{"id":2535,"date":"2020-12-06T09:28:30","date_gmt":"2020-12-06T17:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=2535"},"modified":"2020-12-06T09:28:30","modified_gmt":"2020-12-06T17:28:30","slug":"devotion-luke-627-36-lovereally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=2535","title":{"rendered":"Devotion Luke 6:27-36 Love\u2026Really?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luke 6:27-36<\/b>\u00a0– \u201cBut to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,\u00a028<\/a>\u00a0bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.\u00a029<\/a>\u00a0If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.\u00a030<\/a>\u00a0Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.\u00a031<\/a>\u00a0Do to others as you would have them do to you.\u00a0\u00a032<\/a>\u00a0\u201cIf you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.\u00a033<\/a>\u00a0And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that.\u00a034<\/a>\u00a0And 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.\u00a035<\/a>\u00a0But 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.\u00a036<\/a>\u00a0Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.<\/i><\/p>\n

James 3:17\u00a0<\/b>\u201c”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<\/i>.”<\/p>\n

It’s easy to say I am a loving person but do I only love the easy to love?\u00a0\u00a0What 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?<\/p>\n

I know people who self-describe themselves as a loving person. Yet, they don\u2019t contact their widowed mother in months, some, sadly, in years.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ve listened to mothers who cry longing to hear from their children.\u00a0\u00a0Maybe their mother is one of the people who require a lot of patience and great love.\u00a0\u00a0Maybe they are very hard to get along with.\u00a0\u00a0Well 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?\u00a0\u00a0I don\u2019t know of anyone who calls themselves by His name who would be okay with that.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, even many who don\u2019t walk with the Lord are still very much hoping for the love and graciousness of God to rule in His attitude toward them.\u00a0\u00a0Actually, 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.\u00a0\u00a0Yet God does not separate Himself from us.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Mark 12:29-31<\/b>\u00a0Jesus 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.\u00a0\u00a0Anyone who would cut their mom out of their life is not loving their mom as much as they love themselves.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, they are placing themselves first and are also in fact loving their mother much less than they love themselves, and doing that purposely.\u00a0\u00a0That is not loving as God expects us to love.<\/p>\n

Nowadays it is common, in fact most likely, that people eliminate others from their lives for their own sake.\u00a0\u00a0It is even all too common in the church for pastors, teachers and leaders to promote that as what the Lord would have us do.\u00a0\u00a0That sure doesn\u2019t go along with the greatest commandments and it sure doesn\u2019t go along with\u00a01 John 4:7-8\u00a0<\/b>or\u00a0Matthew 7:12<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0And if the reason for cutting someone out of our life is because they have wronged us, repeatedly, well that doesn\u2019t obey what Jesus said in\u00a0Matthew\u00a0\u00a06:14-15<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0We are to represent the love of God.\u00a0\u00a0How then can we cut people out of our life if we don\u2019t want God to cut us from His love and grace?\u00a0\u00a0(Matthew 7:12<\/b>) In loving each other is the fulfillment of God\u2019s love amongst us.\u00a0\u00a0(1 John 2:5<\/b>)<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s remember that God does not give us rules for His sake but for ours.\u00a0\u00a0And 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.\u00a0\u00a0To love, as God has called us to do, not only pleases Him but blesses us.\u00a0\u00a0Our 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.\u00a0\u00a0So let\u2019s not cut from our lives Mom, or Dad, or siblings, or friends or neighbors, but love them even, sometimes, in spite of themselves.\u00a0\u00a0That is what we are called to by He who loves in that way.\u00a0\u00a0God loves us in spite of who we are and so we ought to do likewise with others, for their sake, and for ours.\u00a0\u00a0Love is the highest rule.\u00a0\u00a0Not the love of the world, but the love of God.\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!<\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear\u00a0me.<\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has\u00a0shown you, Oh man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; and what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of you, but\u00a0to do justly, to love\u00a0mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.<\/p>\n

Numbers 6:24-26<\/b>\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0bless you and keep you; 25\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0turn His face\u00a0toward you and give you peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luke 6:27-36\u00a0– \u201cBut to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,\u00a028\u00a0bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.\u00a029\u00a0If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.\u00a030\u00a0Give to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[1700,100,106,93,101,94,1874,17],"class_list":["post-2535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-james","tag-john","tag-luke","tag-mark","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2536,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535\/revisions\/2536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}