Luke 6:27-31

Rachel Workman: ²⁷ “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. So I'll admit that I looked to see exactly who Jesus was speaking to here. Maybe this was something he spoke to his disciples so that would get me off the hook! NOPE, it clearly states but to you who are listening. That's you and me. And I for one fall short, short, short, on these verses.

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Pat Bell:  ²⁷ “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.

I have to work on this continuously. For me this is a tall order!

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Allen Michaels:  ²⁷ “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, The love Jesus tells us to have for our enemies is not a warm, fuzzy feeling that we have deep in our hearts. If we wait for that, we will never love them. The love we are to have for our enemies is a love that does something for them, quite apart from how we might feel about them. 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. When Jesus speaks about turning the other cheek, He isn't talking about being passive in the face of a physical assault. He means we should not defend our self in the face of a grievous insult. Culturally, the slap on the cheek was more an attack on honor than a physical assault. Jesus isn't prohibiting defense, but retaliation. When we truly love our enemies, it will drive them crazy.  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.

The Jews despised the Romans because they oppressed God’s people, but Jesus told the people to love these enemies. Such words turned many away from Christ. But, Jesus wasn’t talking about having affection for enemies; he was talking about an act of the will. You can’t “fall into” this kind of love—it takes conscious effort. Loving our enemies means acting in THEIR best interests. We can pray for them, and we can think of ways to help them. Jesus loved the whole world, even though the world was in rebellion against God. Jesus asks us to follow his example by loving our enemies. We must grant our enemies the same respect and rights as we desire for ourselves.

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Tomorrow’s reading for Luke 6:32-36

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.