Dave's Diary

This message was preached at the Walmer Methodist Covenant Service, on 20 Feb 2022:

Luke 6:27-36

Today we come to a sacred moment of recommitment. We have been preparing ourselves over the last three Sundays (today being the 4th) to deliberately recommit ourselves to being absolutely surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and to living out that Lordship in our everyday lives. We’ve taken time to consider the implications of following the Lordship of Jesus … and today we take a look at the truth that this Covenant in which we already stand as Christ-followers … and which we are renewing today … is a COVENANT OF LOVE.

And I would like to highlight just TWO facts about this Covenant of Love. They are two sides of the coin. The Covenant of Love is …

1.A Covenant of God’s love FOR us

We stand in a covenant relationship with God absolutely undeservingly … totally and utterly because of God’s unfailing love for us … which love came to us in JESUS.

“God so LOVED the world,” says John 3:16, “that He sent His only begotten Son … that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

You and I have come to trust in all that Jesus has done through His life, death and resurrection. In Jesus, our sins have been forgiven, our past has been washed away, our lives have been cleansed, and we have been adopted into God’s Family, as children of God. That is what we have received as participants in the New Covenant that Jesus has established. We are not accepted under this covenant because we obey the Law … we are accepted because we trust that Jesus has done everything on our behalf. We stand in this covenant because of God’s grace and His grace alone.

But I don’t think many of us truly appreciate the extent of the grace of God in doing this for us. Because, I think we tend to look at ourselves through rose-coloured glasses. We tend to think of ourselves as really good people.

When Jesus says in Luke 6:35-36 that the Most High is kind and merciful to the ungrateful and wicked … we don’t actually realise that He was talking about us. Before we met Christ, we were the ungrateful and wicked. Many times … truth be told … we still ARE.

Romans 5:8 says that “God demonstrated His love for us in this: While we were still sinners – Christ died for us. And verse 10 adds: “while we were still God’s enemies”.

And yet … Despite the fact that all have sinned and are wicked and ungrateful sinners who fall short of the glory of God … God has “justified us freely by His GRACE”, says Romans 3:23.

We should never underestimate the fact that all humanity had rebelled against God … and that we were living happily in a God-less, sinful, hypocritical way … when Jesus came in love for us to live and die for our salvation.

We are only in this Covenant relationship with Almighty God in the first place because it is a Covenant of His MERCY … His KINDNESS and His unfailing love FOR US.

Then the second fact about this covenant of love is that it is…

2.A Covenant of Love THROUGH US

I think Jesus made this very clear when He taught in Luke 6 that there is a way for us to live within this Covenant relationship that will make us truly the children of the Most High Who is merciful and kind to the ungrateful and wicked.

How are we to live? Well, put very simply, we are to live in the same merciful, kind, and graciously-loving way towards those who are OUR “enemies” … as God lived towards us while we were still HIS ENEMIES. THEN, we will TRULY be children of God.

Our relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ is the Covenant of God’s Love FOR US which then becomes the Covenant of God’s Love THROUGH us … even in relation to those who might be called our “enemies”.

Now I hope that we would say, “I don’t really consider anyone my enemy as such.”

But some of us will already know exactly who that is. And for the rest of us, Jesus actually helps us to identify who He is talking about when He gives a description of a few ways in which such a person would behave towards us. Jesus speaks about our “enemy” and then gives some practical examples in v.27-31. My “enemy” by this definition is anyone who:
• Hates me – or despises me might be a more palatable word;
• Speaks negatively about me to my face … or even behind my back
• Ill-treats me
• Insults me
• Treats me unjustly
• Uses me

In relation to SUCH people, Jesus says: “Love them”.

Now, of course, He is not instructing me to like them … to like what they do … or to feel love towards them. He is commanding me to LOVE them.

