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Love must be sincere\u2026 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse (Romans 12:14).

We have been considering what sincere love looks like. The last few episodes of these Wilderness Wanderings have been about hospitality. Now, Paul ups the ante. Hospitality is nothing compared to what comes next. Love is no easy thing. It flies in the face of what appears to be basic human nature: anger and revenge. Let\u2019s start with a brief story about revenge.

On a Friday early in 1982, Kevin got drunk, got into his car and went for a drive. In the course of that drive, he killed an 18-year-old young lady. He was convicted of manslaughter and drunk driving. Since he was only 17, he served a court sentence and had to spend a year campaigning against drunk driving. The young lady\u2019s family sued him for $936, to be paid by $1 cheques each Friday, hand delivered to the family home.

Kevin had a hard time doing this. It haunted him. He couldn\u2019t sleep on Thursday. He kept missing his payments. He\u2019s offered postdated cheques, with an extra $52. But the family wouldn\u2019t accept. For 18 years they wanted to see him on their doorstep on Friday evenings. They wanted revenge. They wanted to curse him.

I know that this is not a story about Christians being persecuted. Its just a very real human revenge story that happens so often. Christians are called to do the exact opposite. How often have you seen Christians do that? There are examples. One of the more famous is the Amish community in Lancaster County which publicly forgave the man who killed their school children. Unfortunately, there are as many stories of Christians cursing their enemies.

When the Bible refers to cursing, it doesn\u2019t refer only to words; it refers to bad, often, really bad things happening to people. \u2018Blessing\u2019 and \u2018cursing\u2019 are opposites, wishing people good or ill, health or harm.

In our text we are told to bless those who persecute us. Persecution is not just about Christians being killed for their faith. It refers to Christians being denied benefits and freedom because their faith in Jesus Christ has been put into action. This may include such things as being denied the right to gather for worship; being ridiculed by friends for going to church; or being denied promotions in the work place.

Our response to all such things should be to bless our persecutors. Of course, Paul was echoing the teaching of Jesus, who told us to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, pray for those who mistreat us (Luke 6:27-28). There is no better way to express our positive wishes for our enemies\u2019 welfare than to turn them into prayers and into actions.

Of all the qualities of love, this is undoubtedly the most difficult to carry out. The others may fall by the wayside because we are busy or tired or self-absorbed, but we typically don\u2019t resist them. Returning good for evil, on the other hand, goes against every natural instinct we possess \u2014 especially when the offender is a fellow Christian. Grace in response to sin is a quality unique to God, and this ability can only come from Him and be enabled by Him.

If we are to grow in the grace of blessing those who harm us, we will need to ask for help.

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