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Luke 6:32-36
Jesus is transforming what man believes about love by showing what it means to love as God loves. What separates the love shown by sinners from the love shown by Christians? The Apostle John explains it this way in 1 John 4:17-21 (NKJV), “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.
If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.” Jesus states in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Luke 6:35 is a verse that is hard for many of us to grasp and follow, “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.” We are all God’s creation, and He loves every one of us. He longs to have a personal relationship with each of us. Many people will never accept the love that God has given to us, and they will live their entire physical lives in the sinful nature. But God is patient and He will continue to be, “kind to the unthankful and evil” (Luke 6:35c) in that they may one day see His great love for them and open their hearts to Him and receive salvation in Jesus, putting on a new life in Him.
This is a command to show the love of Jesus to everyone, even your enemies.
This is why it is so important to share the Gospel with those around us; that everyone will become aware of God’s love for us, and in the day that we stand before Him, we would have no excuse. Our sin will convict us, but God’s love will set us free from sin if we will open our hearts to Him and accept His gift of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ.
To truly let the love of Jesus flow through our lives, we must show the love that He shown…to everyone, even our enemies.
Dear Lord,
Please help us to see that to let Your love flow through us, and to be a reflection of Jesus, we must not pick and choose who we are kind to, but that we should be a reflection of Jesus to everyone that we encounter. We all lived in sin, and we all have no excuse for salvation in and of ourselves, but it was Your love shown through Jesus that saved us. Please help us to let Your love, that now lives in us as Christians, flow freely to all those around us so that others would be led to a new life in Christ Jesus through our Holy Spirit filled example. In Jesus name I pray, amen.