"Jesus does not promise that when we bless our enemies and do good to them they will not despise us and persecute us. They certainly will. But not even that can hurt us or overcome us, so long as we pray for them. For if we pray for them, we are taking their distress and poverty, guilt and perdition upon ourselves, and pleading to God for them. Every insult they utter only
serves to bind us more closely to God and them. Their persecution of us only serves to bring them nearer to reconciliation with God and to further the triumphs of love. It is only when one sees the anger and wrath of God hanging like grim realities over the head of one's enemies that one can know something of what it means to love them and forgive them."
"Christ wills that the weak and persecuted should be rescued, and He must be obeyed."
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Hung in Nazi Germany 1945.
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