Context No. 2391 of 4322 · Luke
Context · Reflection
Luke 6:32-37: in context
32“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive back as much. 35But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back; and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil. 36“Therefore be merciful, even as your Father is also merciful. 37Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Set free, and you will be set free.
Jesus presses past the ordinary limits of decency. If you love those who love you, he says, what credit is that? Even sinners do that much. The distinctive thing is to love your enemies, to do good and lend expecting nothing back, and so to resemble the Most High, who is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful as your Father is merciful; do not judge, do not condemn, forgive.
The measure he sets is not reciprocity but grace. Anyone will return a favor; the mark of God's children is love that expects no return, extended even to the undeserving, because that is exactly how God treats us. He is kind to the unthankful and evil, and we are asked to mirror that kindness rather than the world's careful accounting of who has earned what. The hard edge is the enemy and the ungrateful, the people from whom nothing comes back.
Is my love mostly a trade with those who love me back, or does it reach the ungrateful and the enemy, expecting nothing?