How should a person respond to someone else who is persecuting them? Well, the immediate human reaction is to just get back at the persecutor in the meanest and quickest way possible. We want to "do unto them what they have done unto us." People do this every single day. We have someone speak sarcasm to us, we speak it back to them; we have a person yell at us, we yell at them. We take the attitude that they are getting what they bargained for by starting the situation. This type mentality is not the mentality of the Messiah.
Matthew 5:43-48 instead teaches us that we should do good to those who persecute us, praying for them, loving our enemies. Anyone can love someone that already loves them, but it takes a true, actual follower of the Messiah to love someone (serve someone) who does not love them first, but rather hates them or at least treats them in an unkind manner. I realize that this is so difficult to do and our human ears do not even want to ponder upon treating such people with love, but true Christianity is radical in its teaching.
If you claim to be a follower of the Messiah, I would encourage you to put Matthew 5:43-48 to practice. You may here a more detailed examination of these verses here, the sermon number is #208.
EMJ
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