’d like to start today with a couple of definitions, because as Christians who have been in the church for some time, we have a tendency to glibly quote verses without really thinking about what the words mean. In this case, I’d like to delve into what it means to bless someone who curses you (see Luke 6:28).
To bless someone means to invoke divine care for, speak well of/approve someone, confer prosperity or happiness upon, or to endow someone with favor. That’s a lot of great things.
To curse someone is to pray for harm or injury to come upon one or to afflict or torment someone with great harm or misfortune. Not so great.
When the Bible says we should bless those who curse us, it’s saying that if someone doesn’t like us or is harming us, our response should be to invoke divine care for them, ask God to give them prosperity and happiness, and rejoice when they are given Divine favor.
This is counter-cultural today, just like it was when Jesus was speaking to His disciples. We want people to pay for being mean to us, similar to how God treated Edom for rejoicing over Israel’s (or in this case, Judah’s) downfall (Ezekiel 35:15). But under the New Convenient, not only are we not judged by God because of Jesus’ blood, but we also get to extend that same grace and favor to the people around us.
This kind of blessing requires some supernatural help for most people. A few people truly have a heart to bless even when someone dislikes them or is trying to torment them with great misfortune, but for most of us, the only way we’ll respond the way Jesus tells us is through the power of God. Ask the Holy Spirit for His help – He really is the helper!
One of the things I find very challenging about this verse is blessing those who are not blessing others who we love or care about. When we see someone hurting another person, we want the perpetrator to pay – we certainly do not want to speak well of them, confer happiness and prosperity upon them, or endow them with favor! In fact, we want them to suffer for their wrongs so they’ll stop pretending everything is fine, and they’ll be humbled enough to apologize or even bring restitution to those they have cursed or hurt. The problem is that this doesn’t work under the New Covenant, as described above. We’re told to bless these people. Yes, even these people!
Blessing someone does not mean ignoring sin. There was someone in my life for a while who had some massive issues, and I was not at liberty to conveniently forget these issues and wax eloquently about what a wonderfully pure and sinless person this was (that’s called lying). However, I was also not at liberty to think about this person, or even speak about this person, let alone pray for this person, in such a way as to fixate on their faults and paint them as a horrendous person. I still had to bless them, even while fully acknowledging their issues.
“Or do you have no regard for the wealth of His kindness and tolerance and patience [in withholding His wrath]? Are you [actually] unaware or ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness leads you to repentance [that is, to change your inner self, your old way of thinking—seek His purpose for your life]?” Romans 2:4.
