receive something in return.But love your enemies and do good to them, and lend when there is nothing to expect in return. Then will your reward be great, and you will be sons and daughters of the Most High. For he is kind toward the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.Don’t be a judge of others and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given to you, and you will receive in your sack good measure, pressed down, full and running over. For the measure you give will be the measure you receive back.”
Reflections
“Do good to those who hate you.”Here is the most radical of Je- sus’ instructions to his hearers, and probably the most difficult of all to do: “Love your enemies and do good to them.” What makes it so important in human affairs? Many problems in the world, past, pre- sent and future, could have been/ could be avoided. The world would be a more peaceful place to live in. Love of enemies invites one to be extravagantly and extraor- dinarily generous. It goes beyond the “reciprocity system” being practiced during the time of Je- sus: “I give you something/favor; I expect something in return from you.”Extreme generosity overturns this system and replaces it with: “I am willing to give, even without anything in return.” It is selfless. The motivation for giving is not the favorable return that will be received, but the pure joy and un- conditional love flowing from the love of God. Extravagant genero- sity means the willingness to give to anyone in need, and it goes to the extent of wishing/doing good to one’s enemies. In the reciprocity system, one sees the self as the end point; the action terminates back to the self, not on the other. On the other hand, love and generosity see the other as the endpoint, the sole beneficiary of the action.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2019