Two Christian men had a disagreement and one of them began to slander the other throughout the neighborhood. Upon hearing of it, the object of the gossip went to his indignant brother and said: “Will you be kind enough to tell me my faults to my face, that I may profit by your Christian candor and try to get rid of my errors?”

When the slanderer agreed, the man under attack went a step further. “Before you begin telling me what you think is wrong in me, will you please bow down with me and let us pray over it, that my eyes may be opened to see my faults as you will tell them?” he asked.

Upon finishing the time of prayer, the one seeking reconciliation said: “Now proceed with what you have to complain about.”

But the other replied, “After praying over it, I now feel that in going around talking against you, I have been serving the devil and have need that you pray for me and forgive me the wrong I have done you.” Love had won.

Perhaps the most difficult instruction in the Bible to follow is that of loving those who wrong us. Yet, this is God’s way. He loved us while we were enemies through sin: “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life” (Romans 5:10).

An atheist once said about Christians: “They are not as good as their Book.” It’s time to start following God’s Word instead of yielding to the fallen nature within.

When you start loving your enemies, who will be first on the love-list?