JustifiedIhe Atụ
Batman and the Joker. Spider-Man and the Green Goblin. The Avengers and Thanos. Pretty much every superhero has some sort of enemy. This is the guy who causes their biggest and most frequent problems. Maybe they're trying to take over the world. Maybe they're trying to kidnap the President. Maybe they just like watching the world burn. Whatever it is, dealing with enemies can be the hardest part of being a superhero.
And they're not easy for the rest of us, either! Your enemies probably don't dress in spandex or rob any banks, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Your enemy might be someone extra annoying, or might be someone who's a real bully. Your enemy might even be someone who's really hurt you. But whoever it is, the Bible has something to say about how we're supposed to treat our enemies.
While it might be fun to imagine punching our enemies in the mouth like Batman would, that's not really how the Bible wants us to think about our enemies. In fact, Jesus says that we're supposed to love and even pray for our enemies.
This is one of the hardest commandments in the Bible. We don't want to love our enemies. If we did, they wouldn't be our enemies!
Learning how to do it takes time, and it probably starts with really figuring out who our enemies are. Once we do that, we can start praying for God's help in how we treat them.
Okwu Chukwu
Banyere Atụmatụ Ihe Ọgụgụ A
For the next four weeks, we’ll explore four passages of Scripture from both the Old and New Testaments that might challenge our view on anger. We’ll learn practical skills like when we feel angry, pause to ask God why. We’ll see how, when we’re angry, Jesus shows us how to respond. And in our anger, we'll be challenged to show grace and not get hurtful.
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