Fully In!

Fully In!

But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Luke 6:35 KJV

Jesus was speaking here to the disciples at the 'Sermon on the Mount', people who had made a decision to follow him and submit to His authority. He wasn't addressing the crowd that was always following Him, but those who were his own. And this is quite important: Jesus always speaks, but only those who are willing to listen are the ones who hear and obey. Am I a disciple or part of the crowd? Am I content with following from a distance, content with eating the loaves of bread and fishes He provides, but unwilling to submit to His authority and leadership? 

Wherever you see the word BUT, it is good to go back and look at the words that came before. What comes before this BUT are all the things the crowd is comfortable with: men of the world do good to those they know will do them good in return. The men of the world lend to those from whom they expect returns. For the people of the world, life is a transactional relationship, where I do something for you and you do the same for me in return. If I know there is nothing to be gained from you, I am not obligated to do anything for you. That is the code of conduct for the people under the control and influence of the world.

For those who follow after Christ, we are called to be different and live by different standards. Following Christ means that you have become enemies of the world, and if the world still loves and accepts you after you have surrendered to Jesus, please check again and be sure of your stand. The Word and the world can never mix, and their standards are fundamentally different from each other. Yet, God places me in the world, because He needs the Word to shine out of me to pass a message to the world. How would the world know its limitations if it does not see its own limitations by the way I live? If I am no different from the world, how do I pass the message of the change that Jesus has wrought in me? 

So, I am called to love my enemies, men of the world who do not submit to Jesus. Even for men who decide to fight me, I am asked to love them. It has nothing to do with what I can get back from them, which is the world's modus operandi but what I can pass on to them. I am asked to do the same thing the world does, but the difference is that I do not discriminate as to who I do it for, and I am not looking for returns. I am simply passing on the love I have freely received. I am asked to do good and lend, not because I will get good back in return or that the borrower will do me good later, but because that good is ALL that I have to give. It won't matter if I get nothing back, because returns isn't the reason why I do what I do. I do good because I have received good from God. 

And the example given in today's extract makes it clear: God Himself is kind to the ungrateful and evil. This is God: no discrimination against people who do not even care who He is, but reaching out to all men with His good, because that is ALL He has. His example is laid down as the standard, and all who will come must meet that minimum standard. I am called his child only when the world can see the mark of my family background in and on me. If men can't see any difference between what they do and what I do, there is a problem. If God cannot present me as His child in the world He has placed me in, there is a problem. I check again: am I a child of God or one walking and content with the world? Remember, eternity lies at the end of every decision I make on earth. His time of favour is here.