Love your enemies

Luke 6:32-36 

32 ‘If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

This fall we will spend time thinking about the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

Jesus is radical – in fact, Jesus words here are ridiculous by any human measure. And so, we are drawn to vs. 35 – “for the Most High (God) is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” That, as vs. 36 states, is the measure of what love looks like. Not a measure that humans would use, but the measure that God uses. The measure of love is not love for family and friends – for as Jesus says in vs. 32-34 – everyone does that. That is a basic, ordinary thing – to love the people who love us. No, the measure of love that Jesus calls us to, is to love our enemies. To love those who borrow from us and never return what they borrowed. To be kind to people who never say, “thank you”, to be kind to the people who the rest of the world thinks of as wicked.

The love that Jesus has in view is not words, isn’t even emotions. The love Jesus has in view is kindness to those who do not deserve kindness. The love Jesus has in view is acts of care and kindness to people who see us as opponents, as enemies, as people to be taken advantage of. To show kindness to such people, Jesus says, that is love. 

Jesus knows all about this kind of love, this unconditional benevolence towards the other, towards the enemy. For as Amy Grant used to sing, “This love of another kind” is the kind of love Jesus shows to us in his death and resurrection. Love that does good to the enemy, to the one who opposes us – this is the measure of love Jesus invites us to.

We begin this path through action, through acts of care, through demonstrating kindness, regardless of how we feel, we reach out to the other with good deeds. The emotions may or may not come with time, but the acts of care will show the love of God.

PRAYER:

O Lord, it is hard to show love to those who insult us, ridicule us, act in ways that hurt us or others. Grow the fruit of the Spriit called love in us, that we might live your love in our connections with those we are at odds with. In Jesus’ name. Amen.