Miraculous Love

So I sit down and begin to read my Bible.  I’ve been wanting to get back into a steady nourishing of my soul by studying God’s word.  I don’t make it very far as A few things begin to stand out to me that cause me to check various translations.  For instance in Matt 5:32 it talks about the terms of divorce and in the King James Version (KJV) the word fornication is used as grounds for divorce.  Now the reason why this bothered me is because just earlier in the day I was listening to a sermon that had quoted this very same text and the preacher made a comment about the KJV using the word fornication because you can’t fornicate while being married; you can only commit adultery.  Now at the time my understanding lined up with that, because the word fornication in churches is always referred to sex outside of marriage.  Well I have an Amplified bible (AMP) and an English standard version bible (ESV); so I wanted to see what these versions say.  In the AMP version it states “…grounds of unfaithfulness (sexual immorality)”.   In the ESV it states “…sexual immorality” as well.  At this point I am cosigning the preacher about the various bible translations and the word changing.  Mind you my present understanding of the word “fornication” is only in relation to sex outside the covenant of marriage.  Well I did a little digging online and did a word study on the word fornication.  It turns out that in various instances in the bible the word is used to represent sexual immorality.  Now I won’t go into all that but needless to say; the other versions I was using were not wrong in their translation of the word and the preacher clearly had not done a word study and therefore shows that no matter how great a preacher is, there is always room for more in depth study. 

Ok, so after that the next scripture that seemed to stand out at me was verse 45 of the same chapter, which reads; To show that you are children of your Father Who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the wicked and on the good, and makes the rain fall upon the upright and the wrongdoers [alike] (AMP).  I have heard preachers use this passage to describe trials and tribulations falling on the wicked as well as the good.  Now this is true but that is not what this passage is about.  The passage is about loving your enemies even though they mean to do you harm.  Right before verse 45 in verse 44 Jesus said “But I tell you, Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you,” Then directly after verse 45 Jesus said “For if you love those who love you, what reward can you have?  Do not even the tax collectors do that?”  So again we have love in the before and love after and yet somehow in the middle in verse 45 we have the interpretation of trials and tribulations. 

Jesus was not talking about tribulations in the least in this verse.  What he was talking about was his love for your enemies as well as for you.  Jesus was talking about how God causes the sun to rise every single day for you, who are his child; and for the wicked, who is not his child.  When Jesus said the rain falls on the just and unjust alike; he was talking about the weather and the power of God who controls it and allows it to fall for all people.  All people benefit from God providing Sun and rain, no matter if they love Him or not.  And what Jesus is saying, is that we should show this same type of love back to even our enemies.  Jesus was saying show my love to your enemies the same way I show love to you when I cause the sun to rise and the rain to fall everyday for you.  We humans are given the opportunity to show miraculous love by loving the hardest person in the world to us; our enemies.  If God can love our enemies by giving them sunshine and rain even though they don’t deserve it or appreciate it; then we should be able to show love to our enemies even though they don’t deserve it or appreciate it. 

This passage gave new light to me, because I always associated it with trials and tribulations to the saint as well as the sinner.  It has nothing to do with that at all!!  This beautiful scripture is all about love and a perfect opportunity to show it to your enemies.  And not just to your enemies but even unto God’s enemies.  Those who don’t even believe can benefit from the understanding of this scripture; because let’s face it, we were all once wicked and against God at one point or another and yet he still caused the sun to rise and the rain to fall for us as well. – Be blessed and a blessing -