Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. He then said that after that, we need to love one another. Not only are we supposed to love fellow Christians or family, but we’re supposed to love our enemies as well. At the time, this kind of thinking was very foreign to the people. Even now, 2000 years later, people still consider it normal and ok to hate those who hurt us. Let’s take a look at exactly what Jesus said.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:44 to love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to those who hate us, and to pray for those who persecute us. That sounds simple enough on paper, but how many of us actually do that? You know the guy who cuts you off while you’re driving, or the guy who insults you publically, how do you act around them? Do you avoid them or gossip about them? Or do you pray for them, and be polite to them, and see how you can help them?

He continues in Matthew 5:46 saying that even the unsaved love those who love them. He was saying that it is nothing special to love those who love you, it’s far more important to love those who hate you. It sets us apart from the rest of the world because we love. If we just hate people back, we are no better than they are. Like the old hymn says, they will know we are Christians by our love.

It can be hard to love someone who hates or hurts us, but it’s the right thing to do. In the end, we can win people over by treating them with kindness, instead of repaying evil with evil, and we can gain a friend, instead of keeping an enemy.

Christians have an important responsibility when it comes to the rest of the world. Jesus said in Matthew 5:13 that we as Christians are the salt of the earth. It’s an interesting analogy, especially when we look at what salt does.

Let’s take a look at the historical context of salt. Salt was extremely important in those days, as it was used as a preservative for foods. When Jesus called us the salt of the earth, he was saying that we need to work to preserve the world, to help those who need help, and to lead them to Christ in the process.

If we look at how salt interacts with the body, we find that people can’t live without it. Your body needs salt in order to stay healthy. Without Christians being the salt of the earth, the world gets sicker and more corrupt. As salt of the earth, we need to be making a stand for God, and pointing people in His direction.

Finally, if we look at the effect that salt has on things, we find that it has a powerful effect, even in small amounts. If you look at recipes, most dishes only call for a small amount of salt proportional to the rest of the ingredients. However, if you omit the salt, the dish just doesn’t taste the same. You might think that as only one person you can’t do much to help the world. But, even as an individual, there is so much that you can do. You can volunteer for missions work, help out at the church, or even witness to your unsaved friends. While these actions might not seem like much at first, they add up, and the effect may be much more than you expected.

One last thought in closing, Jesus then said that if salt has lost its flavor, it’s worthless and should be tossed aside. We need to keep our “flavor” and not let the things of God be pushed off to the side. As soon as we let the fun of this world overshadow our duty from God, we’re not accomplishing anything for Him, and are good for nothing for the kingdom of God. Keep that in mind as you go out…

We all know someone who’s going through a rough time in their life. Maybe it’s something huge like losing a job or a losing a loved one, but it could be something smaller like problems at work or school. They are really stressed, upset, or angry over these events. Because we care about them, we want to help them. What does the Bible say we are to do?

First and foremost, we need to pray for them. The New Testament is full of verses telling us to pray for each other. James 5:16b says “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” If we’re righteous, our prayers will accomplish much. While we all would be willing to pray for someone we love or care about, not all of us would be as willing to pray for someone who has hurt us, or who is an enemy. We are told in Matthew 5:44 to pray for our enemies. If we see someone going through a hard time, we need to pray for them, even if it is someone who has caused us much pain.

Secondly, we need to help them as much as we can. Galations 6:2 says that we need to bear one another’s burdens. If they need help doing something, we should be there to help them with it. However, we need to be careful to do it humbly, and not rub it in their face that we can do something that they can’t. It’s hard sometimes to be humble like that, but where is the value in helping when we make it obvious we think we’re better than they are?

Sometimes though, there is nothing that we can do for people besides pray for them. In those times, we can just be there for them. Sometimes that means we’re there to talk, other times it means we’re just there, not saying anything. While that may seem hard to do, it can make all the difference in the world to them, because they then know that someone truly cares for them.

Helping other Christians who are going through hard times is extremely important. We all know someone who is, so pray for them, and see what you can do for them.

It’s easy to tell people what they are doing wrong, while we do the same thing that we criticize them for. When we do this, we are being both sinful and hypocritical. How can we criticize someone for sinning, when we do the exact same sin?

In Matthew 7:3-5, Jesus tells us to worry about the log in our eye before we try to remove the speck in our brother’s eye. In other words, deal with our sins first, before trying to fix someone else’s. If we still have our sin in our life, it will keep us from being able to help someone else. How can we expect to be able to fix someone else’s problem, if we haven’t fixed our own?

Paul, in Romans 2:21-24, criticizes the Jews for teaching others, and not paying attention to what they are teaching, and asks them questions about what they teach and whether or not their lives reflect what they are teaching. There’s a lot we can learn from this passage. First and foremost, when you are teaching someone something about the Bible, make sure that you’re learning too. Don’t ignore what you’re teaching, because it all applies to your life too. Secondly, make sure that you don’t do what you are preaching against. It would be like me writing about forgiveness, and then refusing to forgive someone.

