Romans 12:14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

I love Romans chapter 12.  Our Lord through the Apostle Paul provides us such great instruction, inspiration and encouragement for godly living in this chapter.  This verse in general has been one of my memory verses this week.  Any time I set about memorizing a verse I always want to make sure that I have a good grasp of what the Lord is trying to convey to me in His word.  There are a couple of interesting things about the verbs Paul uses in this verse.  First of all, that verb “Bless” that Paul uses is the Greek word eulogo.   It comes from the same root word that we use for our word eulogy.  It means to praise or celebrate with praises.  We all know that nobody goes to a funeral and stands up and speaks ill of the one who has passed.  Nope, that would not be cool.   When someone passes on, we eulogize them.   We remember the good things and speak well of them.  That is the same attitude we should have of those who persecute us.  If somebody has mistreated us or done us wrong, it is not enough to just mind our tongues and not say anything bad about them.  The Lord says we are to bless them; we are to speak kind of them and say nice things.  We are to “praise” them.   You and I are to remember that they have been created in the image of God Almighty and despite their ill-treatment of us; God still has a plan and a purpose for their life.

We also need to notice that the verbs Paul uses here represent continuous, ongoing actions.  Rather than constantly reminisce in a bitter fashion about how they have mistreated us and are still mistreating us, we are to continually and constantly speak well of those who continually and constantly persecute, pester and irritate us.  We should always actively do our best to be at peace with them.  And above all things, we should pray for them, hoping that they will receive from the Lord the same grace and mercy that the Lord has extended to us.