Title: Come in the Opposite Spirit/Topic: Handling Offenses

Today’s Reading: Genesis 15; Genesis 16; Genesis 17; Luke 6

Scripture: Luke 6:27-36
27 "But I tell you who hear me: 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 strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. 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. 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 sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Observation: There should be a qualitative difference between the way Christians and non-Christians conduct their relationships with others. We are not to treat others the way they treat us but we are to treat them as we want to treated by them. If they are ungrateful, disrespectful or cruel, we are to love them anyway. Treating the unkind with kindness is not natural and sets us apart from unbelievers. Jesus makes the point that it takes no spiritual power to respond the way everybody else does. Does this mean we are martyrs who let people abuse us? Yes and no. Jesus let himself be abused to the point of dying for the purpose of showing his great love for us and providing the means to re-establish a relationship between us and God. But Jesus was no doormat. He sacrificed himself for wicked people from a position of strength and not because he felt that he didn't deserve better treatment. He did not spend the majority of his time with those who were disrespectful toward him. In fact, even though he loved them, he challenged them verbally quite a lot. He spent his time with those who obviously wanted to listen to him and who loved and respected him. He is our model.

Application: I have a responsibility to forgive those who wrong me and to treat them with love, kindness and basic respect whenever I am with them. I am to keep responding this way no matter how many offenses pile up. I do this for two reasons; to demonstrate God's love and forgiveness toward them and because I have received forgiveness for many offenses from God. Forgiving others also gives me the ability to keep a positive attitude in life and to not be controlled in any way by those who have sinned against me. However, I do not have an obligation to spend lots of time with those who are unkind, disrespectful, or abusive to me .

Prayer: Father, help me to come to you first whenever I am hurt by others and receive power and wisdom from your Holy Spirit to respond like Jesus would. There is a time to speak truth, always with an attitude of love, but more often I tend to speak first from hurt and later to get my attitude straight with you. May I work through my pain with you so that I may be an instrument of your grace. Help me to b3e slow to speak, slow to wrath and quick to forgive.
This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.