Luke 6,27-36
Love Your Enemies
27 “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.
30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.
31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
32 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.
33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.
34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount.
35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Highest, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
36 Be merciful, even as your father is merciful.
Hello everyone, I am kiki. Chinese name of our second phase of the program is “读经大讲堂”. The English name is “Bible study”.
We will adopt a relaxed also enjoyable learning mode to take you into a new learning world. Each time I will make a personal summary and analysis from the perspective of a learner, and then Sister Ingrid will help me conduct in-depth learning and problem discussions with everybody.
I hope that such an interesting and interactive process can bring new knowledge experience to you all. The following is my interview with sister on related issues. Today is the twelfth lecture on the Gospel of Luke.
Everyone is welcome to leave a message in the comment area for discussion!
2.My summary of Luke twelfth-time study:
Well, everybody! Firstly, is still my today’s personal study summary.
Jesus teaches us something really challenging: to love our enemies.
He says we should do good to people who hate us, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who mistreat us.
If someone hits us, we should offer the other cheek. If someone takes our coat, we should let them have our shirt too. We should give to anyone who asks and not demand things back. Basically, we should treat others the way we want to be treated.
Jesus points out that it’s easy to love people who love us back, but the real test is loving those who don’t. He wants us to be kind and merciful, just like God is. Even when people are ungrateful or mean, God is still kind to them, and we should try to do the same.
Now let Ingrid sister make a go further summary.
3.Sister’s comment from my studying summary:
Hello everybody. This text is not easy and I used the King James Commentary for more information.
For to understand this teaching, we have to know its purpose: Jesus is teaching his disciples, who he will send out later for to preach the Gospel how they should behave.
Their behaving shall reflect the grace of God and this is why they shall pray for the enemies and not defend in case of robbery or attack.
In the old testimony there we have the law it is written, that you shall be punished by the same way, if you had done something wrong.
Here Jesus teaches about grace and forgiveness, which are his characteristics as we see, when he is praying on the cross for those who had brought him there.
- Q list part: base on Luke 12th items:
Okay. Base on above bible study content, now let me ask sister some related questions.
We hope the following questions can be helpful to our brothers and sisters who have just become Christians.
1.Why does Jesus ask us to love our enemies? What is the purpose of it?
We shall reflect God’s grace in our behavior and our prayer.
2.What does it mean to “turn the other cheek”?
As I mentioned in the beginning, in the time of the law, the people were punished in the same way as they did something wrong and the one who was attacked had the right to attack the other one, too.
Here Jesus teaches us, how we can solve a harmful conflict, not by law but by grace.
3.How can we do good to people who hate us?
First pray for them, forgive them, what they did wrong to us and having an open door, when they would like to come to restore relationship or go to them and restore relationship if it is possible.
4.Why should we give without expecting anything in return?
When we expecting something, grace has ended.
- Do you think Jesus’ teachings are too difficult?
Because in reality, we often cannot choose to forgive and tolerate others.
Jesus’ teachings are difficult and without being a disciple having the Holy Spirit inside you, it is not possible.
We have read in the gospel of John, that a lot of disciples left Jesus after this teaching.
6.Why is it easy to love those who love us, but hard to love our enemies?
Because it is normal, to love those who love you.
7.How does being kind to ungrateful people reflect God’s character?
God is merciful and this is why Jesus commands us to be merciful, too
8.Can you think of a time when you showed kindness to someone who wasn’t nice to you?
I once had a conflict with a person, which was my fault, too. So, I apologized for my part of the conflict and send a present per mail .
9.What challenges do you face when trying to forgive someone?
I think the most challenging in forgiving is forgetting. If it was a hard damage, it is very difficult to forget.
10.How can we practice mercy in our daily lives?
When we have conflicts, go a step back and not insist that we are right.
