“I have thought again, my brethren, since it is required of us that we give thanks to God for all these men, it follows that we do with quietness submit ourselves under what God shall do to us by them. For it seems a paradox to me to give thanks to God for them, that yet I am not willing should abide in that place that God has set them in for me. I will then love them, bless them, pray for them, and do them good.
I speak now of the men that hurt me, as I have hinted before. And I will do thus, because it is good so to do; because they do me good by hurting of me, because I am called to inherit a blessing, and because I would be like my heavenly Father. “Therefore if mine enemy hunger, let me feed him; if he thirst, let me give him drink.” (Matthew 5:43-48; 1 Peter 3:9; Romans 12:17—20.)
We must see good in that in which other men can see none. We must pass by those injuries that other men would revenge. We must show we have grace, and that we are made to bear what other men are not acquainted with. Many of our graces are kept alive by those very things that are the death of other men’s souls.”
John Bunyan (1628-1688)) author of Pilgrim’s Progress, excerpt from “Seasonal Counsel or Advice to Sufferers” in The Entire Works of John Bunyan (London: James S. Virtue, City Road, and Ivy Lane, 1860) 285.
When I located this collection by Bunyan early this morning my attention turned to his “advice for sufferers” because thanks to some malware that has adversely impacted my website and email system, my meditations are not going to all the recipients that have subscribed for years. Honestly, I am not sure what to do about it, and while I have not gotten angry, I have gotten frustrated!
Bunyan reminds us that “we must show that we have grace” to our enemies when in our flesh we’d like to wring their necks! This includes perpetrators whose “malicious software” messes up our ability to communicate. Jesus, Peter, and Paul (cf. in the Scriptures noted by Bunyan) all exhort us to do good to our enemies. God help us generously extend them grace and love each and every day.