Pondering Luke 6:35

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. –Luke 6:35

In my studies last week I came across this verse and I’ve been pondering it ever since. It’s quite baffling if you stop and contemplate what it’s really saying. But even more so it illustrates once again just how high God’s ways are and serves as a reminder of how woefully short we fall.

Chew on this part for a moment… “lend to them without expecting to get anything back.” Lend to whom? Your BFF? No–your ENEMIES! He says then our reward will be great and we will be children of the Most High. I don’t know about you, but it’s hard enough to lend to loved ones without expecting something in return. And when I extend generosity to the people I really like I’m feeling pretty good about myself, but God lets us know He is not so impressed…

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? –Matthew 5:46-47

Now after you’ve had a chance to let that sink in be prepared for another doozie. It then says we are called to do this because God is “kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” This is our Holy, wrathful God we’re talking about here! Ya know, the one everybody paints as a heartless tyrant in the Old Testament? Consider, if you will, the extent of the Creator’s power and righteousness and ask yourself how closely you measure up. In case you need a reminder, Job thought he was doing pretty well but God told him to brace himself like a man while he asked a few questions of his own, such as…

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?” –Job 38:4-7

If you really want to be humbled, read all of Job 38-42 and see how well you pass God’s cosmic litmus test for greatness. But this post was not meant to be a guilt trip, I promise. My greater goal is to point out just how unbelievably kind and merciful our God is! No one has more right than He to lord their superiority over man, to be disgusted and vengeful, yet He is “longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Jesus never commanded us to do anything that He himself wasn’t willing to humble himself and do first. He simply asks us, who are no better than our fellow man, to step up our game and follow His example.

I don’t know about you, but when I contemplate how astoundingly good and loving God truly is it convicts me how little grace and patience I show to people who merely aggravate me. In my weakness I feel like those disciples in John 6:60 who said in response to Jesus speaking in the temple, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” And while my attempt to obey these commands may seem futile, I remember the even greater hope of Matthew 19:26, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Though I may fall woefully short in my own strength, to God be the glory!