Passage Read: Matthew 5-6
Meditation Verses: 5:43-48
Thought
This is not really about enemies and persecutors who are far away. Jesus is talking about people right here and now who are plotting against a believer, working against him and doing evil to him. We can pray for enemies and persecutors who are far removed from our lives, but this instruction is especially about those we see and interact with regularly.
Application
Anyone who hates me, mocks me, does evil to me, these are the ones I'm supposed to pray for and be kind and gracious to. It's not about saving them, but as a testimony that I belong to God, that I am truly His child. I may hope that they come to Christ, but Jesus doesn't make this about their salvation, but really about mine, whether I am a child of God or not. Strangely, the lost are afforded more graciousness than the unrepentant Christian, with whom we're not supposed to eat or even greet! Yet even such discipline is to be from love, and with the goal of their repentance! We pray for both, but we treat them differently because we have different purposes in our treatment. It can be a little confusing.