Yeah, right. Right? Really?
In the gospel according to Luke, chapter 6, Jesus tells His followers to do something crazy. Some might say it's bordering on stupid and that is to love your enemies and bless those who curse you.
You ask anyone and the vast majority of people will tell you that they love their enemies, but they'll also have people they don't like and they won't mind telling you. Yup, this is something tho whole world seems to think it does and hold as a strange kind of fluffy ideal, but nobody actually does.
The thing is, Jesus is telling us to go against the grain of nature, transforming the idea of right and wrong into something utterly alien.
To add weight to the matter, He goes on to say that if you love those who love you, then that's no credit. Makes sense when you think about it, should your boss give you a bonus for turning up to work? Of course not! And what kind of person hates on the people who love him anyway?
What I see here is another example of how the gospel that Jesus preached is a gospel of excess. All through the New Testament (and the Old), we see that God is someone who gives more love than is containable and more grace than is required and so it seems natural that the Man who showed more grace and compassion than the law of Moses required (take the woman caught in adultery as an example - what I want to know is if the religious leaders caught her in the act, why were they even watching!?), expects more from us than the bare minimum. That's why He gives instruction to go the extra mile, give two coats instead of one and so on.
That's God's nature so it's natural that He expects His children to be the same.
So, if you love the people who love you, there's no credit to be had. After all, so what? But if you love the people who hate you? Now we're talking! If you want Jesus grooving to your beat, you've got to start doing crazy things like loving your enemies!
This is more than just excessive giving because when Jesus is talking about giving more, doing more, offering more, He's taling about something where there's already some kind of positive relationship whereas here, He talking about giving to someone who probably doesn't want anything to do with you and would be glad to dance on your grave.
You might tell me that you're selfless, you live a selfless life, you look after your mum and that proves you're great and all that and yes, that is good. It's good to do that and expected! But that's not what Jesus is talking about here. He's talking less about loving your mum and more about loving your mum-in-law or your son-in-law! Now, I don't have a mother-in-law and I've never had a mother-in-law. Maybe one day I will, but my observations are that in-laws don't always get on with each other, but whether we're talking in-laws or cross cultural boundaries or any kind of boundary, Jesus expects His followers to be oozing with love toward everybody!
Whoever you hate, I've sure you have a reason. They ignore you, make you feel stupid, make you look stupid, make you feel unimportant, show off how much richer they are than you and I'm sure the list is as long as toilet paper, but that's not the point. These are the people that Jesus is talking about.
Jesus wants His followers to love the people that any right-minded people would run away from.
And that's hard. At least, I find it hard.
That's what He did, and I for one am glad because if He started hating on those who have ever hated Him, where would you and I be right now? He loved me when I couldn't give a flying monkey's about Him, when He was nothing to me, when He was just an inconvenient religious dogma. During that time, He loved me.
He didn't even have hate for the people who crucified Him and He forgave those who slammed the nails into Him. Some people would see that as weak, but when you think about it, you must surely agree that to do that takes strength of character that not many of us will claim to have.
There's nothing for you to gain when you do this. It's all for others' benefits.
Love your enemies and bless those who curse you.
Yeah, right.
You ask anyone and the vast majority of people will tell you that they love their enemies, but they'll also have people they don't like and they won't mind telling you. Yup, this is something tho whole world seems to think it does and hold as a strange kind of fluffy ideal, but nobody actually does.
The thing is, Jesus is telling us to go against the grain of nature, transforming the idea of right and wrong into something utterly alien.
To add weight to the matter, He goes on to say that if you love those who love you, then that's no credit. Makes sense when you think about it, should your boss give you a bonus for turning up to work? Of course not! And what kind of person hates on the people who love him anyway?
What I see here is another example of how the gospel that Jesus preached is a gospel of excess. All through the New Testament (and the Old), we see that God is someone who gives more love than is containable and more grace than is required and so it seems natural that the Man who showed more grace and compassion than the law of Moses required (take the woman caught in adultery as an example - what I want to know is if the religious leaders caught her in the act, why were they even watching!?), expects more from us than the bare minimum. That's why He gives instruction to go the extra mile, give two coats instead of one and so on.
That's God's nature so it's natural that He expects His children to be the same.
So, if you love the people who love you, there's no credit to be had. After all, so what? But if you love the people who hate you? Now we're talking! If you want Jesus grooving to your beat, you've got to start doing crazy things like loving your enemies!
This is more than just excessive giving because when Jesus is talking about giving more, doing more, offering more, He's taling about something where there's already some kind of positive relationship whereas here, He talking about giving to someone who probably doesn't want anything to do with you and would be glad to dance on your grave.
You might tell me that you're selfless, you live a selfless life, you look after your mum and that proves you're great and all that and yes, that is good. It's good to do that and expected! But that's not what Jesus is talking about here. He's talking less about loving your mum and more about loving your mum-in-law or your son-in-law! Now, I don't have a mother-in-law and I've never had a mother-in-law. Maybe one day I will, but my observations are that in-laws don't always get on with each other, but whether we're talking in-laws or cross cultural boundaries or any kind of boundary, Jesus expects His followers to be oozing with love toward everybody!
Whoever you hate, I've sure you have a reason. They ignore you, make you feel stupid, make you look stupid, make you feel unimportant, show off how much richer they are than you and I'm sure the list is as long as toilet paper, but that's not the point. These are the people that Jesus is talking about.
Jesus wants His followers to love the people that any right-minded people would run away from.
And that's hard. At least, I find it hard.
That's what He did, and I for one am glad because if He started hating on those who have ever hated Him, where would you and I be right now? He loved me when I couldn't give a flying monkey's about Him, when He was nothing to me, when He was just an inconvenient religious dogma. During that time, He loved me.
He didn't even have hate for the people who crucified Him and He forgave those who slammed the nails into Him. Some people would see that as weak, but when you think about it, you must surely agree that to do that takes strength of character that not many of us will claim to have.
There's nothing for you to gain when you do this. It's all for others' benefits.
Love your enemies and bless those who curse you.
Yeah, right.
posted by R'Copeh at
13:13
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