Do to others…
Day 347, Thursday, July 24
Luke Chapter 6 – 7:17
One of the best known scriptures in the New Testament is Luke 6:31.
To put it in context, it comes at the end of a series of commands to go above and beyond in love: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
Luke goes on to say that even sinners love people who love them, and do good things for people from whom they expect good things in return.
Our measure, though, should not be the reciprocation we do expect, but rather the reciprocation we would hope to receive…we do good to other because it is what we would want done for us, not because it is what we expect to be done for us.
While this can leave us disappointed in the here and now, it will be rewarded through God’s judgment, he says.
“But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
-Rev. Mark Fleming
Thursday meditation
Job 10:8-22
“Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit.
“But this is what you concealed in your heart, and I know that this was in your mind: If I sinned, you would be watching me and would not let my offense go unpunished. If I am guilty—woe to me! Even if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head, for I am full of shame and drowned in my affliction. If I hold my head high, you stalk me like a lion and again display your awesome power against me. You bring new witnesses against me and increase your anger toward me; your forces come against me wave upon wave.
“Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me. If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave! Are not my few days almost over? Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and utter darkness, to the land of deepest night, of utter darkness and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”
Prayer focus
Lord, re-mold us into your love that we can love even those who despise us, and do good even to those who would wish us ill.