No one ever said that pastoring a church would be easy. One of the most severe tests is to love those who are unloving. The reality is that there will be members of the congregation that are exceedingly challenging. Some of them will be hateful. They will not be our friends, but act as fiends! We pray they are sheep, but suspect they may be goats.
Our natural tendency when facing a threat is flight or fight. We want to run from the problem, cave to the pressure—get away as fast as we can. Or, we may desire to roll up our sleeves, ball up our fists, and fight fire with fire. We are tempted to either compromise our convictions or combat with contentions.
But, what does the Bible say?
Jesus commands us to love even our enemies. A lost world is capable of loving those who love them. But, we are not of the world. As children of God, we are to manifest the love of our Father. His patience, mercy, and goodwill toward those who despise Him is evident. He would have long ago destroyed all the wicked, were it not that He loves sinners. Jesus came to earth to save the very ones who nailed Him to the cross. In, this the love of God is manifested in fullness. As followers of Jesus, we are to yield to His Spirit indwelling us, and respond the same way—to love the unloving.
Hear Jesus on the cross pleading, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do,” (Lk. 23:34). Now, we may say, “But that was Jesus. I cannot do that!” That is true in your natural strength, but we have supernatural power in the Holy Spirit. Stephen was a mortal who was full of the Holy Spirit, (Acts 6:3-8). As he was being killed, he prayed, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin,” (Acts 7:60a).
One of the toughest, if not most difficult things to do in ministry is to love the unloving. Yet, that we must do. For this, we have Jesus’ model to follow, and His might for accomplishing that!
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