Called to Love

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'

But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

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.

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? - Matthew 5:43-46

Who is our enemy?

I think this goes way deeper than the obvious. I believe that our "enemy" can be the person in bed next to us each night. It can be a sister in Christ sitting in the pew next to us every Sunday.

Who is our enemy?

Well, today, I am going to focus on our marriages. So, today's "enemy" will be our mate.

Do not misunderstand. Our husband's are not really our enemies. However, if you look at the meaning of enemy it means; antagonistic, hostile, belligerent. A LOT of marriages experience these emotions at one point or another.

It can be very hard to love someone who treats you badly or says hurtful things to you. Especially if that person is your spouse. You expect more. You have made vows. This is the one person in the world who you expect to love you and treat you right.

Unfortunately, we are in a sinful world and we marry with baggage. We take the junk of our pasts into our marriages and soon the "honeymoon" state is a distant memory. It is in many cases easier to love an enemy we do not know personally then the person we go to bed with each night.

It's not always easy to love our husbands. It can be downright difficult. I struggle with this on a daily basis. We are just so different.

I believe the main reason it is difficult to "love" our husbands is because we allow our "feelings" to get in the way. Our "feelings" (aka our flesh) will always steer us in the wrong direction. We must choose to love. We must submit our feelings to the foot of the cross....and leave them there! We must choose to love our enemies husbands. We must choose to love those who wrong us.