There is a remarkable chapter in Luke’s Gospel, chapter 6, wherein Jesus speaks about loving your enemies. Repeatedly Jesus uses the verbs love, do good, pray for, give, do not demand, do to others what you would have them do to you. And then in a few short verses Jesus repeats seven more times His command to love and to do good to others. And then Jesus ends this remarkable teaching with commands not to judge others, or condemn others, and instead forgive others. And at the end of these incredibly insightful verses Jesus says this: “How can you say to your neighbor, ‘Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye” Luke 6:42.
It’s remarkable to me how much living the Christian life, according to Jesus, is predicated on how we view and treat others. The Christian life, in other words, is all about relationships. First and foremost, the key question is this: How do we relate to Jesus Christ? And the other side of living the Christian life is this question: How do we relate to others? In every sense, according to Jesus, the Christian life is all about the relationships we develop with Jesus and with others. Life is all about building a relationship with Jesus Christ and with others. And the two verbs Jesus speaks about the most in this chapter is to love and to do good! We are to love Christ and love others, as well as we are to do good in everything Christ wants us to do and we are to do good to others. Always. These are the goals to living our life. These are the twin purposes of living life. Nothing matters more than loving and doing good.
These two things are especially true when no one else is looking!
So take time today and pray about your love for Christ and your love for others, as well as how much you do good. Consider all of the choices and decisions you make each day. Are love and doing good at the center of your choices in your life today. Pray for this grace from God, to help you love and to help you to do good. And just focus on today!
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” Galatians 6:9.
“Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness” Psalm 37:3.
“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” Matthew 5:16.
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” Ephesians 2:10.
“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” 1 John 4:8.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16.
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.
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