Love Your Enemies

I stand awkwardly holding my backpack straps thanking God that all of the students have already left their fifth period Child Development classroom. It’s just me and the substitute I have secretly complained about behind her back for four weeks. Joy.

“I need to apologize,” I mutter, staring at her nose because looking at someone face on makes me nervous and like 17% more awkward.

She laughs with the same laugh that’s annoyed me for weeks, “For what?”

“I have been really disrespectful to you these past weeks and I needed to say I was sorry.”

“Now who told you to do that?” She inquires with another chuckle.

“No one, I just need to,” I tell her glancing down at my hard cover Bible.

“Oh, good,” she smiles, “I guess you got convicted. I’ve been praying that you students would apologize.”

And then she embarrasses me in one of the most awkward side hugs of my life.

This whole conversation was a perfect example of God working through awful situations caused by yours truly. I had two options at the start of this semester. Two very simple options:

1.      Be respectful to this difficult substitute teacher

2.      Don’t respect her, but instead have a bad attitude about everything and complain to her behind her back

I guess you can guess which one I chose. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First I need to explain how God got me to apologize.

It all started the night before when I was reading God’s word. I’ve read a big part of Matthew already and the passage where Jesus is in Galilee is one of my favorites so imagine my surprise when I finally realized I had been missing the whole point of that section.

Matthew 5:43-44 (NKJV)

 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,”

As I read my Savior’s words it occurred to me that I wasn’t doing that. I wasn’t loving my neighbor AND enemies. You see, I am taking a class this semester but my school didn’t hire a teacher (I don’t even want to talk about how totally unprofessional that is) so for the first five and a half weeks of the semester I was stuck with two subs. One was ok; the other… to put it kindly I couldn’t stand her and all of my friends knew that because I complained ALL THE TIME. That was not o.k. I was being super disrespectful to her behind her back and building up such ugly anger towards that woman. This shouldn’t be so. I’m supposed to be an ambassador for Christ and show the grace God shows the whole world instead of giving the sub a hard time.

So I talked to God about it and repented for acting like such a brat but I still had one more thing to do.

An apology had to be made. But there was a problem.

The night I read that passage was the day the sub had left and our teacher (finally) came. That meant the apology wouldn’t be made to her face. Well, that’s what it would have meant except God has a special way of making everything turn out perfectly.

The next day all of the teachers on the third floor of the athletic building were out for a meeting so guess what? All four of those classes had subs! Although I didn’t have her as my sub, I went looking for her on the third floor (like a stalker) and thanks to God I was able to apologize!

God’s word got to me at just the right time to make His glory shine and I am so glad He did. Even though it took me a year to really understand what God was trying to tell me in that Matthew passage, I am ecstatic that I finally got it. All of those commands Jesus gives of how we should live aren’t things to do to get to heaven or be a “good person” because the only reason we can get to heaven is through Jesus alone. He tells us these things because it’s how we should behave once saved. We should want to obey God’s words to bring glory and honor to Him and to show the grace and love He has showed us.

Have you guys ever had a new revelation about God's Word? Comment Below!