Not only is it wrong to not “practice what we preach”, it also makes us as Christian look bad. If we don’t do what we say people are supposed to do, why should anyone take us seriously? We should examine our lives carefully before trying to teach someone to make sure that we don’t have the same problem.

As Christians, we are supposed to forgive those who hurt us. But, there is more to it than just forgiving people, we need to reconcile with them. According to the dictionary, reconcile means “to recreate friendly relationships.” While reconciliation can be difficult, not only are we told to do it, in the end, things are so much better.

God wants us to reconcile. In fact, Matthew 5:24 tells us if we are at the altar, and remember that a fellow Christian has something against us, that we should leave our gift in front of the altar, and go find him, and reconcile with them. In God’s eyes, reconciliation is a higher priority than giving Him a gift.

Reconciliation is not always easy. A lot of times, when people hurt us, the last thing that we want to do is to forgive them and “recreate friendly relationships”. Or we might forgive them, and that’s all we’ll ever do with them. It’s hard, but we should give people a second chance. Not only are we told to, but if we hurt someone close to us, and repent, and change our lives, wouldn’t we want a second chance?

Now, sometimes the person we are trying to reconcile with won’t listen to us. In that case, Matthew 18 tells us to bring a one or two witnesses with us, and have them try to speak to the person. If the person ignores them, take it before the church, and if he ignores the church, we are to see the person as a heathen.

Reconciliation can be very difficult, as can forgiveness, but it is necessary, and everyone is better off in the end.

A lot of people these days try to escape their lives. They believe that their life is too much for them, or they don’t like where they are at. They feel that they can’t face their lives, so they try to escape from them. They drink, do drugs, smoke, play video games, listen to music, or anything else that they can lose themselves in. While most of those things aren’t evil or bad in moderation, in excess like that they are not only harmful for the person, they’re also wrong in God’s eyes.

When we try to escape our lives, we miss so much. Yes, we get away from a lot of the bad, but we miss out on so much good as well. The time we waste trying to escape something we can’t ever get back. Yes, there are things in everyone’s lives we’d rather not have to face, but if we look, we’ll find that the good things outweigh the bad things.

Not only do we miss out on the important things, most of the escapes people use are very harmful. The damage that drugs and smoking do is almost always irreversible. Too much alcohol can cause us to do things that will haunt us forever. The consequences for those escapes tend to follow one for the rest of their lives, sometimes even cutting their lives short. Is escaping really worth that cost?

Looking at the Bible, one can see that escaping is wrong as well. God tells us that He should be the God of our lives. People make their escape their god, rather than letting God be God. God tells us to trust Him, and that we are here for a reason. If we try to escape our lives, we’re not trusting that God has a plan, and we don’t believe that we’re here for a reason. God says that our lives have a purpose, but by escaping, we’re saying that our lives don’t have a purpose, and that they are worthless. Why would we do something that directly contradicts what God tells us? Why do we get so caught up thinking that we know more about our lives than the God who created the universe?

Rather than trying to escape our lives when we don’t like them, why don’t we trust God and pray that things work out. Seek wise counsel and get good advice on how to get through the rough parts of your life. Find a friend who we can talk to, but don’t try to escape from everything. While escaping may make things easier in the short run, in the long run, it’s not worth it.

Every single one of us has been hurt by somebody. Somebody, somewhere has been cruel to us, or hurt us, turned on us, or betrayed us. Most of us would be happy not to ever hear from these people again, or we’d like to hurt them back. While the world might say that such an attitude is normal or ok, God says that it is not. The Bible repeatedly tells us to forgive those who hurt us. Let’s take a look at some verses.

Matthew 18:21-22 describes a question by Peter to Jesus about how many times he should forgive his brother. He suggests a small number, but Jesus responds with a number 70 times bigger. Obviously, there isn’t a limit on how many times we need to forgive a person. What Jesus was saying was that we need to keep forgiving people, time after time. This kind of attitude is hard to have, most people get tired of forgiving people after a few times, especially if it’s something that the person does to us repeatedly. Regardless of how much we might not want to forgive them, we still need to do so.

In Matthew 6:14-15, Jesus tells his disciples if they don’t forgive men their sins against them, then God won’t forgive their sins. Let’s think about this verse for a moment or two. Jesus was pointing something very important out. How can we expect God to forgive us all of our sins against Him, and everyone else wrong we’ve done here on Earth, when we won’t forgive another person for his relatively minor sins against us? If the God of the universe is willing to forgive us for everything we’ve done wrong, shouldn’t we be willing to forgive another person for something they’ve done just against us?

Finally, Colossians 3:13 says that we should all forgive each other if we have quarrels with one another, just like God forgave us. We should follow God’s example and forgive each other. It also says that we should bear with one another. Not only should be forgiving, we should be patient with other people. Regardless of what they do to us, or how many times they do It, we should forgive them and pray for them.

Forgiving people can be one of the hardest things you do. It’s not something most people like doing, but it’s something we need to do. Forgive them, and don’t dwell on it. Don’t let a person’s treatment of you define your life. Don’t hate them for what they’ve done. Forgive them and pray for them.

