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Luke 6:32-36

“But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. 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. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.”

Personal Challenge

Loving our enemies, doing good to them, and lending to them expecting no reciprocation sets us apart as followers of Christ from all others. God has done, and continues to do, so much for us expecting nothing from us. Does it not make sense that He asks us to do the same in order to Amore like Him? Glory be to God!

“But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.”

Personal Challenge

Once again, Jesus gives us a rule to live our lives by that is so contradictory to what the world around us tells us to do. Love our enemies. Why would we want to do that? Treat those who treat us badly with kindness? Why? How? Isn’t this what God does every moment of every day when so many reject Him? In my recent readings of Tertullian, an early church father, he deals with this passage in his book against Marcionism (look it up). He teaches that the Old Testament teaching of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, was the establishment of a law to create fear in us. A fear that drives us to do good in order to avoid the consequences. He teaches that Jesus, by fulfilling the law, gives us the rule to lover our enemies so that we can transcend this fear and choose to treat our fellow human nicely, no matter how they treat us. This is lively a godly life. Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Luke 6:20-23

Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said:
“Blessed are you poor,
For yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now,
For you shall be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now,
For you shall laugh.
Blessed are you when men hate you,
And when they exclude you,
And revile you, and cast out your name as evil,
For the Son of Man’s sake.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy!
For indeed your reward is great in heaven,
For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.”

Personal Challenge

God operates from a much different perspective than we humans do. I would guess that this would most likely be related to the fall of mankind. Our world, His creation, was turned upside down when the forbidden fruit was eaten. And we have been in conflict with God and His ways ever since. If we look at all the things that this world holds as blessed, wealth, abundance of food and other pleasantries, laughter, inclusion by those around us, we can see that they are fleeting and easily lost. God’s blessings are based on those things that are permanent and eternal. Glory be to God!

Luke 5:31-36

Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Then they said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”

And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”

Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old.”

Personal Challenge

We are in an age where everyone is so self-sufficient and self-focused. You may even hear it said, “Who needs God?” or “Who needs Jesus?” There is only one answer to all questions like these, which is, “We all need God and Jesus!” We are all sick from being a part of this fallen world. We are all broken as sinners. We all need Jesus to be our physician. We are all old wineskins that need our God to make us new so that the Holy Spirit can be poured into us. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Luke 5:27-28

After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.

Personal Challenge

Every time I read this account of Levi, I ask myself if I would be willing to do this. Levi was in a very lucrative position. As a tax collector, he was hated be the Jews, but he would have been a very wealthy person. Jesus said, “Follow Me.”, and Levi left everything behind and followed Him. Would I do that if Jesus called me to follow Him like this? Has my life, and the stuff that I have filled it with, become more important than Him? Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner, and prepare me to hear Your voice and answer Your call.

Luke 4:18-19

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me

Luke 4:1

Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

Personal Challenge

As soon as John finished baptizing Jesus, Jesus went into the wilderness to be with His Father. It is in the wilderness where He is tempted and tested by the enemy of God. This is an image of what happens to every one of us after we are baptized into the family of God. This fallen world is our wilderness that we go into. It is in this wilderness that we are tempted and tested. And it is in this wilderness that we draw closer to our God because we need Him to survive. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Luke 3:21-22

When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”

Encouraging Words

God blessed Jesus, His beloved son, in His human state. He did not need to bless Him in His God state. Did God do this because Jesus needed God’s blessing? Or was if for our sake the God proclaimed Jesus, in His fully human state, as His beloved son in whom He was well pleased? Jesus led the way for us into the waters of baptism and into lives that can be united with God. Glory be to Him!