As I See It

March 2009

According to the teachings of Christ, there is only one spirit for a Christian to have and that is the spirit of love. We are instructed to not only love our friends but to also love our enemies.  We are to love those who do us good as well as those who do us harm.  We are to love those who pray for us as well as those who lie about us. If we cannot love and pray for our enemies, we have not learned the lesson of Christ.

Not considering myself a hypocrite, I must confess that I struggle with this. I think we would all agree that loving enemies is easier said than done. The point is we do not  have a choice. This is a commandment.

What did the people do to Christ? They lied about Him. They called Him names...mocked Him and ridiculed Him. They arrested Him, beat Him and spat on His face. They crucified Him and shouted in glee at the foot of His cross. What would I do and say if this had been done to me?  If one tenth of this had been done to me, I would have been tempted to kill someone, but what did He do? He uttered not one word of bitterness nor harbored one thought of revenge.  On the other hand, we hear Him say, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”.

We cannot be happy if we carry the wrong attitude toward other people and this is the way I see it.   Oh Lord, give me a spirit of love!

in His service,

Griff