I wish Jesus had said…
This week’s devotions are based on Week 4 of Tough Love: Love Your Enemies (LISTEN HERE)
(Reposted from October 10, 2022)
I wish Jesus had said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth’…I tell you, ‘I agree!’”
I wish Jesus had said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy’…I tell you, ‘I agree!’”
In the judicial world of Israel, and perhaps any society, “you do the crime, you do the time.” Some judicial punishments are more separation from society and some are more separation from some part of your physical body. Each is a deterrent for the perpetrator to do something more or to harm someone else.
Judicial codes and systems are necessary and should a Christian choose to use the judicial system to bring justice to a wrong that was incurred, there is nothing wrong with it.
However, the challenge is this: WE want to play judge and jury AND executioner!
We want the “right” to settle the score and get even with people who wrong us. We don’t want to wait for the judicial system. We don’t want to wait for someone else to act. WE want to make sure the person who hurt us is hurt the same or worse as we were, and are willing or wishing to carry it out ourselves.
Revenge is rage in our heart that desires retribution for wrong that was done to us. Revenge is most often triggered when we perceive, and often rightly so, that what happened was not deserved. Injustice desires justice. Revenge seeks swift ‘justice’!
That’s why we wish Jesus would give permission to hate our enemies and extract revenge however we see fit. We want to feel justified to make the person who hurt us, hurt worse.
But Jesus didn’t say the above. Instead he said this:
Matthew 5:39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
Tough, for sure.
But a follower of Christ follows the example of Christ.
The Apostle Peter was more than ready to extract revenge. As Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, he was quick to take out his sword and swing at the nearest person. The servant of the high priest ended up with his ear cut off. Jesus healed it and reprimanded Peter for “living by the sword.”
Years later as Peter reflected on these events and was inspired to write his letters, he shared this observation about Jesus:
1 Peter 2:23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.
Of anyone who walked the planet, Jesus had the right to carry our revenge and retribution, yet he chose to not engage and entrust himself to the one, his Father, who would judge justly.
Jesus did not seek revenge. He instead loved and forgave. He hung on the cross for the very ones that were seeking to hurt him. He forgave the ones who unjustly nailed him to the cross. He did this not just as an example, but to bring forgiveness to us.
He went to the cross to receive the revenge for sin that we deserved from our holy, righteous God in heaven. God hurt his Son so he would not have to hurt us for our sin.
And…so we could do the same to those that hurt us.
So, to the ones that hurt you, love them as God has loved you.
Apply: What happens when ruminations of revenge are replaced with prayer and love toward the one that hurt you?
Prayer: Lord Jesus thank you for taking the vengeance of the Father for my sin, so that I would not have to. Thank you for showing your love to me so I might show the same to those who hurt me. AMEN.
Love Your Enemies?
This week’s devotions are based on Week 4 of Tough Love: Love Your Enemies (LISTEN HERE)
People notice when we love our enemies.
1 Peter 3:9 Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.
At face value, one can read this passage and say, “I agree.” In practical application, it is very hard because our sinful nature loves to react to getting wronged by wronging the person back.
What makes these words even more challenging, especially to the first readers of them, is that people were persecuting them because of their faith in Jesus. So their response to the evil or insult would be a direct reflection on their Christian faith.
Perhaps we believe we can get away with a little “mean” because no one knows we are a Christian. In a sporting event, if we feel someone wronged us, it is easy to push a little harder than needed the next time. As we drive down the road and someone cuts us off, it is tempting to speed around them and brake in front of them. If someone says something mean about us in a meeting at work, it’s tempting to make sure gossip is spread in the breakroom about them in the days that follow.
It’s much easier to repay evil with evil and insult with insult.
But anyone can do that. It is “normal” and doesn’t stand out. In fact, we often hear, “They had it coming” or “They deserved it” as if repaying evil with evil and insult with insult is expected and “just.”
But what if we repaid evil with a blessing or an insult with a compliment?
That would stand out…because it runs against the normal response.
When someone does evil to you…”I forgive you” or “I will pray for you.”
When someone insults you…”I wish you the best” or “I pray for God to bless you.”
Weird, right?
It doesn’t come natural and to be honest even in writing the thought went through my mind, “What does that look like?”
We all have to work on it.
