Love Your Enemy

 Jonah 1-4; 2 Timothy 2

“’…I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity…But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people…Should I not be concerned about that great city?’”

Jonah 4:2, 11

God’s nature was known to Jonah because he had experienced God’s grace, compassion, love, and mercy in his own relationship with God.

Why was Jonah not willing to share with Nineveh what he knew about God?

As an enemy people, the Ninevites had been objectified in Jonah’s mind. They were no longer fathers, mothers, and children created in the image of God and in need of salvation; but rather, they were enemy combatants who had plundered Israel.

Do we view peoples that our nation is at war with the same way?

What does God need to do in our hearts so we too, love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us?

“Lord Jesus, fill me with your love and mercy toward my neighbors and those who have hurt me, for your glory.”