LUKE 6
27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. 31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.32 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. 35 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. 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. – Luke 6:27-36
LUKE 6 LOVING THE UNLOVABLE
A poem by ILMA inspired by these verses
The love that Jesus sampled for us is not like any other love
He challenges all believers to give it to even the unlovable
He showed such gracious love to his enemies and abusers
It isn’t impossible for us since Jesus himself gave us a model
This kind of love is only possible since God’s grace is amazing
God gave us a solution for sin while we were still undeserving
Do good to those who attack you, this is your endurance training
It will make you resilient, strong and grow in your understanding.
This account of Luke of the Sermon in the Mount is strikingly challenging for those who want to follow Jesus. It is already hard enough to love those who love us because of individual differences, but to be instructed to love our enemies and do good to those who hate and abuse us, is almost impossible to do. We are called to love the unlovable because God has equipped us with the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us. Therefore, we are capable of doing so as long as we follow Spirit’s prodding inside us and resist the sinful desire to retaliate to those who do us wrong. The other hard instruction to follow is to offer your other cheek when someone strikes you. How hard would that be? It would be challenging at first because our flesh would want to react to it, but if we starve that sinfulness, we can develop in time the patience and humility that make it possible for us to love the unlovable.
Verses 32-36 give us the justification why we ought to follow the mandate to love our enemies and those who hurt us. It shows that we are no different from the world if we love only those who love us. God tells us not to conform with the world. Because the world doesn’t know God, they won’ be able to exercise the love that God gave us. They are ignorant to such kind of love. They only know transactional love. Naturally, they will not be able to show kindness to those who have done them wrong. If they only knew God, they will understand that one of his character traits is being merciful. When we love those who are hard to love, we are showing mercy and grace as well. We are exercising the image God has created in each of us. We can love the unlovable as he did to us.
REFLECTION
- Share insights how you’ve practiced loving the unlovable and why you think you did it.
