To love others as God loves me!

Reflecting on Luke 6:27-36

"Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." (Luke 6:36)

This sums it up, what following Jesus is all about.
Jesus describes God’s way of showing mercy like this:

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27-28)

God loves His enemies, God is good to those who hate Him.
God blesses those who curse Him, God intercedes for those who mistreat Him.
Is this how you think about God?
I was raised on a picture of God that was angry, not loving.
I was reminded of the holiness of God, and that I was a worm, a wretch.
In this context, mercy did not mean love, goodness or blessing.
It meant that God looked on me with disdain, but put up with me anyway.
God was ready at any moment to withdraw His mercy, if I stepped out of line.

I am comforted the how Jesus describes and reveals the love of God.
God’s love is extreme, it goes the extra mile, it pays a huge price.
As a parent, I can relate to this sense of love; I want to do this for my kids.
God’s love is so much more than ours.

“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:11)

At the same time I am convicted by God’s gracious, merciful love – in two ways.
First of all, I am blown away by how much God loves me.
And secondly, I am convicted when I think Jesus wants me to love others like this.
Not only have we lost sight of how much God graciously loves us.
We have downplayed how much God wants us to graciously love others.

When I see how many christians relate to others, I do NOT see God’s kind of mercy.
How many christians treat those they consider sexual sinners.
How many christians treat those who belong to other religions.
How many christians treat refugees and immigrants.
Of course they justify this by insisting they are sinners.
What does that have to do with it, WE ARE ALL SINNERS!!!
What I sense too often in christians is more like the Pharisees than like Jesus.
But lest it sound that I am thinking I am better than them, I know I am not.
I am guilty of not loving people like God does.

Yet this conviction does not make me feel like a wretch or a worm.
I sense the loving and gentle conviction of Jesus as an invitation.
He calls and motivates me to not only receive God’s love, but to live it out.
Jesus is not condemning us, He is calling us to join Him in sharing God’s love.
He knows we cannot do this by ourselves, but He will help us.
Jesus is calling me to (1) want to love like God and (2) take steps in that direction.
His love not only blesses me, it inspires me to love like Him.
“We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)

Don’t let Satan and the church downplay God’s love for undeserving you.
Don’t let Satan and the church restrict your love for undeserving others.
My prayer for me, for you, and for everyone, is the same:

“To grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:18-19)

If you are filled with God’s love like this, it will overflow to others.
If it does not, then we have not yet grasped how amazing it is.

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, blow me away even more with the immeasurable width and length and height and depth of God's love. Help me to see that this is how God loves me, and the people around me that I think are sinners. If God is merciful to them and to me like this, help me to be merciful like this too. 

And forgive the church for our diminishing Your gracious love, for we do not know what we are doing.