This Sunday we’ll continue with the second section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain.
As we saw this past Sunday, he began his sermon making some pretty jarring claims. “Blessed are you who are poor. Blessed are you who hunger and weep now. Blessed are you when you are hated, excluded, reviled, and your name is spurned as evil.” Jesus wasn’t out of touch with reality when he said these things. He was making iron-clad promises to all who will follow him that, in the end, their place in his kingdom is secure and that all momentary suffering will be swallowed up by eternal fullness of joy.
So, what will he say next? He gives an even more stunning exhortation. Not only are you blessed when people hate you and abuse you on account of Jesus, here’s how to respond.
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” (Luke 6:27-28)
How on earth do we do that?! We learn how to do it and find the motivation for doing it, by first receiving it as “sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil (Luke 6:35)” and by seeing it extended to us by Jesus, THE SON of the Most High.
All Christian [love] flows from fellowship with the living Christ whose transcending, defining reality is “gentle and lowly.” He astounds us and sustains us with His endless kindness. Only as we walk ever deeper into this tender kindness can we live the Christian life as the New Testament calls us to. Only as we drink down the kindness of the heart of Christ will we leave in our wake, everywhere we go, the aroma of heaven, and die one day having startled the world with glimpses of a divine kindness too great to be boxed in by what we deserve. (Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly)
Jason Oakes will be preaching Luke 6:27-36 for us this Sunday and Walt Harrah will be leading our sung worship. Would you pray for each as they prepare?
Take some time to prayerfully meditate on this incredible description of the character of God, “He is kind to the ungrateful and evil.” Thank Him for how He has shown and continues to show you this kindness. Thank him for how He has promised in the coming ages to “show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:7).” And ask the Lord to help us grow into greater family resemblance to Him in this matter of enemy love.
See you Sunday, Grace. Come hungry!
Song Link of the Week
The Everlasting Love of God by Matt Boswell and Matt Papa
How strong the Father’s beating heart for us
What mercy runs to meet the sinner
As rivers yearn to reach the lowest place
His grace shall flow to me forever
O, the everlasting love of God
It shall ever be my song
So immense and free; more than life to me!
The everlasting love of God