Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, February 4, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Who hates me? Hate is an awfully strong word. It implies the kind of hostility that leads to harmful action. I don’t think anyone hates me personally (I could be wrong). I do think that when I am lumped into a category, I open myself to hatred. Some people hate women. They just do. Some hate Christians. Some people hate those who are politically left (and believe me, I am really left). Or are LGBTQIA+ allies. In fact, I think the majority of hatred is really a product of our need to put others into hard and fast categories. When we meet other people one on one, human being to human being, more often than not we get along fine. We realize we’re all just trying the best we can with the information we have. No one is a monolith. I don’t fit neatly into some categories (for example, I am pro-choice but I am also not pro-abortion. Yes, that’s possible). So I have to believe that other people don’t fit neatly as neatly into categories as I’d like them to.
Loving those you disagree with isn’t easy. But love isn’t just a feeling. It’s an action. And doing actions out of love in service to other people—human being to human being—can remove the hatred from the equation, at least from your end. We can’t expect others to return that love—if we did, it wouldn’t really be love. All we can do is ask God to help us show it, give it, live it, and then let it go.
What one simple act of love can I do today for a person I don’t get along with? Can I not get found out?
