Salt: loving our enemies

Pauline chose the topic for this fortnight's Salt challenge - you can read what she wrote here.

I centred my LO on two passages of scripture - 1 Corinthians 13 and Luke 6:27-36 (the passage that Pauline referred to). I photographed these passages from Eugene Peterson's The Message, which is the New Testament in contemporary language.

The passage from 1 Corinthians 13 says:

Love never gies up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always 'me first',
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

This seems an impossible love, doesn't it - and, humanly speaking, it is, but, this love comes from God himself - 'love' is one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

In his first epistle, John write: ... let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love - so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about - not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.

My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us - perfect love!' 1 John 4.

Coming back to the words of Jesus in Luke 6, he said: 'If you only love the lovable, do you expec a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. I tell you, love your enemies. Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults ... Don't condemn those who are down ...'

May God's grace enable me to reach out and show his love to others.

For my LO I used a DCWV textured 12 x 12 card, a piece of BG scarlet's letter paper, a stitched ribbon, two felt hearts and some lettering (can't remember the make).

I'm linking this for:

City crafter 42: all you need is love
Creative Cottage 32: words of love
Tanda teaser 164: share the love
One powerful hour: true love
Shelly's terrifically thrilling Thursday: love
Let's craft and create 12: heart felt - felt hearts
Challenge up your life 36: scripture in the background
Moving along with the times 84: red
Woodware 12: anything but a card
Paper romance: anything but a card
If the shoe fits Fashionista Friday 64: anything but a card
Stamping vacation: Pick 3 challenge for February - heart, anything black, the word LOVE