Daily Light Devotional: Your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path (Psalm 119:105)
May 4 2026
Text: Matthew 5:44
I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
The most natural thing for us to do is to hate our enemies and love those who are like us. This is not a normal request and it strikes us as odd that Jesus would have this expectation. Why would He have this exception? The answer to that question is found in verse 48 when Jesus says “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Jesus is suggesting something very radical: we are to love our enemies because God loved His enemies.
What?! God loved his enemies? He sure did. In Romans 5:10 we read – while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son. Before we met Jesus and we born again and saved, we were God’s enemies. But God loved us anyways, and let His Son die for us so that we would no longer be enemies but in Christ become His children.
And likewise, we are to love our enemies (the non-believers) so that they too might be reconciled to God through Christ. That is why Paul calls us “ambassadors of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for loving me when I was your enemy. Help me to love other enemies by sharing the love of Christ with them. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.