“To You Who are Ready for the Truth” February 23, 2025
“To You Who are Ready for the Truth”
Psalm 103:1-13/ Corinthians 15:35-50/ Luke 6:27-38 (1)
(Lk 6:27 “To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst.” So, with that being said I have a question, and that is: is there anyone here on this beautiful day that has never, ever had a problem with this one singular command that Jesus told to his disciples and therefore, tells to us: “To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies?”
So yea, is everyone OK with that? Is everybody cool with the idea that the people we have come to despise way down deep in our hearts are now the folks that we must learn to love? Could there be just an itty-bitty bit of a problem? Keep in mind that, from the words of David Ewert, “The word used here for love, agape in Greek, does not mean romantic love, liking, or even friendship. What it does mean is whole-hearted, unreserved, unconditional desire for the well-being of the other, expecting nothing in return.” Well now, that certainly clears things up. I suppose it could mean that when we are wishing that a baby grand piano might fall from a fifth story window onto our” enemy,” then that might not be considered an unreserved, unconditional desire for the well-being of the other, expecting nothing in return.
“To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies.” I have to wonder, did Jesus really know the can of worms he was opening up here? Had he really thought it through? I mean. if anything, we love to despise our enemies. We revel in their nastiness and we rejoice whenever bad things happen to them. Why would the Lord wish to take that away from us
Brian Stoffregen at CrossMarks Christian Resources offers this possible(2)
conclusion to a sermon on this text. He says: “Jesus’ word for us today is: “I call you to live your lives out of an alternative vision of reality. I call you to live your lives as lives that reverse the values of this culture. I call you to love your enemy; turn the other cheek; give your possessions to those in need and judge not the lives of others. Be merciful even as I am merciful. I have come to nourish your entire life with my mercy. I have come to empower you with mercy in order that you may, indeed, live a new kind of life in this world.”
“To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies.” And that doesn’t mean that by loving and forgiving the people we can’t stand that we are giving them a pass for all the rotten things they’ve done. We don’t necessarily have to like some one in order to love them.
Once again, Brian Stoffregen has this to share with us all: “Even the Apostle Paul had somewhat of a convoluted assurance that in the end, faithfulness – not lock-step observance of all the rules – but faithfulness to the covenant of love and hope will have it’s reward.
But I wonder if that’s relevant. Because, of the people I know who have been most faithfully living the gospel, reward is the last thing on their minds.
Certainly that’s my experience
. In those assorted and infrequent moments when I’ve been faithful to the gospel of love, I realize I have also been enjoying myself quite thoroughly. Well, no, that’s not entirely true.
There have also been some moments of faithfulness that have been
pure hell. .
(3)
But in the moments themselves, we’re not thinking about any of that stuff
In those moments when we are living faithfully, we are totally focused on whatever it is we are doing or experiencing.
Faithfulness is its own reward. In those moments of faithfulness, the last thing on our minds is some celestial bookkeeper who will reckon this to us as righteousness.”
So where do we stand on this ”love your enemies” stuff? Is this just another of those weird things that Jesus said, or can we work with all our hearts to find the capacity to really love all people, everybody, no exceptions? I was told once that it’s not so hard to be loving and accepting and forgiving of even the worst rascals that cross our paths when we consider the fact that Jesus hasn’t given up on us even though we have messed up every step of the way.
(vs 27) “To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst.” At first glance, this seems to be easier said than done. But speaking for myself, there is something liberating in finding a way to actually love those scoundrels that we had decided were unlovable. It’s true that faithfulness is indeed its own reward because I have found that loving and forgiveness and mercy will serve every time to lift that burden of anger and resentment and the need to get even no matter what. There was a certain freedom in the knowing that I didn’t have to drag this heavy grudge any further. It’s a freedom like no other.
Kathryn Turner has this to say:” It is so hard to be really free. One of the(4) most subtle ways in which we lose our freedom is through our attitudes to others.” I couldn’t agree more.
(vs 35) “To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more payback. Live generously.
31-34 “Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.
35-36 “I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.”
I believe that I could speak longer yet, so let me close with these final words that Luke has written: us:” Our Father is kind; you be kind.” Our Father is kind; you be kind.” And remember, there is no one so despicable that they can’t respond to the love of Jesus Christ Amen & shalom
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