Love the unlovable

ROMANS 12:14
“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.”

As believers, we find ourselves in an internal civil war, constantly putting to death what is sinful and trying our best to cooperate with saving grace. We serve an amazing God who desires us to mature spiritually and produce good fruit through joyful obedience. Our closest friends and families, even co-workers might fall victim to or become a casualty in our own civil war. This is a direct result of our sinful responses as we live out our faith in our day to day life. We fight to do better, steadily improve, and pray for the mercy we need to become more and more like Jesus Christ.
As adopted children of the Most High, we understand God’s nature, His masterful ability to chisel a Holy vessel out of a broken sinner and the purpose in all of it. I think the redeemed heart and mind doesn’t necessarily wrestle with this truth, as a believer, it makes sense. At the very least, over time, I believe it becomes clear what the Lord is doing, perhaps only in principle and not explicitly but in knowing Him personally we believe it to be ‘good’.
Our text today should be reconciled the same way as the fore mentioned. I’d venture to say that it very well may be the biggest challenge you have now is to love better those you love already. We should desire to love them authentically and more importantly perfectly like Christ does. On this side of heaven it will never be perfect but we strive for it. That in of itself takes much work, thinking, praying, confession, & the molding and shaping by the Spirit of God etc.
What about loving our enemies? What about loving those who maliciously and deliberately persecute us? Well, at times this seems like the tallest order in all of scriptures doesn’t it? Let me draw your attention to part of the text, Paul says: ‘Bless those who persecute you.’ So point number one is this: persecution is a reality. In order to respond to the reality you must accept the reality. Brethren, we will be persecuted. Jesus was persecuted and He promised we would be as well (Matt 24:9). So we should not be surprised; persecution is so attached to the Christian walk I believe it is proper to say it is a mark of the Christian life (2 Tim 3:12). Can we be disappointed? Sure. Can we be righteously indignant? Sure. However it doesn’t negate what we are called to.

Christ calls you blessed for being persecuted for His name sake. Obviously, we don’t pursue persecution nor do we covet persecution, however, we will receive it.
John 15:20 says, “Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” So we settle the reality of this truth in order that we can better prepare to respond Godly to the persecution. Second point, when we bless those who persecute us we are never more like Christ. Matthew 5:44 clearly says, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous….”
It is our goal to honor the Lord, to further deepen our understanding that we have been forgiven much, and to learn to love the unlovable. Saints, we are the unlovable. We are the undeserving, unholy, Godless, depraved sinners that deserve the eternal wrath and justice of a Holy God. But God…being rich in mercy gives us redemption and forgiveness of sins. He gives us clean clothes to stand before him bathed and soaked in the cleansing blood of Christ. The imputed righteousness is not yours to cultivate or earn but to receive by faith.

The gift of salvation and a desire to become like Christ should radically transform the way we view our enemies and those who persecute you. We don’t curse them we bless them. We were once enemies of the cross and for some of us it was like that for years and years. We ought to bless them like God blessed us in order that God would remain just in his judgments that perhaps they would come to a saving faith and have a right relationship with God. Acts 7:60 says: “then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them. When he had said this, he fell asleep.” If the Lord can petition on behalf of sinners why couldn’t we do the same? Pray for their salvation, pray that God would extend His saving Grace once again.