READ: Luke 6:27-36: … love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind … Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
The Lord Jesus now works out very concretely what He expects from us as His disciples. It is not merely a recommendation, but a command. If you do not follow His instructions, you are not worthy of being His disciple. The way of life the Lord requires goes against our sinful nature. We must then be willing to deny ourselves and give selflessly something from which we ourselves gain no benefit.
It may even feel like ‘suffering injustice’ when you must do good to your enemies, or give something to another person for nothing. It indeed takes self-denial not only to avoid hating your enemies but even to do good to them.
Moreover, the scribes in Jesus’ time actually taught that you should love your neighbor but hate your enemy (Matt. 5:43). But God’s law expressly forbids taking revenge (Lev.19:18). Your enemy is also your neighbor!
Jesus even requires that you bless the one who curses you. Later Paul writes in Rom. 12:20: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.’
You must also turn the other cheek to the one who strikes you on the cheek, and let the one who takes something from you take even more (v.29). This too stands within the framework of Jesus’ command: love your enemies and do not take revenge.
The summary is: treat others as you would want to be treated yourself. All the instructions Jesus has given have their foundation in God the Father Himself. As He is, as the Most High, so His children should be. They must display His image, showing that they belong to Him (v.35). They must show that the Lord God is gracious, kind, and merciful toward ungrateful and sinful people. . Then the Lord God will grant them His gracious and great reward..
Who are our enemies in this context?
Sing: Ps. 112:3,4