love over hate

From the Gospel according to Luke
6:27-38

Jesus said to his disciples:
"To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak,
do not withhold even your tunic.
Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back.
Do to others as you would have them do to you."

This is challenging to live by. Jesus suggested that loving those who love us is easy and that loving our enemies, thieves, mistreaters and abusers is the real demonstration of faith. 

Thankfully I have no direct enemies in my day to day life. Beyond, there are a few like Putin, Netanyahu and Trump; politicians who abuse power to harm others. The Lord asks that we not hate, but pray for them and their grace to those they harm. I suspect this would be an exhausting effort, but how wonderful to harbour no dislike for another person. 

This, I see now is the purvey of the social platforms; they beat up division and hatred among people by spreading rumour and lies. Isn't loving your enemies difficult enough? I will resign Facebook and Instagram immediately. I will give consideration to YouTube. While WhatsApp is shared onlyvwith family,y Blogger is private with no readers.

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