Week 28
Bless Those Who Persecute You
Romans 12:9–21
“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”
Romans 12:9–21 (NKJV)
Paul begins with love without hypocrisy. Enemy-love cannot be a polished performance hiding denial or secret contempt.
The same passage commands hatred of evil and devotion to good. Christian blessing never requires moral confusion.
To bless persecutors is to refuse the curse—the desire that another person be finally abandoned to destruction.
Paul surrounds this command with practical habits: honor, patience, prayer, hospitality, empathy, humility, and refusal to repay evil for evil.
These practices keep an enemy from occupying the imagination as a category rather than a human being accountable before God.
‘If possible, as much as depends on you’ recognizes that peace is not always mutual or safe. Faithfulness has boundaries; vengeance belongs to God.
Feeding an enemy answers evil with concrete good. Such action may awaken conscience, but its obedience does not depend on visible response.
Do not be conquered by evil through imitation. Overcome it with the good that flows from Christ—truthful, wise, courageous, and free from hatred.
In Conversation with Richard Wurmbrand
Wurmbrand urged Christians to resist systems of oppression while continuing to seek the redemption of people trapped within them.
Romans 12 gives that posture its full moral texture: evil is abhorred, justice is entrusted to God, peace is pursued wisely, and enemies receive tangible good.
A Prayer
Lord Jesus,
Merciful God, make my love sincere and my hatred of evil free from hatred of people.
Teach me wise peace, truthful boundaries, persistent prayer, and practical goodness. Keep vengeance from taking Your place.
Do not let evil reproduce itself in me; overcome it through the life of Christ. Amen.
Stand with Christ This Week
Faithfulness begins here.
Return often to Romans 12:9–21. Let courage grow from a clearer vision of Christ, never from confidence in yourself.