Good Morning Friends,
Life is frequently unfair. Our passage from 1 Kings points that out. Bad things happen to good people and their families. Brutality and injustice are all around us. And we wonder why. Initially we submit to the reality that God’s purpose is beyond us, and God’s ways are above our ways. But Jesus prompts us to be more for the sake of the Kingdom of God. So out of Jesus’ teaching we explore the perfect example of perfect love as the path for loving enemies, turning the other cheek, and discovering the blessing in being persecuted for the cause of Christ. And in so doing hopefully gain an answer to today’s question about character development. So, Can We Love Unconditionally In A Wicked World?
Scripture: Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying: Go down to meet King Ahab of Israel, who rules in Samaria; he is now in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession. You shall say to him, “Thus says the Lord: Have you killed, and also taken possession?” You shall say to him, “Thus says the Lord: In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, dogs will also lick up your blood.” Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, O my enemy?” He answered, “I have found you. Because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, I will bring disaster on you; I will consume you, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel; and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have provoked me to anger and have caused Israel to sin. Also concerning Jezebel the Lord said, ‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the bounds of Jezreel.’ Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat; and anyone of his who dies in the open country the birds of the air shall eat.” (Indeed, there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord, urged on by his wife Jezebel. He acted most abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites.) When Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth over his bare flesh; he fasted, lay in the sackcloth, and went about dejectedly. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son’s days I will bring the disaster on his house.”
1 Kings 21:17-29 (NRSV)
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:43-48 (NRSV)
Message: Being a Christian requires a beginning, and a growth towards maturity. But the beginning is not what we think for the start is in the idea God had from the beginning for us. We were predestined in a way to be who we are for we are God’s creations. The beauty is that we are slowly transformed from being self-centered to being God centered, from seeking love to radiating love formed by God. This is a radical change that begins with accepting Jesus and then letting the Holy Spirit do the work toward completing God’s creative process in us. Jesus teaches about this as recorded in the book of Matthew.Six times in Matthew Jesus uses the phrase “you have heard that it was said” and today’s verse is the last and perhaps the most important of the lot. The Old Testament quotation it is based on is, “love your neighbor as yourself.” But Jesus replaces yourself bit, with us to love our enemy. It all reminds me of Pogo’s revelation that we have met the enemy, and he is us. By altering the text Jesus is getting right up in the face of the Scribes and Pharisees to keep growing. Jesus further illustrates his point in the story of the good Samaritan in the book of Luke. Here it becomes clear that it is not just a matter of what we must do but who we are on the inside. Our light is to shine before men so that it will glorify God. So, we are to love our enemies, bless them, do good to them, and pray for them, for God is good to the evil as well as to the good. God is merciful. The focus here is on having a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. We are salt and light in the world. So, our question this morning is about a process of turning us mortal, sinful beings into God formed creatures who radiate love. We are to keep growing to the point that we shudder at the thought of what we were like before Jesus. This is what it means to be the children of God. So, after all the comparisons of before and after, it comes down to the process on a regular and consistent basis of imitating God and especially God’s love. If the idea is in us to love unconditionally, it overcomes our wicked nature, and we exist in a very different reality that is frankly surprising because it is not what the world teaches us.
And So, we were made in the image of God. Not so much in the physical sense but in the way our minds work and the way our brains are structured for consciousness. We mirror the Trinitarian doctrine of Idea, Energy, Power. The three combined quite literally in what we call into being through creative ideas, energized by loving acts of implementation and multiplied in the capacity of collective power. In doing this define the reality of God is validated and our experience of truth incarnate become love. Jesus understood that making a prohibition for a behavior was no ultimate solution. Natural laws are not to be opposed to divine laws but to reveal them. It is about the process of morality revealed as love is deployed. And it is perfect because it is God’s will in us as God’s creations being who we were made to be. It is not our own will but God’s when we love, for it casts out fear and calls God’s glory into being in us. Like a perfectly crafted three acts play we have the opportunity to call into being good or ill. The plot twists but the characters play out who they were made to be by the author for the benefit of all who might share in the creative and divine experience of life. So, it is God’s will not our own that ultimately rules. It is Jesus’ faith more than our own that ushers us into the part we play. It is the idea, energy and power of God played out in our acts of unconditional love that reveals the truth of God in a wicked world. In the end we are to love all people and still hate sin, especially when it is our own.
Pray we receive God’s love and recognize the source of the love. Pray we imitate the perfect love of the Father and the perfect example of the Son. Pray we have a love that casts out fear. Pray that even though we will never reach the perpetual perfection that Jesus wants for us now, we keep maturing so God might bear the fruit of love in us. Pray we deal with life’s injustices in our broken world by letting the Holy Spirit speak to our hearts and allow us to pass our love on to those whom we find difficult and even painful to confront. Pray we humble ourselves to love even our enemies. Pray we love unconditionally in a wicked world to transform the wickedness into something to glorify God. Pray we have a continuing dialog with God so that our dialogues with others about ideas, energy and power be molded into God’s idea, energy and power revealing the truth with great love.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 