Pastor’s Podium

We live in a culture that promotes the idea of “looking out for number one,” but the scriptures teach the exact opposite. Think of the story of Joseph who was treated unfairly by his older brothers and sold into slavery. Not long after that he ended up in prison because he was lied about. Joseph had a chance for revenge against his brothers but chose to have mercy and even testified that, “God meant it for good.” In Acts, chapter 7, we find Stephen was being stoned to death, yet his response was,“Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.”

Here are a few simple thoughts on what to do when we are not treated right.

1. Love them anyway. It is not difficult to love my children. My instinct as a father is to love and protect them. Loving someone who would be considered an enemy is more difficult. Now for clarity’s sake the context of scripture is referring to a person you have personally interacted with and has treated you wrong. The commandment from the Lord was to love them. Now we must acknowledge that is not easy to do. Most of the time when I counsel people on this scripture their response is something like, “well you don’t know what they have done to me,” or “you don’t know how they hurt me,” or “they don’t deserve it.” Nobody said they didn’t hurt you and nobody said they deserve it. We are speaking about matters of obedience to Christ. Doing the right thing is not always the easy thing to do but it is still the right thing. Christ simply said to love them despite what they have done to you.

2. Bless them from time to time. Ok, so we know the Lord has ordered us to do something that’s not easy. Let’s be honest, we really don’t want to. Let me be even more honest ... it’s because of our pride. Let me remind you of something I read recently.“Pride is the only poison that is healthy for you when swallowed.” Now that is a tough pill to swallow, but since we have that out of the way it raises the question —how do we love them anyway? By blessing them from time to time. An example would be to send a simple word of encouragement to let them know you are praying for them. Even send them a random gift — send a gift and don’t sign your name to it. I’ve never regretted sending a gift or trying to be a blessing in some way, but always walked away knowing it was the right thing to do. Be a blessing however you can.

3. Go out of your way to be kind. You can be a blessing to someone and them never know it. Being a blessing will be a good for your heart, being kind will be good for their spirit. It is letting them know even if unkind words were said, unkind deeds were done that it is not going to affect your character as a Christian. Again, then our flesh speaks up and says,“I am not doing that.” It is easy to be kind to those who are kind to you. It shows character and Christian love to be kind to those who have not been kind to you.

4. Pray for them. Finally, Christ tells us to pray for them. I don’t believe that when Christ says, “pray for them” that he means,“Lord I pray you send vengeance upon them.” Remember, that belongs to the Lord. Rom. 12:19 … Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Let’s also not be fooled into thinking that because we didn’t mention their name that it’s ok. You put it out there because you wanted them to know or get back around to them. Friend, pray for them out of a good heart. Pray sincerely for them. Pray that God bless them. Pray that God will open the doors to make things right.

Before you say “I have tried”, make sure you followed the pattern given by Christ. None of us deserves to be treated like God has. The truth is if we all got what we deserved God would have sent us straight to hell. God has been good to us even when we didn’t deserve it. God has been gracious enough when we didn’t earn it. God has been merciful when we should have been punished. Let’s follow the lesson and example of Christ and treat people good, even when they have not treated us well.