How on earth can I do that? Well, Jesus explains it in very practical terms in v.27-31. He says that in relation to those very people, I should:
• Be creative in deliberately doing good for them and to them
• Bless them – I think by that He means speak positively about them and to them;
• Pray for them
• Live abundantly and generously towards them
• Extend undeserved practical goodness and kindness to them

There is an echo of the spirit of this kind of living in Romans 12:21 which instructs us to “overcome evil with good.”

Now I feel the need to emphasize that we are not called to tolerate abuse. When Jesus said to turn the other cheek, for example, we need to think that through very well or we may go away with a misunderstanding.

A slap on the cheek was not a form of physical assault in 1st century Israel. It was a form of insult. It was usually a backhand slap which was a form of profound disrespect and insult. It was usually doled out when a person came towards one to greet one with the greeting “SHALOM” and a customary kiss on both cheeks.

Now for a slap on the cheek, how might one respond?

1. One might just be a doormat and keep standing there allowing the person to slap one’s cheek backhanded, over and over again. That’s a passive response. That’s NOT the response Jesus commands.
2. OR, one might do what I must confess would be my personal knee-jerk reaction … forget slapping them back and punch them on the nose. That’s definitely NOT the response Jesus commands either.
3. BUT there is also a third possibility. That is the truly loving way … it involves changing the dynamic. In the literal example of check-slapping it meant still approaching the person with honour and politeness to greet them the second cheek-kiss to offer “SHALOM” (peace be with you). But notice it is a change of cheek. It is not accepting the insult and rebuff … but pressing in to work for peace with this person despite their insult.
   Tim Keller gives a great example for this in a sermon on this passage. He tells how he overheard a young woman once on the phone to her father. Clearly her father was speaking abusively to her. He points out that she could have screamed back at him and slammed the phone down in his ear – that would be the equivalent of a punch on the nose … or she could have just stayed on the line and taken it as he dealt out insults to her. But Tim says that instead, she said boldly, “Dad, I love you but it is not okay for you to speak to me like that. It is unacceptable and degrading. So, I am going to hang up now. But because I love you, I will call you back later when you have calmed down. But if you are going to speak to me like this again … I will hang up again. I love you too much to let this carry on, dad.” And she hung up the phone.

THAT is turning the other cheek. It is taking control of the dynamic of the relationship … shifting the angle so to speak … but still returning to the person in grace, mercy and kindness, even when they insulted you and treated you despicably.

EXAMPLE: David and Saul in the cave in 1 Samuel 24 (read v. 8-19)

CONCLUSION

So, to sum it up so far … we are in a Covenant of God’s love FOR us … even when we were still sinners and enemies of God … and therefore it must be a Covenant of God’s love THROUGH us … even towards those who are “enemies”.

But my closing question is this: Why would I bother to live out God’s love like this? And Jesus’ answer is … because only then will you truly be living as a child of God’s love … only then will you be acting in accordance with all you have received from God … only then will you be able to fully experience the abundant and eternal life God has for you … and because there is GREAT POWER in living like this.

Just consider this with me for a moment will you. I visited a Grow Group this week and I was really impacted by the following exercise. You may have done it in your group too … so please bear with me and really try to enter into it again. imagine: How would I feel if I was the one who:
• Hated someone, and then she did something magnificently good for me at great cost to herself.
• Openly slandered someone and then discovered he was going around telling people very sincerely how wonderful I am.
• Ill-treated someone and then overheard her praying passionately and very sincerely for God to forgive me and bless me.
• Insulted someone to his face and he did not retaliate in the slightest, but just kept reaching out to me with kindness.
• Refused to help a friend financially when she was in need, but later when I fell on hard times she was the first to bring me assistance, without even being asked.

Can you feel the power of this way of living? There is great power IN living this way.

But friends, in closing, let me remind you that there is also great power FOR this way of living. Our efforts to practically live out the Covenant of God’s love is powered by the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Love! We never, ever need to try this in our own strength. We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit for precisely this reason … so that we can be empowered to live like Jesus in the world.