Beyond Forgiveness

Scripture:  Luke 6: 27-28
But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

Observations:

For the past two days, I've been looking at forgiveness.  The kind of forgiveness that Jesus talked about-- complete and continuous forgiveness-- is pretty radical.  But in today's verse he takes it even a step farther.  Jesus says, it's not even enough to just forgive.  Forgiveness is just accepting something or someone.  It means letting go of negative emotions surrounding a person or circumstance.  It brings you back to neutral.

But Jesus tells "you who are listening"-- which in this case was a group of disciples-- do more than just going back to neutral with that person who did you wrong…

• Love them!
• Do good to them!
• Bless them!
• Pray for them!

The enemy tells us, "Stay angry.  You deserve to be angry!  Look how they hurt you.  They did permanent damage to you.  You're messed up because of them."

The world tells us, "Tolerate them.  Put up with them.  Let go of what they did for your own sake.  You don't want to carry their baggage around with you.  It'll give you high blood pressure and worry lines."

But Jesus tells us, "Freely forgive… over and over… and then love them even though they are actively pitting themselves against you… do good to them even though they hate you…  bless them even though they are cursing you… pray for them even though they are mistreating you."

Application:

But why, Jesus?  Why would we do all those things to someone who hurts us?

Two reasons:

• Jesus loved us in a radical, sacrificial, undeserved way.
• We love because he first loved us.  (1 John 4:19)
• We will point the world to Jesus by loving like Him.
• By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.  (John 13:35)

The application of this verse is easy to identify but hard to do.  In fact, we are powerless to do it alone.  It is only by accepting God's grace that we can extend it.

Prayer:

Lord, your love is radical!  I don't deserve it and yet you extend it freely.  You went beyond just forgiving me… you love and bless me.  God, help me to love radically too.  Give me overflowing grace so that I can show it to others.  Give me overflowing love so I can love my enemies.  Thank you for Jesus… our perfect example of radical love!  In His name!  Amen!

Confident in this…
Miranda