In the Western world during these nascent years of the 21st Century, we don’t have the Romans or Samaritans to despise. Those of us in the United States are not presently being subjugated by an external power such as the Romans and most of us are half-breeds like the Samaritans. But we do have our enemies.

We deplore the activities of abortionists and their killing mills, where millions of emerging image-bearers have been scraped into eternity like unwanted barnacles or vacuumed out as though they were nothing more than dust that’s collected around the baseboards of our homes. The disregard for human life is mind-numbing and intolerable at the same time.

We detest those who promote same-sex relationships and marriages, seeking to normalize that which God calls an abomination. We rightly find their philosophy abhorrent and seek to protect our children and the children of others from being blindly drawn into a disturbing and sinful lifestyle.

We are angry with those who would seek to limit our freedom of religious expression even as they give carte blanche to every other form of so-called spirituality. The foundations of our culture are not only being rejected but are being restricted. If these groups are allowed to succeed, they will eliminate all vestiges of our faith.

Hated, too, are the evolutionists, journalists, psychologists, and every other “-ist” that seeks to marginalize Christianity and the basic tenets of our faith. We are engaged in spiritual warfare – this we know – and sometimes recall that we are battling forces unseen. Generally our assessment of the threat such individuals and groups pose are accurate and biblical.

But that is not the point. The point is this: How do we talk about them and treat them? How often do we pray for them?

Jesus said we should pray for them. That we should treat them even as the Samaritan treated the Jew he found lying on the side of the road. That we should count ourselves blessed when we are mistreated, misunderstood, and misrepresented by the enemies of God. And that our reaction should be humble, not angry or defensive or vindictive. Conciliatory, not condemning.

Our responses to those who threaten us and endanger those things that are dear to us should be miraculously different from how they react to us. We are not to speak disparagingly of them, or malign them, or cast aspersions on their character and motives. We are to pray for them and to treat them with dignity. We are to value them because they are slaves to spiritual forces of which they are completely unaware. They are blind and dead in their sins.

If the unbelieving people in the world are going to seriously consider our claims, they will have to first observe some seriously different behavior than what they anticipate. We are called to bless them and to be a blessing to them. We are to love them and do good to them.

In short, we are to show them the same sort of compassion, long-suffering (which implies patience in the face of contemptuous behavior), love, grace, and mercy that Jesus Christ had toward us when we were ungodly and opposed to Him. The very same love He has for us now as a group of people who know better, but often fail to behave as we should.

Non-Christians are only doing what they are moved and ordered to do by their master; they are doing the best they can do. We are called to no less: to do that which our Master desires and commands, and to do so as best we can in the power of the Holy Spirit.


2 Cor 1.13