In the midst of our passage for Sunday, there is, for many, a throw away line. Jesus said, "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them." It is Normal and Expected that we love those who love us.
Our passage begins with the radical love of Jesus expressed in the Golden Rule, where Jesus speaks of loving your enemies, doing good to the haters, blessing the cursers, praying for the abusers, turning the cheek to the violent. (See the Feb. 18 post on ChurchMerch blog post for a lot more about these verses).
When Jesus speaks of what is Normal and Expected behavior, it is not simply “If you love those who love you…” It is not simply that “…even sinners love those who love them.” Normal and Expected is expanded in the next verse. “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.”
To love, to say that we love and mean it, is to do good. In a Normal and Expected healthy relationship, we love those who love us and do good for those who do good for us. This is not Jesus-level behavior, but human-level behavior. Jesus points out sinners do this. We are saved, but we are still sinners.
Now the Apostle Paul takes a thumping today for the misogynistic passages in his letters. In previous times, he took a thumping for passages that justified slavery. Today, he is used by some 'faithful Christians' to claim that women are second class citizens and justify the abuse to 'keep them in their place'. We can talk about ‘cultural circumstances’ all we want, about 2000 years between then and now, but the reality is that this attitude is still real today. Violence against women, against any group that is ‘othered’, is codified in the deliberate misinterpretation of Scripture.
What Paul has written gives obvious foundation for this spiteful, wrongful abuse of Scripture. My first corrective to Paul is always to look at what Jesus tells us (as Paul did). But when the of Jesus are also abused for evil purposes, it is a truly nasty invasion of sin into our faith.
To twist Jesus' words, there is a clever game of dividing word from action. Normal and Expected behavior in a loving relationship is the mutual action of doing good things for one another. But a dangerous 'new' normal and very twisted expectation emerge in the word ‘love’ when it is divided from the actions that Jesus has defined.
Jesus speaks of the "enemy", then defines the enemy by their actions, those who hate me, curse me, abuse me, strike me, take from me. But the words of the Bible are twisted by the evil-hearted who conveniently redefine 'actions' for their own gain.
How many 'believers' in Christ Jesus, demonstrate the actions of the ‘enemy’, they hate, curse, abuse, and violate, but say they ‘love’ the victim. They rearrange Jesus' own words to malevolently twist the Bible to say that 'love' supports hatred, abuse, and violence against another.
“Do unto others as you would have them to unto you.” That safeguard has already been cliched into irrelevance.
The call to turn the other cheek, to receive more violence, abuse, cursing, and hatred, if that is the call to treat the enemy, how much more should it apply to someone who perversely claims to 'love' you when they act this way? So, like verse 35, "love your enemies, do good...expecting nothing in return." How much more should this apply to those who act as enemy but 'love' us?
"Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High." One more bit of perversion of Jesus' words, that God, the Most High, is invoked so the victim accepts the abuse.
Abuse in the family touched my life growing up, where 'love' was said but the actions were among those Jesus defines for the enemy. So yes, this is personal for me. I serve as a pastor now. In today's world, so many claim the 'love' of Christ in word, but act out in the hateful, cursing, abusive, and violent actions of the Enemy. They dare to claim this is the "Normal and Expected" way of loving. That makes it both personal and vocational for me.
Yes, Jesus calls us to express radical love for those enemies we can clearly define by their actions. But when it comes to those who claim the name of Jesus, but who hate, curse, abuse, and commit violence and dare to call it 'love'? In addition to the radical love Jesus teaches us to show our enemies, He has also showed us anger, bitterness, and even violence against those who know God's love and twist it for their own gain.
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