I’ve been reading the biography of John Gibson Paton (1824 – 1907). He was a Protestant missionary to the New Hebrides Islands of the South Pacific. The natives who lived on those islands were cannibals, who would even slay and eat their own fellow tribesmen. John lost his first wife and son, as a new missionary to these heathen people. And, he saw several other missionaries lose their lives as well. The natives lied to him, robbed him, destroyed and stole his property and eventually all that he owned. The natives on many occassions tried to kill John Paton, and eventually drove him off the islands. However, rather than just give up and go find something else to do – he raised money to have a ship built and eventually returned to those islands again as a missionary.
The natives on the islands were shocked that he would bother to come back. “How is this?” they cried. “We slew or drove them all away! We plundered their houses and robbed them. Had we been so treated, nothing would have made us return. But they come back with a beautiful new ship, and with more and more Missionaries. And is it to trade and to get money, like the other white men? No! no! But to tell us of their Jehovah God and of His Son Jesus. If their God makes them do all that, we may well worship Him too.”
After his return to the islands, John and his new wife, spent many years of deprivation, danger, and disease just to reach these cannibal natives with the Gospel. It is said when he first came to the island of Aniwa, there were no Christians, but when he finally left, there were no more non-Christians – all had professed faith in Jesus Christ.
That’s what Jesus meant when He told us to love our enemies. That’s what this life is all about – loving those who are unlovable, being kind to those who in the world’s eyes deserve no kindness, and reaching all we can with the Gospel. We can’t all go as missionaries to islands, but we are surrounded every day with those who need to be loved, those who need to be shown how wonderful and amazing our Lord Jesus Christ is by our words and by our actions!
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48)