28 February 2015 - friend request

But I say to you, love your enemies

Enemies? Do we have enemies? We don't let ourselves think in terms that strong. Enemies are for video game characters and superheroes. We just have the people we love and the people we love less. But is that really true? Do the filters we place on our thoughts obscure the reality?

Jesus, reveal our hearts to us. You want us to be a people that is peculiarly your own. But Jesus, if we are honest we mostly love people who love us. If we are honest, we do have enemies. The freeway in heavy traffic brings this point home. Our careful masks of charity sometimes slip and we are exposed. People cut in line. They talk over us. They ignore us. They impose on us. They don't notice us. Enemies? The word seems strong, but are we loving these people even when they are not loving us?

Jesus you want us to be yours in an amazing way. You want us to "be children of your heavenly Father". You are the only Son of the Father and so that means to become like you. You died for us while we were still enemies of God (cf. Rom. 5:8). You call us to a love that is more than mere self-serving reciprocity. 

Jesus, show us the people and circumstances where we don't let your love flow in us. Show us if we are giving undue priority to those from whom we get some benefit, loving those who love us. Show us if there is an in group of brothers and sisters whom we greet and others whom we don't.

LORD, you call us to love with generous hearts. You call us to love as you love. You call us to a standard which, ultimately, only you can meet.

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

But what you ask us, you empower. You give us grace to fulfill your command. We have so much more for which to be thankful than the Israelites. They are given the command but can never quite live it. They never quite achieve the "praise, renown, and glory" that you intend for them. They never quite realize the blessings of walking without blame in your law. They can never quite internalize it.

I will give you thanks with an upright heart,
when I have learned your just ordinances.
I will keep your statutes;
do not utterly forsake me.

But the new law you give is not merely an external command which we hear and to which we must respond by our own strength. You write this new law on our hearts (cf. Heb. 10:16). You give us your Holy Spirit "in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" (cf. Rom. 8:4).

We try so hard to not have enemies because we are afraid that we can't love them. But you show us that we do have enemies in some sense. You teach us to love them even while they are enemies. It is your love for them flowing through us which ultimately transforms them from enemies to friends. After all, we were your enemies, but your love has made us friends (cf. Joh. 15:15).

Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!