Loving your Enemies

In Pattaya, I find it easy to have compassion for the children living in the slums. I find it easy to have compassion for the prostitutes I see. Since I've been here, they have been on the forefront of my mind for prayer. It's easy to remember them in my prayers when I see it everyday. This is something I want to continue when I'm home.

I have a really hard time, however, having compassion for the 'farang' (foreign) men I see, who are here to take advantage of the multitude of prostitutes in this city. Pictures like this, I see all the time.

When I see the farang men here with Thai women and girls here, it makes me sick. When I hear men talking about how "nothing changes in Pattaya, and that's a good thing", it makes me angry. I know that it makes God angry too, but I also know that God asks us to love our enemies and pray for them. 

In one of my favorite passages, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us in Matthew 5,
"You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor^[a] and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven."

I know that these men are in need of prayer. They are broken and in need of God's love and restoration like anyone else. In praying for justice to be done, I need to pray for those inflicting the injustices as well as those who are subjected to the injustice. 

This is hard. I am praying for God to show me more about how I am to respond to this.