Super-Human Love

The forgiveness and love offered by persecuted Christians is mind blowing sometimes. One man in Nigeria used to persecute Christians until he became a Christian himself. Muslim attackers wanted to punish him and killed his oldest son. The believer struggled with the loss of his son, but then went to the mastermind of the murder and offered forgiveness. His forgiveness was rejected, but the murderer’s son came to him and accepted Christ. Although he lost his son, the murderer’s son was saved eternally. He says,

I discovered that love is ultimate. If you want to win Muslims to be on your side, you have to love them, not with the human type of love, but the love you yourself have experienced through Christ. . . . I was once a persecutor; now through His grace He has forgiven me. This is God’s love. And though we have been persecuted, we are not crushed. . . . We die so that others will live.

A similar story of forgiveness came out of Iraq. After the bombing of two buses full of Christian students, a young man covered in blood told an Assyrian TV station, “We are not like you, we are Christians and we forgive you.”

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. –1 John 4:10-11

Sources: Voice of the Martyrs and Assyrian International News Agency