Little Angel

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
(Matthew 5:43-48)

Jesus: "Keep your word."
Us: "Check."
Jesus: "No revenge."
Us: "Sigh...OK, anything for You, Jesus."
Jesus: "Love and pray for your enemies...and be perfect."
Us: "For real?!"

The thing about Jesus is that He always keeps pressing.  And praise God that He does, because I'm prone all too often to try and "be good" at what I think is the minimal level for the passing grade.  When I do that it's because I really still just don't get it.  I keep thinking that if I get a little better at the rules, if I'm a bit more disciplined, and if my doctrine becomes a little more pure, THEN I'll be more of a Christian than ever before.  THEN I'll be that perfect little angel people need me to be.  See the halo?  Talk about burdens to carry.  Didn't Jesus say that His burden for us was light?

Yes, and it's not our job to have our walk with Him start that way and then work hard to make it heavy over time.  We forget sometimes our starting point which is what Jesus proclaimed as the single greatest commandment everything else was to flow out of: Love God with everything you've got (Deut. 6:5).  GET THAT FIRST.  It's the only way forward and the only sustainable course.  If we remember that and then see everything else Jesus says as a way of urging, "Here's what the God you're in love with looks like, and here's how you can love like Him," then we'll operate according to a swelling heart instead of according to religious expertise.  That's why Jesus could pray for His murderers' forgiveness.  That's why Stephen, when he was being stoned to death, prayed for the same.  That's how we can love our enemies (which might just be people we work with, see at holidays, or even sit across the pew from who seem to be begging for a good neck-wringing).  Jesus wants us to know what God's perfect love looks like so that we can have perfect love...not just the natural, reciprocal kind.

All this makes for a battle inside our souls; no doubt.  It is not easy to love well.  It's complicated to say the least.  But the cool thing is that we don't have to try and plan every detail of what it needs to look like in those tough moments.  We just need to devour more of God every day and hunger for Him in a way that kills us if we start to fall off the wagon and entertain ourselves with lesser things and find us insensitive to the needs around us.  We need to look at the cross that Jesus hung on and be astounded over God's love for us when we were still His enemies.  It's only then that the loving of our own will make any sense and start to flow.

God motivation over rule motivation.  That's another part of the rock Jesus gives us to build our lives upon.