Jesus challenged his disciples, in (Matthew 5:44-45),“Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father”.
This particular verse is a difficult saying, one that is easier said than done. For some of us, we often have negative thoughts about our enemies, sometimes even wishing that bad things would happen to them.
Still, that is not the Christian way of living. We are challenged by Jesus in (Matthew 5:44-45) to love all people, especially those who hurt us in some way.
An Italian priest, Fr. Lorenzo Scupoli suggests that we say something nice about our enemy or to even do something good for them.
He further advised that we should say some words of love and meekness, and lowly services should be rendered to those who have in any way thwarted or slighted us.
Though, this might be extremely difficult for you to handle, and you would not like doing it, just remember that the very act itself will start to turn your soul around.
As humans, we are a union of body/soul, and so what we do physically with our bodies, will in turn affect our souls.
Meaning that if you want to think better thoughts about certain people, you may need to speak positively of them, or go out of your way to do a good deed for them.
However, they may not appreciate it, and they may even reject it, but that should not dissuade us. The point is that we should follow the example of Jesus Christ in loving our enemies.
That is just a true Christian living.
