‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.'
‘If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 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. 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. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.'
‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.’ Luke 6:27-38
So who has enemies these days? I’m guessing (and I hope I’m right) that few of us would say we have real “enemies” – though I’m pretty sure we’d all be able to think of some “difficult people” that we have to deal with. (We may even be related to some of them, or work alongside others.) Whoever they are, Jesus gives us some instructions for how we deal with them, and it’s an invitation to hold ourselves to a different standard of behaviour. Fortunately, when he tells us to “love our enemies” Jesus isn’t talking about an emotional response, a mushy feeling we’re supposed to conjure up. The kind of love he means is more of an action, actively pursuing good for the other person. It’s “do good,” not “have good feelings”: do good, bless, pray. Probably just as well – after all, most of us usually have more control over our actions than our feelings.
This isn’t about turning ourselves into doormats for others to wipe their feet all over. We’re not asked to be victims. Quite the reverse. We’re not to see ourselves as victims or let ourselves be shaped by hostility. Nor are we to draw our behaviour patterns from those who would try to victimise us. Jesus is talking about refusing to be victims or to retaliate. Someone who offers “the other cheek” or hands over their shirt to the one who took their coat is saying: I can outdo your violence toward me with my willingness to give freely much more than you sought to take from me. That’s acting according to a whole new set of values. It’s moving right away from the sort of transaction-based behaviour where what you do dictates what I do in return. As Michelle Obama once said, “they go low, we go high.”
We’re invited to extend grace to others – and grace is what God extends to us: completely undeserved love, not giving us the telling off we deserve for all the times we fall short, but instead saying to us: come here, let me forgive you, let me love you. It’s the opposite of transactional. Jesus’ words invite us into a different way of behaving, into a way of living that reflects the way God treats us, that says something to each other and to the world around us about God’s grace and God’s love. Easy? No – sometimes this stuff is really hard to do. But worth it.
Comments