Don't Play Fair

Don’t Play Fair

“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies,

do good to those who hate you, bless those who

curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you.”

                                          Luke 6:27

The title of the chapter did its job, catching my attention and peaking my interest. After all, from the youngest age we had been taught, in everything we did, to play fair. Choose teams that were even, no changing the rules in the middle of a game, no dealing from the bottom of the deck, no hiding outside the boundaries of “hide and seek”, etc, etc, etc. The author of the book was Henry Cloud and his perspective on playing fair is one we could all benefit from.

We all know what fair looks like: you’re nice to someone, fair is that they’re nice to you in return. Someone says something not so nice, even downright cruel about you, fair gets to say something equally cruel about them, I mean “it’s only fair.” And we all know what unfair looks like too; it’s when the scales are apparently tipped in someone else’s favor and they seem to either be getting away with something or being blessed in a way they don’t deserve.

“Don’t play fair” certainly fits with what Jesus taught us. His challenge to bless those who curse us runs totally counter to the culture we live in as does the call to pray for those who mistreat us. The same is true for loving our enemies. We just have to think for a minute what an enemy tries to do and how an enemy acts towards a person in realizing that asking us to love our enemies, to love those who do wrong toward us and who are out to do us harm is certainly not fair. But it certainly is right and here’s why!

We often forget that thoughts become actions, actions turn into habits and habits form our character. So if an enemy, or the enemy, can get us to react in a certain way in the interest of fairness, we end up hurting ourselves and becoming someone we don’t want to be. If we stoop to the level of another in being cruel with our words and vindictive in our desires, the loser will always be us. God has called us to live a life of love and kindness and he is looking for men and women of Christ-like character. And the surest way to get there is “don’t play fair.” Just as Jesus demonstrated on the cross, look to give more than you receive in every situation and in every relationship. Learning to not play fair is a giant step on the road to success in life.

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church