Putting Up with the Atheist

“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” (Matt. 5:44)

Years ago there was a Christian who agreed to take in an elderly, weary traveler into his house for a night’s rest. After they ate, the Christian asked the gentleman, “How old are you?”
“Almost a century old,” the old man replied.
“Are you a religious man?” asked the Christian.
“No. I do not believe in God,” the atheist answered.
The Christian was infuriated. He opened his door and said, “I cannot keep an atheist in my house overnight.”
The old man hobbled out into the cold darkness. Later, the Lord spoke to that Christian man and said, “Why did you let him go?”
The man replied, “I turned him out because he was an atheist, and I could not endure him overnight.”
The Lord replied, “Son, I have endured him for nearly one hundred years. Don’t you think you could endure him for one night?”

The world’s philosophy says if you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours; if you are nice to me, then I will be nice to you. But when Jesus came, He shocked the world with a completely foreign way of living. He commanded a way of treating our enemies that was completely different than anything this world had ever seen. He said, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”

It’s easy to love those who love us. In fact, Jesus said in (v.46), “For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?” In other words, we are no different than the world when we love those who love us because even the world does that.

It is when we are treated in an unkind, unfair, or even hateful manner that we have an opportunity to stand out as light in this dark world. In fact, the very reason we are to love our enemies is that we may show them we have a different Father than them. Jesus said in (v.45) “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven…” This man in our story had an opportunity to show the love of Jesus to that elderly atheist, and he missed it.

So, when your boss, co-worker, neighbor, or complete stranger treats you ugly, you treat them kindly. You repay their ugliness with godliness. Because, in the process, you are leaving a testimony that cannot be denied. People can argue what you SAY, but they cannot argue what you DO, because actions speak louder than words.

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