diffusing hatred

When you are hated, the hate will challenge you.  People want to provoke a reaction, they want you to hate back.  They want a war no one can win, they just want their belief to be heard loud and clear.  They are not interested in having an adult conversation because that is the rational thing to do.  An adult conversation is based on mutual respect and they don’t have that.
 
Mathew 5:44 I say to you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.
 
When people hate you and you don’t respond in kind, you disappoint them and their agenda.  Why does God tell us to love them?  Because their decision to hate is not their own, they are fulfilling the lusts of their father the devil.  When a man starts out to begin a war and he can’t find anyone to fight with him, he gains nothing.  One day two men got together and began to tell lies about me so I began to pray for them.  The Lord told me to give them each fifty dollars, they stopped gossiping and became supportive.
 
Father forgive them,                       they know not what                        they are doing.
 
The men who crucified Jesus were responding to what the leaders wanted.  They were obeying the devil, they did not know what they were doing, but Jesus did.