Unreasonable hate vs. Unreasonable love

I've found (far too often) in this life, that certain people I meet will hate me for no discernible reason. Some I've just met and hardly know them at all yet they vehemently hate me. Others, I can think of no words or deeds on my part to deserve their ire, yet there it is. My question is - if they can hate without a cause, why can't we love the same way? Why can't we love people for no apparent reason? Why don't we love our enemies as Jesus commanded? Love, not like. We were not told to like them, that would be weird, but why should need a reason to love them? They don't need a (logical) reason to hate us! When they hate us, let's not hate them in return, let's not "despitefully use" them when they despitefully use. Instead, let's forgive them and love them though it makes no sense to our carnal minds. Let's rise above the hearts gripped by Satan and allow our hearts to be captured by God, possessed by Him because we were all His enemies once - yet He loved us, though we despised Him. He prayed for and He died for us, therefore "We love Him, because He first loved us". "But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us". He suffered for our offenses, while we were yet his enemies - so should we bear the sins of those who sin against us. Just as we were transformed from being His enemy to becoming His friend, perhaps those who hate us will one day become our friends, if we show them the kind of love that says - "I will continue to love you no matter what you say or do to me", not the love that says "I will only love you as long as you love me, as long as I think you deserve my love". Unreasonable? Yes! Thank God His love for us is unreasonable, so should our love be for others. Selah.

It's quite natural to expect kindness in return for kindness. As a general life principal, this is usually the case. But some people return hate for kindness and they expect hate in return for hate. They expect your heart to be just like theirs. Do not shy away from or seek to avoid these kinds of people - they above all need to encounter Christ filled hearts, they need to see that not everyone's heart is like theirs. They may hate you all the more for it but match their hate with love. Enough love will eventually erode and extinguish their hate. As confounding as it is to have people that hate you when all you do is love them (welcome to my world, says the Lord), it's equally confounding to have people love you when all you do is hate them. "But when sin abounded, grace did much more abound"....if I may alter this verse slightly, i believe it apropo....."But when hate abounded, love did much more abound"......Amen.