"Pray for them which despitefully use you." Lk.6:28
'Pray' is a verb. It is here used by the Iesous in a prescriptive sense. It is also enjoined in the imperative impressing upon the auditor/reader that here is a command without apology.
Pray means to ask or request or even to wish. The act of praying is intensely mood altering and therefore mind changing for the one so engaged.
To pray is spiritually assertive. The one who prays is looking out from the limitations of one's own resources and looks expectantly to the unlimited resources of the Theos.
The pray-prescription as given here is a positive response to a not so positive behavior. "Pray for them which despitefully use you." The word 'despitefully' speaks of a ghastly type of behavior. It involves threats, or slander, or even to insult.
In the Old Testament, on the eve of entrance into the Promised Land, Yahweh allowed spies to go in and spy out the land for the people. The majority of the spies created fear and apprehension in the hearts of the people. They uttered a bad report on Yahweh's blessing to the people.
In other words, they slandered the character of Yahweh by their reprehensible report.s Also, in the Old Testament the word 'slander' means to stand against the life of another.
To pray for those who despitefully use us is indeed a prescription to protect our hearts from mirroring behavior that would undermine our spiritual lives.
Has someone despitefully used you? Do you want to do as he or she has done to you? To pray is the way to reframe your mind by releasing your laser-like attention from the spiritual attack upon your person.
Such attacks will always come to us. Therefore become super-prepared by praying without ceasing for those who despitefully use you. We pray that those who have slandered us will be given a new attitude about the interconnection that we share with one another. Hate is a spiritual aberration. The Love of Theos is the intrinsic foundation of all things.
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