As always, we have Jesus’ encouragement and example:
His encouragement:
Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
His example:
Luke 23:33 When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
The blessing from Jesus is his perfect love of enemies is the substitute we need when we imperfectly love our enemies. The blessing from Jesus for us, is he loves and forgives us, even though because of sin, we were his enemies.
When we love and forgive our enemies, do you think people may notice? And when people notice, people ask and when people ask, we get the chance to share the reason for the hope we have. And when we share, the Spirit of God has the chance to work on another heart.
Apply: What makes loving your enemies hard for you to do? What is one thing you may do to show love to someone today when they insult or do evil to you?
Prayer: Father, forgive us when we fail to love our enemies. Empower us with your Spirit to return insult and evil with a blessing. AMEN.
How long?
Today’s devotion is based on Week 3 of “Tough Love”: Delays Gratification! (WATCH HERE)
How long is this going to last?
We often ask this question when we are in the middle of a situation that is no fun. Severe illnesses lead us to ask, “How long?” Conflict at work leads us to wonder, “How long?” Challenges in our marriages make us think, “How long?” The pain of losing a loved one makes us contemplate, “How long?”
The challenging situations in life are not ones we enjoy. They are hard on our heart and bring tears to our eyes. We lie awake at night and are disrupted during the day. We think of ways out of the pain but no answer suffices.
We just don’t know how long we can last.
Jesus speaks to us another statement of blessing in Luke 6:
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
At first reading it might seem like Jesus is just telling you, “Get over it, this will pass.” But Jesus wouldn’t dismiss our sufferings. He wouldn’t make light of our challenges. He doesn’t dismiss them, but rather invites us to be in them with the hope and certainty that they will end.
Psalm 6 of King David is an example of a faithful follower of the Lord asking this very same question, “How long?” The situation is difficult, the pain real…but his confidence is also rock solid. Read it slowly and see if you can relate:
1 Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.
2 Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint;heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.
3 My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long?
4 Turn, Lord, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love.
5 Among the dead no one proclaims your name. Who praises you from the grave?
6 I am worn out from my groaning. All night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.
7 My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes.
8 Away from me, all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish; they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.
David was certain that his weeping and groaning would turn into laughing when the Lord overcame his enemies and those that stood opposed to him.
We can have the same confidence in the Lord. We live in a broken world, decimated by sin and the realities of evil. Suffering is real. Death is real. Hardship is real. But we navigate it not with hearts of hopelessness or answers found in addictions, but rather the calm confidence that our season of weeping will turn into an eternity of joy and laughter.
The Apostle John shares the glimpse he was given in Revelation 21:3-4 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Blessed are those who weep now…for they will laugh.
How long? We don’t know when, but it will end in joy!
Apply: What challenge are you facing today that doesn’t seem to have an endpoint? Reread the statement of blessing Jesus gives. Face the challenge today, not with hopelessness, but with confidence that your Savior is with you and will ultimately bring laughter from this season of challenge.
Prayer: Lord, in your mercy turn our weeping into laughter. Give us hope in our discouragements and trust in our challenges. Keep our eyes focused on the eternal joys of heaven, even as we navigate the temporal challenges in our life. AMEN.
I’m hungry!
Today’s devotion is based on Week 3 of “Tough Love”: Delays Gratification! (WATCH HERE)
How many times do you go to the refrigerator or pantry in a given day between meals? Perhaps your time at work curtails this, but you may have your stash in your desk or cubicle. When we get hungry, we want something to eat. It’s hard to even wait until meal time to satisfy that hunger.
Hunger is your body telling you that you have a need. Your body is signalling that some level of nutrition is needed to keep going. As a result it moves you to satisfy that hunger.
The second statement of blessing in Luke 6 is this:
“Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.”
In Matthew 5, Jesus stated it this way:
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
The tension between satisfying physical needs and spiritual needs is perhaps best described when Jesus met Satan in the dessert and Satan tempted him this way after 40 days and nights without something to eat.
Matthew 4:2 After fasting forty days and forty nights,he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
The temptation would have been to use his power to satisfy an earthly craving. However, it would not just have been providing bread like he did when he fed the 5000, but falling to Satan’s test to prove he was the Son of God by saying that earthly things are the most important. Rather, Jesus responded:
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Jesus’ “hunger and thirst” were for the things of God, the Word of God. He knew that while food is important in the short term, spiritual nourishment is what truly satisfies in the long term.
