Luke 6:35-36
“But love your enemies, and do good, and
lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will
be sons of the Most High, for
he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is
merciful.” (Luke 6:35-36
ESV)
How easy is it to love someone who is evil and
ungrateful? Let’s take baby steps; have
you ever tried to be kind to an evil and ungrateful person? Many a parent has been kind to an ungrateful
child, but this may not be your child, this is a person who adds evil to being
ungrateful and that changes things for me how about you? Jesus reminds us that to love someone who
loves you back is not a big deal, and if you do good to those who do good to
you what benefit is that to you? Jesus
tells us if we lend to only those who you know will return the money what
credit is that to you, for even sinners will do such. Then Jesus tells us; “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting
nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the
Most High, for he is kind
to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
(Luke 6:35-36)
First, we must grasp that before the fall man was in
total agreement with God, but after the fall, God was very clear that His
thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are higher than our
ways. Then Jesus came and redeemed us,
paid the price of sin with His own blood and body, and was raised victor over
death and the grave. When Jesus went to
the right-hand of the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth to live
in all who by faith placed their hope in Him and His finished work on the
cross. And things changed, Jesus told us
we were no longer servants but friends, that He would come and live in us, and
that we could have the “Mind of Christ.”
With that said all who are by grace and faith in
Christ are “sons of the Most High”. God has no problem being kind to the
ungrateful and the evil person, and Christ who lives in you has no problem
doing so, but we do, and that comes not from the Spirit but from the flesh, the
fallen flesh of Adam.
So how can you and I love those who have no love for
us, who are enemies of all that is good and holy, who are ungrateful and those
who are evil? Let me give you some
insight, the flesh will never get there, and yet the Spirit is willing but the
flesh is weak. I’ve found the flesh, my
flesh cannot be trusted, and I must put no confidence in the flesh. This writer needs to examine his heart often
by looking to what God has said in His Word, and to pray that I will be willing
to be made willing so that God can be glorified.
It is not that we are not equipped with all that is
needed to let Christ live His life in us; it is a matter of the will. The apostle Peter makes it clear to all who
have Christ as their life, that we are able to love our neighbor, our enemy,
and even the ungrateful and the evil in 2 Peter 3-9.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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