Matthew 5:43-45a (NLT) “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.”

Being a follower of Christ is no walk in the park. Even when we think that we are making progress by doing good things, we come crashing against the brick wall of the "Sermon on the Mount " that Jesus preached to the crowds one day. In that sermon, we are confronted with the realities of our sinful nature. For example, while you can find the strength to do a good deed for someone and feel good about it, can you do the same thing for someone that you don't like? How about for someone that actually has betrayed you, harmed you or is against you? According to the words of Jesus above, we are not just required to do good things for people like that, but what's more, we are supposed to love them. That's not just improbable, but it's actually impossible. We don't possess that type of love.

The Sermon on the Mount is an eye-opener to the fact that we are so unlike the God who created us. While we were created in His image, that image was grotesquely marred by sin. Just look at the life of Jesus and you will see God putting His own words into practice. Jesus loved everyone, even His enemies. He called Judas "friend," right when Judas was betraying Him (Matthew 26:50). While hanging on the Cross of Calvary, He looked at the violent crowd that was yelling and spitting at him with great hatred and asked the Father to forgive them. Jesus was not just speaking words in His astounding sermon, but He was showing us the heart of God.

Our problem is that these things are just not possible for us in our current condition. For that, we need help...God's help. We need so much help that the help can't be outside help. It can't be help by Jesus only teaching us how we should be. We need Him to penetrate us and actually live in us by the Holy Spirit so that it is Him in us doing what is not possible for us to do. It is a supernatural takeover that elevates us to the very standard and divine nature of God. The crowd that day probably couldn't believe or receive what Jesus was saying, but little did they know that Jesus' mission was not only to die for our sins, but to also make a way where what is improbable for us becomes very possible by His power in us. If, like Jesus said, we remain in Him and He in us, we will be able to love our enemies and pray for those that persecute us, thus making us good representatives of the good news of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus, making what was not possible, possible to the glory of God.

Pastor Joey Vazquez