Monday: Unity between Former Enemies
WEEK 17
MONDAY
UNITY BETWEEN FORMER ENEMIES
Romans 12:17-21
We are studying the unities that come into being with the coming of the Holy Spirit. We come now to the fifth unity—the unity with enemies.
When Peter and these Spirit-filled followers of Christ faced the multitudes in front of them on that great day of the coming of the Spirit, they faced people whose hands were red with the blood of their Master. Were they filled with a desire for revenge and retaliation? Did their resentments boil? Or did they bridge that gulf of hate and bitterness? They bridged it, and apparently they did it effortlessly. It is done so gently that we scarcely see anything happening. But something did happen and something very important. They mastered evil with good, mastered hate by love, mastered the world by a cross. And they did it so graciously.
Note: “Brothers and sisters, I can speak confidently. . . . I know you acted in ignorance. So did your rulers” (Acts 2:29; 3:17). Calling the murderers of Jesus “brothers and sisters”! That was magnanimous. And in saying to them, “I know you acted in ignorance,” they echoed the prayer of their Master on the cross: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34 RSV). They had caught the spirit of their Master and were applying it in a very acute situation. Gone was the spirit of wanting to call down fire from heaven on those who wouldn’t receive them; gone was the drawing of the sword to cut off right ears. They were actually doing what he told them to do: “Love your enemies.” And the result? Good will begat good will. The conscience-stricken multitudes responded in kind, “When the crowd heard this, they were deeply troubled. They said to Peter and the other the apostles, ‘Brothers, what should we do?’” (Acts 2:37). When Peter called them “brothers and sisters,” these former enemies responded and said “brothers.” Like produced like. Hate produces hate; love produces love. When they turned their enemies into friends and then into brothers, there was produced the greatest close-knit fellowship the world has ever seen—the koinonia—the fellowship. And this fellowship was made out of former enemies.
O Lord, we thank you for this miracle of love. Help us to show the power of that miracle day by day in all our relationships, beginning with the next person. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Today I shall have no enemies, for I shall have no enmity. It is simple.