raises us over the attacks of wicked tongues set on fire from hell to destroy us, and we see and experience salvation every day.