Devotionals

Beyond the Boundaries

by Jennifer Woodley 
06/27/19
Free to Share
Author requests article critique

  Message Writer
  Hire Writer

Tweet

‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.’ Luke 6:27 (NRSV).

Christ’s followers are called to do more than sinners do. It is easy to listen to others when they listen to us, to love those who love us, to do good to those who do good to us or to lend something when we know it will be returned. However, Jesus calls us to do more than this. He commands that we go way beyond the boundaries of what keeps our behaviour acceptable and expected by the world’s standards.

In the teachings that we read today in Luke 6:27-36, Jesus instructs us to listen to and love our enemies, to do good to those who treat us unfairly, to lend to those who can’t return, to pray for and bless those who abuse us. Jesus calls us to go over and beyond what those who don’t follow Him do. We are to stand out as different. We will be thought of as peculiar. We will be misunderstood. But we will bear that cross for the sake of following Christ.

These are hard teachings, but not impossible. They cut through to our heart to reveal our level of obedience to Jesus. Do we love Him? Do we trust Him? Is our faith really rooted in Christ? If so, we will obey His commands in this passage. Not part of them, but all of them. What can loving our enemy look like for us today? If God is merciful and kind to the ungrateful and wicked, we must be too.