Today’s reading included Luke 6:27-36. In this section Jesus tells his disciples what he apparently later said to his wider listeners in other gospel accounts. It is part of His plan for the flourishing of human life and the glorification of His Father. Here is how it reads in Luke in the NIV translation of the Bible:

²⁷ “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. ³¹ Do to others as you would have them do to you.

³² “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. ³³ And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. ³⁴ And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.³⁵ But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. ³⁶ Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

This entire section has been a tremendous challenge to human, or at least fallen human, sensibilities for the last 2,000 years. It is no less a challenge for we 21^st Century Christ-followers to accept. In fact it might even be harder for us “rights-obsessed” Americans in A.D. 2018 to deal with than it was for the Israelites in A.D. 30.

Here Jesus turns on its head a basic assumption we tend to make about what is fair in this life versus what we think is unfair. He definitively directs his disciples in every age to use this “love your enemies” command to fundamentally re-orient them from self to other-centeredness in one of the most profound ways possible. For Christians today it especially flies in the face of our surrounding culture’s predominant spirit: that we both deserve respectful treatment from other people and we have a right to act against them in one way or another if they do not give us that respect.

I think it is safe to say that everyone reading my words at this moment would admit that the first time they encountered the whole idea of loving one’s enemies, in any of the books of the Gospel, they felt what might be called “the dismay of the impossible.” What I mean by that is that our Lord’s implied command to live in such a way seemed simply beyond our ability to comply. “Who” we may have thought “could possibly do this?”

It is a valid question with a simple answer: no one…in and of themselves. If we try to love our enemies in the power of our flesh using just “will-power” we will either immediately fail, or manage it for some period of time while deep resentment and bitterness grow, and ultimately lead to more hatred in our hearts for that enemy than we felt before.

As with many other aspects of the Christ-following life the only way to walk this principle out is to rest in Christ’s total forgiveness of our own sins against others and, more importantly, against God Himself. In thus resting we acquire the power that comes from accepted grace to die to ourselves, to our flesh, and to live by the Spirit now resident within us. It is then, and only then, that we can sincerely and effectively begin to answer hate with love, evil with good, our enemies with mercy, because we have come to accept the grace already given us and allowed it to overflow through us to others (even others who have hurt us very deeply.)

Then, God willing, our enemies will stop being our enemies in the best way possible, by having their own hearts changed and becoming our friends. Beyond that, even if they remain our enemies, we will know the peace of God in place of our own anger and hatred. As with all the other seemingly “upside down” commands of Jesus in the New Testament the ultimate result of allowing Him to change our hearts by grace, through faith is our own good, and the glorification of our Lord.