In today’s post Jesus gets into the meat of His doctrine of love. Let’s look at the next five verses.
“27 But I say unto you which hear, do good to them that hate you, 28 bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. 29 And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak fobid not to take thy coat also. 30 Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. 31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”
What Jesus gives us in this little passage is the outward signs of inward love. The word rendered hear in verse twenty-seven actually has a more broad meaning, to understand and obey. Jesus is commanding everyone that understands and obeys Him to act in love toward everyone, not just the ones who love you, nor just to include the indifferent majority, but even and especially the ones who hate you.
The various acts of forgiveness and generosity He speaks of are the natural output of a loving heart. A parent would not, under normal circumstances, ask his child to return the things the child uses up, such as food, hygiene items, cleaning material, etc. But that parent, out of love for the child offers even better things than those the child took. The same kind of love is to be shown to everyone, especially those who have made themselves your enemy.
Jesus goes on to describe how you are to act toward violence. In other places, Jesus has not condemned the use of violence when used to stop a worse violence or in time of war. But Jesus does condemn the use of violence merely to stop an insult like a slap on the cheek. This admonition is exactly the opposite of the boasting of Nimrod, the “mighty hunter before the Lord.” The words in Genesis were rendered wrong anyway. It should have been rendered, “Nimrod became a terrible rebel in the Face of the Lord.” The Hebrew wording supports both renderings, but the one I propose fits better in the context. But I digress.
Jesus tells us not to chase down the thief who steals from us, but if we catch him, we are to offer him more. There is a story of a monk of the desert who returned to his cell to find a thief loading all his possessions on a donkey. The monk then helped him load the donkey, bid him farewell, and praised God that he was delivered from the bondage to material possessions.
Jesus is outlining the ‘Golden Rule’ that is delivered in the Sermon on the Mount. We are to treat each other, even our enemies, the way we wish to be treated by others. This fits in to the Law of Reciprocity. What you do comes back on you. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In the spiritual sense, the opposition is in direction, not purpose. Therefore, when love goes out of you, love returns in the same measure. The best part of this is that when love is spent thus, your capacity to love grows in equivalent measure as well.
Tomorrow’s post expands on this topic.
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