Luke 6
Scripture
Luke 6: 27-28
But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
Observation
After Jesus states the beatitudes He then preaches the greatest commandment of all to everyone listening. Although this command is perhaps the simplest lessons that He consistently teaches, He emphasizes it once again showing it’s vast importance.
Understanding
“But the greatest of these…”
It is really easy to love those who love us, especially when in public and in private BUT Jesus really ups the stakes here. A few things I find important about this passage. He stresses the importance of loving those who don’t necessarily like us. He doesn’t just say to be cordial and nice to their face only to be mean behind their back, he says to love them, do good to them, bless them, and even pray for them! Which seems totally outrageous! Loving ourselves is hard enough sometimes, let alone loving others and especially those who hate you. And not just in private Jesus says too, but in public to their face and for all the world to hear!
ALSO He again stresses that the greatest of these is love. Not popularity, not money, not fame, not works, The greatest of these is to L.O.V.E. We tend to give ourselves a free pass in judging people because we are only “holding the them to a standard.” While I don’t think this is completely wrong we have to check our heart-attitude. It is to harm them and not to prosper them then obviously we need to check what “love “ means.
Life Application
The love of God is great because it has a response, it chases down those who we would otherwise define as unwanted. The practicality of this verse and ones like it is simple to simply be Jesus’ hands and feet and love well. So go and love on someone today, and not just anyone someone you struggle to get along with or people that society has deemed as “unwanted.” What the world needs now is love (great song by the way!) and we have a lot to give away!
-Allison Khan