Greetings One and all and Welcome to This Week’s SS Lesson Preview
This week’s lesson is entitled “Jesus Teaches About Transforming Love”. If you have not already read the lesson text, I invite you to click here and read it first before continuing with this commentary. This text, like last week, is a continuation of part of what has come to be known as “the sermon on the mount” which consist of chapters 5 through 7 in Matthew. Parts of the sermon is also found in Luke and Mark.
This week’s lesson includes some fundamental principles and doctrines of Christianity. As part of His call for repentance, God requires unconditional love and forgiveness toward others. This seems difficult to do. How can you love someone who wants to harm you, take advantage of you, see you fail and display their dislike toward you in their words and actions? Jesus said the motivation to love this way is a desire to be like our Father and Creator. He points to the fact that God is good to those who are evil and unrighteous. And that there is no reward or difference in being good only to those who are good to you.
The evil and unrighteous are good to those who are good to them. But in order to be perfect, we must rise above our carnal instincts and see humanity the way God sees us. God sees us as broken and fallen and in need of help. The enemy uses our struggles, trials, tragedies and differences to pit people against one another and keep us from loving and helping each other. In most cases, people are manipulated to hate others with devices and tactics that appeal to fear and jealousy that somehow suggest the other person is a threat to us.
The hatred directed toward one person is then return by the other person. Jesus calls on His disciples to break this pattern and cycle by returning love instead of hate. Chapter 13 in 1st Corinthians is dedicated to explaining this kind of love. One of the distinguishing characteristics of love is that “love works no ill to its neighbors”. In other words, if one loves another then they will do them no harm. This love is the fulfilling of God’s law.
It is tempting to take matters into our own hands whenever we are wronged. But if we believe in and want to receive God’s mercy, we must be merciful and forgiving. We must allow and trust God to deal with evil and unrighteousness in His own way in His own time. In doing so, Jesus said we will be perfect as our Father. This concludes my commentary for Sunday, July 21. Feel free to share your thoughts, comments and questions online in the comment section. Thanks for listening.
Pastor Jordan
