Matthew 5.43-48, Luke 6.27-36.
Sometimes I joke the two commands Jesus said were most important
Some respond with a laugh. Others disagree: They struggle to love God, but people are relatively easy for them. ’Cause people are visible and God is not.
And, they figure, the neighbors are easy to love. Of course by “neighbor” they mean “people who are friendly,” kinda like in Jesus’s story of the kind Samaritan.
Since God obligated the Hebrews to love their neighbors, a lot of ’em actually figured that’s as far as they needed to go in loving people. Kinda like that guy who provoked Jesus to tell the kind Samaritan story: He wanted to justify which neighbors to love. Don’t we all? But
And Jesus didn’t pussyfoot around. He jumped right to the unlovable folks. Not icky, dirty, or smelly people, whom superficial Christians struggle to love, but can with a little effort (and especially after we wash ’em). Not sinners, whom self-righteous Christians likewise struggle to love, but sometimes can (again, after they straighten up a bit). Nope, Jesus went for the people who are just plain being hostile and hateful towards us. Persecutors. Mistreaters. Cursers.
Matthew 5.43-44 KWL - 43 “You heard this said: ‘You’ll love your neighbor.’
Lv 19.18 And you’ll hate your enemy. - 44 And I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors.”
Luke 6.27-31 KWL - 27 “But I tell you listeners: Love your enemies. Do good to your haters.
- 28 Bless your cursers. Pray for your mistreaters.
- 29 To one who hits you on the jaw, submit all the more.
- To one who takes your robe and tunic from you, don’t stop them.
- 30 Give to everyone who asks you. Don’t demand payback from those who take what’s yours.
- 31 Just as you want people doing for you, do likewise for them.”
Yeah, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus already brought up the people who might punch you in the jaw, or try to sue your clothes off.
You know, love ’em like our Father loves ’em.
Matthew 5.45 KWL - “Thus you can become your heavenly Father’s children,
- since he raises his sun over evil and good, and rains on moral and immoral.”
Theologians call this