Devotional Series: Rock: A Life that Can Stand Up to Anything Started: 9/2/2013 Devotional for Monday, September 30, 2013 “Frenemies” “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy’.”(Matt. 5:43) Not all neighbors are friends. Quite often the most annoying presence in your life is one that is indeed present. The crank who lives across the street or the busy body who works down the hall from you. Sometimes this presence goes beyond mere annoyance and devolves into genuine hostility, for whatever reason. The person next to you isn’t necessarily near to you. Not all neighbors are friends. When my Dad relocated our family to Georgia we moved into a house bordered in front and back by two residential streets belonging to entirely different neighborhoods. After some time, my Dad started a project to extend our driveway to the street behind or house, allowing us access to that road and a very convenient shortcut. The neighbor behind us didn’t like the idea. He temporarily blocked the project and made it much more difficult and expensive to complete. I was a kid back then, but I sensed that this neighbor was not our friend. Of course everyone managed to behave decently through it all, but that was the last house we’d be going to for a cup of sugar or a cookout. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus takes up the matter of neighbors and enemies. The widely accepted wisdom of that day was found in Leviticus 19:18. “Do not seek vengeance or bear a grudge against one of your own people.” That made sense. But holding grudges against those outside the circle of ‘my people’ was never questioned. In his ‘sermon’ Jesus not only questions it, he turns it upside down. Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Years ago my daughter introduced me to a word which was new to me at the time. She spoke of a “frenemy” – a person who lives in your world, with whom you regularly interact, but with whom there is bad blood. The interactions breed more friction than friendship. If we are serious about living life as Jesus envisions it, we need not go far. If we want to practice loving our enemy, perhaps we need to begin by loving our difficult neighbor. Said another way, we should work hard on loving our frenemies, the ones who are close whom we’d rather avoid. Understanding what Jesus taught and what it means for us to live this way will be the focus of our attention this week. Next Steps: Do you have a frenemy? Who is it? To explore the issue further, read this brief article by Kevin DeYoung on what Jesus taught about loving enemies. thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2013/02/13/to-follow-christ-is-to-love-them-when-they-hate/ Prayer: Loving God, learning to love others as you have loved us sounds so good until we meet people whom we find hard to love. They are often not far from us, placed in the routines of our ordinary days. Keep us from simply avoiding or tolerating them. Teach us to love in obedience to your word, we ask in the name of Jesus your son. Amen. Mark H. Crumpler Pastor for Teaching and Spiritual Formation markthis.blogspot
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 07:46:42 +0000