Verse by Verse

Erik Jones: 00:00

Today's verse comes from Luke's account of Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount. Let's read it in Luke 6 verse 35. Jesus said, 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. This is one of many statements in that perspective on dealing with someone we consider an enemy?

Erik Jones: 00:36

Someone who mistreats us, doesn't like us, someone who disagrees with us violently. Well, the natural response or what we'd call human nature is to treat them as our enemy. They mistreat us, so we mistreat them. They don't like us, so we don't like them. They oppose us, so we oppose them.

Erik Jones: 00:57

They put obstacles in our path, we put obstacles in their path. Now even if we don't openly mistreat someone who mistreats us, tit for tat as the saying goes, sometimes the best our human nature will allow is for us to simply ignore them. We may not actively do evil back to them, but we certainly won't do anything good for them either. Again, that's just human nature. But one of the themes of Jesus' ministry, especially found in the Sermon on the Mount, was teaching a way of life that goes completely contrary to human nature, a way of life that replaces our human nature with god's divine nature.

Erik Jones: 01:36

Instead of thinking like a human being thinks, Jesus taught us to think like god thinks. Instead of behaving as humans naturally behave, Jesus taught us to behave how god lives and behaves. Instead of being motivated by motives that just come naturally to us, Jesus taught us to be motivated by what motivates god. So this particular statement in the Sermon on the Mount teaches us to think differently in those three ways, our thoughts, our behavior, and our motives. So let's read it again and think deeper about how Jesus' words apply to our thoughts, behavior, and motives.

Erik Jones: 02:13

He says again, 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. So let's take a closer look. Number 1, how is Jesus encouraging us to think differently? Well, instead of hating, disliking, or or being completely apathetic to our perceived enemies, Jesus taught that we are to love them.

Erik Jones: 02:41

He said, but love your enemies. In other words, care for them, care about them, be genuinely concerned about their well-being, yes, even if they don't care about us. That's hard to do, but that's what he said. Number 2. How did Jesus encourage us to behave differently?

Erik Jones: 03:01

Well, instead of treating a perceived enemy with the same disregard they may show us, Jesus said we're to do good to them, even to the point of helping them financially if they are in dire financial straits. So even if that person treats us terribly, even if they would never lift a finger to help us, even if they go out of their way to make our life miserable, we should still do good to them. Why? Because as we already covered, we are to think differently about them. Instead of choosing to hate them, we choose to love and care for them.

Erik Jones: 03:36

Again, that's contrary to human nature, but we are to be different. And number 3, how does Jesus encourage us to be motivated differently? Well, instead of being kind or doing good for somebody just to get something back or to maybe make them feel bad or or just to make them dislike us a little less, Jesus said we're to do it for no selfish reason. His words were hoping for nothing in return. In other words, we shouldn't do good to our enemies with any ulterior motives other than it being the right thing to do.

Erik Jones: 04:11

So going back to Jesus' words, he ends this statement by reminding us that our ultimate goal for living like this is to be like god. He said, for he, god, is kind to the unthankful and evil. So why should you love your enemies and do good to them? Because that's how God is. That's his character.

Erik Jones: 04:32

That's how he treats those who make themselves his enemies. We need to look no further than Jesus Christ's own example to see that divine characteristic in action. On the last day of his physical life, Jesus was arrested, convicted in a sham court, and treated with utter brutality and contempt by people who had absolutely no reason to hate him. Yet amid that treatment by people who considered him their enemy, Jesus responded with love and kindness. When Peter reacted according to human nature and tried to defend Jesus by chopping off the ear of 1 of the men sent to arrest him, Jesus rebuked Peter and healed the man's ear.

Erik Jones: 05:15

Here, this man was part of a group trying to arrest him and lead him to his ultimate death, and Jesus treated him with concern and kindness. Later on, when the Roman soldiers were abusing and mocking him as he hung on the cross or the stake, Jesus asked his father not to hold this evil, this sin against them, but instead to forgive them because they truly did not understand what they were doing. Yes. Jesus demonstrated this way of living and thinking perfectly. His example completely contradicted human nature and flawlessly displayed God's nature.

Erik Jones: 05:51

Yes. It's hard. Believe me. It's really hard. Yes.

Erik Jones: 05:55

It runs contrary to our natural way of thinking. And, no, it's not always comfortable. And it's not easy. But doing hard things contrary to our human nature is what being a true disciple of Jesus Christ is all about.

Kevin Scarbrough: 06:12

Verse by Verse is a companion podcast to the daily bible verse blog, which you can find on the Life, Hope, and Truth Learning Center. Check out the show notes for more.