TO ANOTHER LEVEL (PART 3)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor 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. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?”

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Matthew 5:43-48

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

Luke 6:27-31

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

What’s your first reaction when someone does you wrong?

Maybe it would be what seems to be the Golden Rule of the world these days: Do unto others as they do unto you.

In other words, if someone does you wrong, then you do them wrong right back. Call it the old “give them a taste of their own medicine” approach to dealing with people.

I’m sure you have seen this happen more times than you care to admit. And maybe this is defining the way you either are handling something or have handled something in the past. Either way, it’s going to be painfully obvious as you read today’s scripture passages that Jesus’ desire is strikingly different than what the world would endorse. Look at His words again as spoken in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor 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. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?”

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  Matthew 5:43-48

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”  Luke 6:27-31

As we have seen in this series to date, Jesus sought to take preexisting ideals on living and take them to another level. In the case of these passages, He was seeking to define relationships between people in a radically new way, completely eradicating the status quo and replacing it with a more right and righteous way.

You see, in Leviticus, one of the books of the Law, the Israelites were told to love their neighbors and hate their enemies (19:18) and on the surface, it seemed to make sense. After all, why someone love anyone who is opposed to them?

But note how Jesus turns this whole thought process upside down, calling on those He taught to love their enemies and to pray for persecutors.

Huh?

Love enemies?

Pray for those who persecuted?

How crazy would that be?

But Jesus doesn’t allow His point to go without clarification, as if He knew people would be confused by His teaching.

You see, sinners reserved their love for only those who loved them in return and pagans befriended other pagans without entertaining social interactions with anyone else. So if a Christ follower did as the sinners and pagans did, then there would be nothing of evidence that would serve to separate them. Christians would look no different that the sinners they were expected to be distinguished from.

This is who Jesus called on His followers to dare to be different, to do good to those who show hatred, to bless anyone who curses, and to pray for anyone who mistreats. They were to “be perfect” as their “heavenly Father” was perfect which simply meant that they could carry out what Jesus commanded them to do, not by their own strength and power, but rather the strength and power of the Lord, the One who could and would lead anyone who placed their hope and trust in Him to righteousness.

And when they did this, then a new Golden Rule would be created:

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Did I mention Jesus was seeking to take things to another level?

Friends, we are going to be wronged by others in life and wronged many times over, sometimes by the same person. It’s not a matter of if it will happen but rather a matter of when.

This is why this teaching of Jesus is so critical for us because we simply can’t afford to get it wrong when it comes to the ways we respond to those who treat us badly. As Christians, we may be in the world but we are not to be of it. Rather, we are to seek every day to separate ourselves from the world’s beliefs, attitudes, and norms, and the only way we’ll ever be successful in doing that is to allow the Lord to guide our every thought, word, and action.

We’ll do just that if we allow His will and way to be our own, if we commit ourselves to be perfect as He is perfect.

Then and only then will we be able to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, and forgive those who mistreat us, and ultimately do unto others as we would want them to do unto us.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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