Matthew 5:43-48
Love and Pray for Your Enemies
43 "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 9:9-13
God Desires Mercy, Not Sacrifice
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
When we read the gospels and hear Jesus teach, we might believe that some of His Truths on forgiveness, mercy, and love are simple...Sometimes the simplest of teachings are difficult...And as one reads Jesus Sermon on the Mount, we see how simple things can quickly change from simple to very deep...When Jesus tells us to learn what it means that I desire mercy not sacrifice, we are to learn what it is to be merciful...Because, sometimes the simplest of things are the hardest to carry out in life...
You might naturally think that loving others, forgiving others, and being merciful to them should and might be easy in life...
First forgive your enemies of anything and everything that they have done to you or your family or friends...Try to love your enemy and pray for him...Have mercy on them...These three sentences are easy to say but are not simple to continue to practice and to do in one's life...