What would your spiritual life be like if you craved the word of God as often as you felt the urge to get a snack? What would happen if you drank from the Water of Life, the words of your Savior as often as you were thirsty and took a drink.
Perhaps the point isn’t to have a “feeding frenzy” of the Word of God, but simply a daily desire to seek after and find the satisfaction of the Lord in your life rather than the temporal things.
It’s easy to simply seek God when we have a temporal issue. Laid off? God provide me a job. Sick? God heal me. Lost a loved one? God comfort me. Relationship struggle? God fix it.
To be sure we want to invite God into these situations, however if we just crave the Lord to fix our earthly issues, we will always be wanting.
When we seek the Lord and his word of truth to fill our souls with his love, joy, peace, forgiveness, and hope, it gives a settled foundation for every situation in life we could encounter. Jesus says, “Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.” We may not have every earthly desire and luxury, and may be even short on some of what we would call necessities, but blessing comes when we find satisfaction and contentment in our Savior, not our stuff.
So follow Jesus’ direction to blessing, Delay earthly gratification for eternal satisfaction.
Apply: Try today to read a Scripture every time you get hungry and want to grab a snack. See what happens in your day when you taste the truth and goodness of God on a regular basis.
Prayer: Lord, help me always hunger and thirst after the righteousness you give, the truth you proclaim and the hope with which you fill me. AMEN.
Bless your heart?
Today’s devotion is based on Week 2 of “Tough Love”: Challenges Perspective! (WATCH HERE)
Here in the south, you can often times hear people use the phrase, “Bless their heart!” As I reflect on the use of the phrase, it seems to be used in a situation where something not so good has happened or someone has done something understandably dumb. So in the midst of a not so good situation or a somewhat dumb move, a person says “Bless their heart!” I think what is implied is this, “I hope something good comes to you out of this” or “They were so well intentioned that they deserve favor at least for the good intentions that got them in a sticky situation.” If any devotion readers are more educated in southern phrases, please correct my understanding.
What’s the point in bringing it up? We all want blessings…even in situations that seem antithetical to being blessed. We want good things in our lives and to affect those whom we love. If given the choice between blessing and curses, we would choose blessing every time.
The challenge as our heart yearns to be blessed, is sometimes our heart is misguided to seek blessing (sometimes equated with “happiness”) in things that are only a quick fix but not a long term sense of contentment, peace, and spiritual sufficiency.
As Jesus likes to do, he reverses our natural thinking to point us to where blessings for our heart and life can truly be found.
The most famous list of blessings is the Beatitudes found in Matthew 5. A second listing of four statements of blessing is in Luke 6, another of Jesus’ sermons. Jesus doesn’t just look at the crowd and say a pithy, “Bless their hearts” but rather indicates where true blessing is to be found. The first is this:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
The world around us wants us to believe that blessing is merely wrapped up in the material things around us. It’s easy to drive by a large house with expensive cars and think, “They are blessed” and look at our lesser house and 15 year old cars and wonder how do we get that kind of blessing. The “quick fix” to blessing we think is to have a successful job and career in which we earn a lot of money and are able to enjoy the nicer things this life has to offer. However, the danger is this: We try to fill the void in our hearts with the material things of this world. We seek to fill our spirit with a feeling that we are successful, have arrived, or have status in this world.
Jesus changes our focus from the material to the eternal. He directs our hearts to be filled with these two things: First, you have the status of a child of God and heir of the kingdom of God. This is something way beyond any material blessings the Lord may allow you to have. Second he reminds us that true value and worth is found in the treasures of heaven, not the treasures of the earth. Things on this earth can be swept away, burned up, and given away when you die. Your membership in God’s kingdom as a gift of grace is what is worth far more than anything this world could offer.
Want true and lasting blessings? Detach your heart from the material things of this world. Let your love and life’s mission be focused on following Jesus and enjoying the spiritual blessings of his kingdom…forgiveness, grace, eternal life and more. These are the realities that leave our spirit filled, satisfied, and completely blessed.
Apply: Is there something in your life that you are looking to fill your soul other than the love of Jesus? Write it down and ask the Lord to replace the void with the truths of his kingdom.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for making me your child through baptism and including me in your kingdom. Help me to always fill my spirit with the truths and grace of your kingdom. AMEN.