Love Your Enemies — all of them

“But I tell you, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you…”
Matthew 5:44 (NIV)

Sometimes I read this passage from the Sermon on the Mount and I think, “Has Jesus met some of the people I work with?” “Has he met my brother, my neighbor or any of the other characters in my life?”

This is perhaps the hardest command to follow.

Jesus taught us and expects us to pray for our attackers, to lift up our critics and to love our enemies – because as Christians we’re supposed to be different, completely transformed and made new by Jesus’ saving grace.

Throughout the Passion, Jesus Christ prayed for the forgiveness of his enemies “for they know not what they do.” If Jesus could pray for his murderers as He was saving mankind from its sinful existence and marching towards his death on Golgotha, then what can we do to pray for the foes we face in our daily lives?