“You have heard that it used to be said, ‘You shall love your neighbor’, and ‘hate your enemy’, but I tell you, Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Heavenly Father. For he makes the sun rise upon evil men as well as good, and he sends his rain upon honest and dishonest men alike.” (Matthew 5:43-45, JB Phillips)
I joined Oscar at the first tee. Two golf singles out for a beautiful afternoon of sunny, mid-winter golf in California. I quickly learned he was new to our local muni, coming from a recently closed semi-private course in our town. While we were preparing to tee it up on the par-3 second, I learned he was 85 years old, played basketball until he was 40, had had two hip replacements and a knee replacement. Oh, and that he suffers from AFib. He goes to the gym five days a week.
He looked at me with huge grin on his face and exclaimed, “I’ve never thought of doing that!”On the third hole he hit his drive straight but only about 110 yards, complaining that when he turned 83 he “lost all his power and distance.” Oscar told me he was looking forward to taking a lesson this coming spring to “try to get another 10-15 yards on his drive.” While we were approaching our balls, Oscar walking, I at a young 68 riding a cart, I suggested to him that he move up to the yellow tees (our course has four sets of tees, yellow being the shortest.)
He looked at me with huge grin on his face and exclaimed, “I’ve never thought of doing that! I think I’ll try it on the next hole.” For the rest of the round, Oscar hit from the yellows. When we finished, he shook my hand and sincerely thanked me for my tip.
Sometimes we need some outside help to see things in a new and better way. Somewhere along the way the folks listening to Jesus had gotten the idea that the command to love one’s neighbor could be interpreted in such a way as to justify hating one’s enemy (those whom you disagree with, those who have wronged you, those who don’t measure up to a certain standard, and so on.) It seems only natural that it’s OK to hate an actual enemy.
But Jesus took this opportunity to expand the horizons of those who were listening to this talk. He made a radical statement by expanding the ethic of Neighbor Love—which is the basic ethic of those who follow Christ—to include one’s enemy. He even went a step further and said Neighbor Love is to be shown to those who persecute you. Jesus illustrated this teaching on the cross when he said, “Father, forgive them.”
Neighbor love, when extended to both the enemy and the one who persecutes us, is a sign that we are offspring of the heavenly Father.
By the way, most of us would benefit greatly from moving to the forward tees. Just sayin’.
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Brad Davis
February 12, 2019
Copyright 2019 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
Brad Davis spent 30 years in ministry and was a long-time contributor to the Links Daily Devotional. He returns today after recently telling this story to Links Daily Devotional editor Jeff Hopper.
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