“But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to
those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away
your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who
asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. Treat
others the same way you want them to treat you. If you love those who love you,
what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you
do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even
sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what
credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back
the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting
nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the
Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just
as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:27–36, NASB95)
I think from time to time we all have events in our lives
that consume our thoughts. Sometimes it might be a major event and other times
it might be something rather minor. The unifying thing is that we are so
mindful of it that we work through it over and over again wrestling with its
various components (known and unknown). Yesterday one of those events happened
to me, and today was the day that I worked it over again and again as I walked
through my day. This was an easy thing to do as my current work has a lot of
free thought time, allowing for ample opportunities to become mentally
distracted or even forcibly focus thought. The event that happened was nothing
really major, and in many ways and during most seasons of life would have been
incredibly minor. But at this time and in this season it seemed bigger to me
that it really should have.
So, what happened and what did I do in response? The “what
happened” is simple. Someone took my sweatshirt and gloves. It was getting warm
and I took my new longer sleeved rain defender sweatshirt off and set it in a
relatively safe place. It was far from being totally safe as I left it where
anyone really could get to it (my neglect). But it was out of the way up on top
of something, and I really never thought that anyone would take it (my mistake).
But someone did.
Did you notice the importance that I put on such a simple
thing as a sweatshirt by the way I described it? I spent a great deal of time
considering my needs and considering my affordable options. It was important
that it have long enough sleeves considering that I have longer arms than many,
and it was important that it handle the rain reasonably well considering the
nature of my current work. This item seemed to fit the bill without forcing me
to climb into a raincoat that simply does not breathe. And with it being on a
slight sale and getting an employee discount the price was also within my
reach. It worked, and I was happy with it. Enough on the description, I found a
sweatshirt that I liked and we purchased it. I enjoyed the sweatshirt and it
fit the need very well. But now the sweatshirt is gone. Someone took it. It was
not theirs. It was mine, and they took it.
Sound trivial? Another worker had been borrowing his brother’s
bike to get to work, and two days ago it was also stolen. In one way or another
I think we have all experienced this kind of violation at the hands of another.
I am no different than anyone else in this respect. So, not finding any solace
in being subject to the same thing that every man is subject to, I repeatedly
turned my focus back to God and placing it under the perspective of me
belonging totally to Him and knowing that He has me fully enclosed in His
hands. Resting assured there, I began to think more in terms of how man (including
this man) has sinned against God and how we treat others the same way. Just as
we have all sinned against God, we have all had others transgress against us
and we have transgressed against them. The person who took my sweatshirt and
the other person (assuming not to be the same) who took my co-worker’s
brother’s bike probably didn’t even know who they were stealing from. What they
knew was that they saw something they wanted, had an open opportunity to take
it, and they took it. I don’t pretend to know their hearts or their motives. I
don’t know them. All I know is that these things were not theirs. They were
ours, and they violated a fairly universal standard which says, “Do not steal.”
Clearly put, what they did was wrong no matter how you look at it.
Bringing this back to my relationship with God, I am
thankful that He did not leave me in a state of unrepentant sin. He reached
into my life, showed me Himself, introduced me to His Son, offered me
salvation, and changed my heart such that I believed and was saved. I wish at
this point that I could say that the comments that followed came in easy 1-2-3
steps. But they reflect a back and forth over several hours of wrestling before
God and with my own heart. In the wrestling I was reminded of who I was before
I trusted Jesus for my salvation. The simple truth was that I was lost in sin.
I had not only done things against others, but I sinned against God even though
I didn’t really even know who He was. I clearly knew the things I did were
wrong, but I had not made the direct connection between those actions and the
standards of a perfect God. I was born dead in my trespasses (going where I
should not go) and sins (doing what I should not do), and there was nothing I
could do about that.
I thought about how God loved me so much that He sent His
Son to pay the price for my sins and to grant me the most incredible
forgiveness having laid the full burden of that forgiveness on His Son. And
then beyond forgiveness He also gave me something even more incredible. He gave
me access to Him through being brought into His eternal family as an adopted
child given eternal life. I did not know Him when He did this. I was not even
born yet. Jesus went to the cross two thousand years ago, and Scripture says
that He knew me and called me from before the foundation of the earth.
But I also thought about the fact that there are large
numbers of individuals who will never trust Jesus and who will suffer eternal
judgment in hell (called the lake of fire) because of their rejection. Jesus
said throughout John, which I have been working through, that He knew man’s
heart. He knows the heart of every man, and He knows those who will respond and
those who will not. He knows those who when shown an act of great kindness and
compassion will be moved and those whose hearts will become even more hardened.
He knows me and He knows the thief.
God knows all of these things concerning each and every
single person and He knows exactly how to deal with them. He knows how to
respond to acts of rebellion and how to offer forgiveness. He even knows the
things that we who are saved have not done yet that are offenses to Him, and
yet He has declared us righteous with the righteousness of His Son. And he
knows the hardness of man’s heart and those whose hearts will not be softened.
Me, on the other hand, I don’t know any of this about the
person who stole from me. I don’t know their condition, their motivation, or
their desperation. I don’t know if it was one of the many homeless people around
work or a regular customer of the store. I simply don’t know. And if I spotted
someone wearing my sweatshirt and my gloves (the gloves being more
recognizable) I didn’t even know how I would respond. But as I spent the day reflecting
on all of these things I did settle some things and was able to frame how I
might respond it the opportunity is presented. First of all, God made it
possible for me to obtain the sweatshirt in the first place, and He has full
and absolute rights to it just as He does to the entirety of my life. If I
never see the person again, I can trust Him with that. And if I see the person,
then I have an opportunity to model His mercy and grace.
Now, I can’t imagine
demanding it back but rather in some way confronting the person with the act that
was done, stating how much it hurt, and then to tell the person that I was willing
to even let them keep it and forgive them not because they were deserving of
anything, but because my God forgave me of everything I did against Him despite
the fact that there was nothing in me that really made me worthy of it. Just as
I had paid the price for the sweatshirt and was willing to let the have it at
no expense to them, God sent His Son to pay for all that I ever did or will do
wrong and then given me full forgiveness and eternal life. I would hopefully have
opportunity to tell the individual that I was letting them keep it because I am
reminded of how much Jesus did for me when I deserved absolutely nothing. I
paid a few dollars for the sweatshirt, but Jesus paid the greatest price ever
paid.
“For while we were still helpless, at the right
time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man;
though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates
His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from
the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled
to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we
shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through
our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”
(Romans 5:6–11, NASB95)
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