The world is full of people who are not only unsaved, but living in a way that is directly against what God would want us to be. Most of these people we would agree need to be saved, but a lot of us would also say that we don’t see how that would be possible. Not only is it possible for God to save these people, it’s also entirely possible that He could use them in a way we’d never expect. The Bible has many examples of this, today I’m going to look at two in particular.

The first person I’m looking at is the Apostle Paul. Here was a man who literally made it his life mission to persecute Christians. He vehemently opposed to the Gospel and Christians. I think it’s safe to say that most people did not ever expect him to change. However, Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus, and Paul converted. God then used him as a missionary to lead people to Christ and to strengthen the churches. Not only that, but God also used him to write a large portion of the New Testament. God took a man dedicated to eradicating the church, and turned him around so that he could help build it up stronger than before.

The next person I’m looking at is Rahab, the harlot that the Israelite spies to Jericho hid with. Here is a woman that lived her life completely against the laws of God. How many people would expect a person like that to just give her life over to God, and change? Probably not many of us would expect that. But God used her in a way very few people in the Bible were used. Not only did she give her life over to God, she got mentioned in Hebrews 11, as a woman of faith. She also had a son named Boaz, who married Ruth, whose son was the great-grandfather of King David. God used a harlot in direct ancestry of Jesus Christ. I think that counts as using someone unexpectedly.

Looking at things a slightly different way, even people who sin greatly can come back around. King David springs to mind fairly quickly. He lived godly life, until he saw a woman named Bathsheba. To make a long story short, he intentionally put her husband in a place to get killed and committed adultery. This was a huge sin, on so many levels. Some people after doing something like that would never come back around. God sent a prophet to David, and David turned his life around. Even after that kind of a sin, God used him, with Bathsheba in the direct ancestry of Jesus.

No matter how bad someone may seem, God can change them, turn them around, and use them greatly in the world for His purpose. Rather than judging these people, we need to pray for them, and witness to them, both in our actions and our words.

We live in a culture that is addicted to everything. Everywhere you look, you see someone who is addicted to something. Not only are people addicted to drugs and smoking, they are addicted to things that most people don’t always think of as addictions. Things like games, music, TV, food and even work can be addictions.

Some addictions, like smoking and drugs are very harmful to ourselves and to others around us. They not only control our life, but they destroy our health too. Other addictions are harmful as well, but it’s not always obvious. Being addicted to work can be extremely harmful too, not only to yourself, but to your families and friends. Being addicted to food does terrible things to your health. Games, music and TV can be harmful if they keep us away from things that are more important. Some things aren’t dangerous by themselves, but are dangerous when they cause us to do them instead of something more important.

While some addictions are more harmful than others, they are all sinful. Jesus says in Mark 12:30 that we are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. If we are addicted to something, we are not capable of doing that. The singular focus in our life should be God, not things of the world.

Sadly, we as Christians have a tendency to shoot the wounded when it comes to people who are addicted to something. We act superior to them; like we’re better than they are because we don’t think we have an addiction. We look down on them. That’s not how we should be, the Bible is very clear that we are all sinners; we are no better than they are. We shouldn’t condone their addictions, but neither should we act arrogant about it. We should pray for them, and help them as much as we can. Be there for them.

With God’s help, addictions can be broken. Pray for those who are addicted, but look at your own life for addictions first.

Sometimes our lives seem to be collapsing all around us. No matter how hard we try, nothing seems to work, and things keep getting worse. Maybe our jobs aren’t what we thought they’d be, or maybe school feels like it’s just too much. Maybe we’re being hurt by those closest to us, or maybe we’re dealing with a loss. No matter what the storm in our life is, it’s something we all face at some point in our lives. These storms cause some to believe that God has forgotten or forsaken them. On the contrary, God does not forget us, nor will He forsake us, according to Hebrews 13:5

So, what do we do when we are going through a storm in our life? First and foremost, we praise God. Regardless of whether life is good, bad, or ugly, we need to praise God. Look at Job. He lost virtually everything he had, virtually everything he loved, virtually everything that he had was taken from him. But, what did he do? Did he attack God? Did he stop believing? No! He kept praising God for everything. The people around him were counseling him to curse God, and just to die, but he refused, and kept worshipping God.

Not only should we praise God, we should be joyful through it. Philippians 4:6 says that we should be careful or anxious for NOTHING. Philippians 4:4 says to rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS. Doesn’t matter what is going on in our lives, we should still rejoice for everything that God has done for us. It’s hard sometimes to be joyful, but think of all the good that is still in your life, and all the good yet to come. Too often we get so caught up in the problems of the world that we forget what is coming in Heaven.

Looking at this from a different angle now, when we see someone who is going through storms, what should we do? Most people would say that we should pray for them, but that is not all that we should do. We should be there for them. If they need to talk to someone, we should listen, and if they just want company, we should just be there. Sometimes just being there can help more than all the advice in the world.

So, in closing, trust in God and be joyful when you’re going through storms, and be there for others who are going through storms.