To all who follow Him, Jesus says:
You have heard people say
it’s okay to love your neighbors
and hate your enemies,
but I say,
Love your foes
and pray for those who trouble you.
This shows you’re children
of your Father, Who makes the sun
shine on the good and the bad,
and Who causes rain to fall on all –
the just and the unjust.
For if you love only those who love you,
what reward can be had?
Even despicable people do the same!
And if you greet only your brothers and sisters,
what’s unusual about that?
Even pagans greet their own families!
To be perfectly fair,
care for others as your Heavenly Father
perfectly loves and cares for you.
©2015, Mary Harwell Sayler, poet, writer, and lifelong lover of Christ, the Bible, and the church, prayer-a-phrased today’s reading in Matthew with the help of translations found on Bible Gateway.
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