“But to you who are listening, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you”. Luke 6:27-28

There is a Bible story where God anointed a young boy through a prophet for him to become a King. Unfortunately, the then ruling King, though he did not know that the young boy was supposed to replace him, hated him and tried severally to kill him using almost all ways possible. Anyone familiar with the Bible may guess that the young boy is David and the one trying to eliminate him is Saul.

The interesting remark in this story is that many people in the place of Saul could have had a similar reaction because of jealousy which came from David’s popularity after he had killed Goliath (1 Samuel 18:7). However, I am not sure that there is anyone who could have reacted as David did. Indeed, while Saul had tried to kill David many times (1 Samuel 18:11, 1 Samuel 19:10, 1 Samuel 20:31, 1 Samuel 24:3, 1 Samuel 26:2,1 Samuel 18:21), David blessed Saul all times (1 Samuel 19:4-5, 1 Samuel 24:18, 1 Samuel 26:21). Even when the story was taking place in the old testament, David was already putting into practice the verse of Luke 6:27-28.

Although we are believers, there are some passages in the Bible that we usually turn away from quickly when we see them. We probably do so because we believe that apart from Jesus, no one else can put the instructions contained in those passages into practice. For example, when the Bible commands us to bless those who curse us, pray for those who mistreat us, we ask ourselves how possible that could be.

There is no doubt that some instructions are very difficult to apply and that many of us have failed to put them into practice. And yet, here we are with one man who is not Jesus and still, has been able to live according to this instruction; he did so with someone who had severally tried to kill him. Our key takeaway from this story is that however humanly difficult Jesus’ instructions could look, we don’t need to be as perfect and excellent as our mentor Jesus before being able to apply them. It takes the Holy Ghost’s support and a certain level of personal will and effort to be up to the master’s commandment.

May Christ give us that strength to bless those who hate us!