To You Who Are Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Our Scripture for this week, August 16, 2026 is Luke 6: 17-36:
17 He came down with them
and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great
multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and
Sidon. 18 They had come to hear him and to be
healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were
cured. 19 And everyone in the crowd was trying to
touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
20 Then he looked up at his
disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of
God. 21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you
will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
22 “Blessed are you when
people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on
account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice on that day
and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how
their ancestors treated the prophets.
24 “But woe to you who are
rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 “Woe to
you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep. 26 “Woe to you when all
speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.
27 “But I say to you who are
listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; 28 bless
those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If
anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from anyone who
takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give
to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask
for it back again. 31 Do to others as you would
have them do to you.
32 “If you love those who
love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love
them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to
you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If
you lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment, what credit is that
to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 Instead,
love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your
reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself
is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be
merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
We are saved by
Jesus, saved from our sins, gifted with eternal life, restored fully as
Children of God. We are called upon to
love God as the first and greatest commandment because God first loved us. Our salvation is the expression of that love,
love from God’s heart, love we return with all our heart.
The second
commandment like unto it is to love our neighbors. That love begins from the heart, from the center
of God’s being to the center of our being in the grace given in Jesus. It is that same love we are called upon to
share with our neighbors. How we show
that love reflects then from how we love our neighbor with all our soul.
We love God
with all our soul by basking in the joy of our salvation. We love our neighbor with all our soul by
deciding how then we will share that joy.
How shall we take God’s love to them?
How will Love decide and guide our actions? What is right and what is wrong in our
outreach to our neighbors? What does
Jesus teach us, and through the lens of Jesus, what does the Bible teach in how
we shall love our neighbors?
It is something
to struggle with. Love your enemies is a
key theme in our passage from Luke. Let
them hit you, let them take your stuff, offer them more of your stuff. Is that love or victimhood? It’s not a simple call to make. Jesus says turn the other cheek. Does that mean I should offer up my cheek to
be slapped? Go looking for trouble? Seek to avoid trouble? Or is this where I take my stand? Loving our neighbors…and the ‘how’ of it.
Life in Christ
is a whole new way of being. Different
from how the world exists. Are we ready
to dig into our faith and make the decisions needed to live that new way?
Pastor Pete
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