Our text is Romans 12:14

"Love must be sincere…Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

Love has many colours. Having explored hospitality, Paul ups the ante. Love is no easy thing. It flies in the face of the normal human reaction to negative things: anger and revenge. Let's start with a brief story about revenge.

On a Friday early in 1982, Kevin got drunk, got into his car, went for a drive and killed an 18-year-old. 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 victim's 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't sleep on Thursdays. He kept missing his payments. He's offered postdated cheques, with an extra $52. But the family wouldn't accept. For 18 years they wanted to see him on their doorstep on Friday evenings. They wanted revenge. They wanted to curse him.

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 many stories of Christians cursing their enemies, expresses a desire for really bad things to happen.

Blessing and cursing are opposites, wishing people good or ill, health or harm. We are told to bless those who persecute us. Persecution includes Christians killed for their faith, being denied benefits and freedom because they lived their faith in Jesus, deprived the freedom to publicly worship, being ridiculed by friends for going to church, or denied promotions.

Our response to all such things should be to bless. 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' welfare than to turn them into prayer and into action.

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't resist them. Returning good for evil, on the other hand, goes against every instinct we possess — 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.

As you journey on, go with these words:

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.