Luke 6:27-36 – “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.
James 3:17 “”But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”
It’s easy to say I am a loving person but do I only love the easy to love? What about those who are hard to love? The hurtful? The stinky homeless one? Those who are confrontational, abrasive and hard to love? How pure is my love?
I know people who self-describe themselves as a loving person. Yet, they don’t contact their widowed mother in months, some, sadly, in years. I’ve listened to mothers who cry longing to hear from their children. Maybe their mother is one of the people who require a lot of patience and great love. Maybe they are very hard to get along with. Well if it is okay to separate ourselves from them then we must think it is okay for God stop loving us, to stop blessing us? I don’t know of anyone who calls themselves by His name who would be okay with that. In fact, even many who don’t walk with the Lord are still very much hoping for the love and graciousness of God to rule in His attitude toward them. Actually, if it is considered how impure, even vile, we can be in comparison to a perfectly pure God, we all are very hard to get along with. Yet God does not separate Himself from us.
In Mark 12:29-31 Jesus tells us that we must love God with all that we are and that we must love our neighbor (everyone) as much as we love ourselves. Anyone who would cut their mom out of their life is not loving their mom as much as they love themselves. In fact, they are placing themselves first and are also in fact loving their mother much less than they love themselves, and doing that purposely. That is not loving as God expects us to love.
Nowadays it is common, in fact most likely, that people eliminate others from their lives for their own sake. It is even all too common in the church for pastors, teachers and leaders to promote that as what the Lord would have us do. That sure doesn’t go along with the greatest commandments and it sure doesn’t go along with 1 John 4:7-8 or Matthew 7:12. And if the reason for cutting someone out of our life is because they have wronged us, repeatedly, well that doesn’t obey what Jesus said in Matthew 6:14-15. We are to represent the love of God. How then can we cut people out of our life if we don’t want God to cut us from His love and grace? (Matthew 7:12) In loving each other is the fulfillment of God’s love amongst us. (1 John 2:5)
Let’s remember that God does not give us rules for His sake but for ours. And yes, He gives us rules so that we might understand Him and please Him, but what He speaks to us He does so out of His love for us. To love, as God has called us to do, not only pleases Him but blesses us. Our best life is a life that is lived out as we walk in His love and share the love He gives to us with others. So let’s not cut from our lives Mom, or Dad, or siblings, or friends or neighbors, but love them even, sometimes, in spite of themselves. That is what we are called to by He who loves in that way. God loves us in spite of who we are and so we ought to do likewise with others, for their sake, and for ours. Love is the highest rule. Not the love of the world, but the love of God. Praise God!
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, Oh man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Numbers 6:24-26 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.