Straight Talk…Applied Kindness, Rodna Epley
Romans 2:4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
A real application of NOT loving our enemy is: to lash out when we are wronged, defend yourself, yell, or be aggressive in some way. Then go talk about it to people and justify our innocence and their guilt. Speaking trash to the hearer causes more hate to spread.
A real application of loving our enemy would be to let them do or say whatever, then immediately give them a response they do not expect, such as “I can see how you might feel that way, and I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. Sometimes I’m terrible with communication but let me try again please.”
Then we should almost always use OURSELVES as the example in the situation: of where we have been weak and how God made us stronger. This will allow that person to let down their guard and their anger will dissipate. It disarms them. They may not admit to guilt right away or ever. But they will think about it later and not feel judged. Possibly it opens up their hearts to a loving God who isn’t trying to judge them.
Defending ourselves and trying to prove ourselves right or justify our actions is a defense mechanism that we all struggle with. But choosing to do good and be kind in response to an assassination on our character will disallow the root of bitterness and anger to take hold.
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