Matthew 5 (2 commands)

One of the commands that Jesus gives in Matthew 5 that is very important to me is to rejoice and be glad when persecuted. First off, if I truly believe that God is more than enough for me then I wouldn’t really care if I had the approval of men. Second, Jesus says in this same passage how blessed I am to be persecuted. Third, Jesus Himself and all kinds of His disciples we persecuted in the Bible for speaking truth, stepping on toes, and trusting in the Lord. If I am to be persecuted then apparently I am doing something like what they did, which is a great honor to even be remotely compared to them.

Another command that is important to me is that we are told to love our enemies. Matthew 5 talks about how everyone loves those who love them, but it would really say something about the God we say we follow if we loved everyone, especially our enemies. There is plenty more scripture that tells how important love is.  One of the many examples is 1 John 4:8, “Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love.” This is something I feel like the Lord has definitely been teaching me the past year, and He has definitely allowed me to teach many others what I’ve learned about this.

For both of these commands, if I were not to follow them, what would I be showing to others about the God I say I serve? Not doing these would make my amazing God look bad. People that don’t personally know the Lord do not know anything about Him and how great He is. If I come in contact with them and say I serve the Lord and I live for Him then how I act and the words I speak have a huge effect on their opinion of God. This can be a wonderful thing, or a very deadly thing depending on what I display. Therefore both of these commands, and all the others, are very important to live out.