7th Sunday after Epiphany – February 23, 2025
There are a lot of great and important passages on love in the Bible.
We’ve got (in my personal top ten list of love lines in the Bible):
- God is love. (1 John 4:8)
- We love because God first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
- God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. (Romans 5:5)
- Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:5)
- Love your neighbor as yourself. (Leviticus 19:18)
- For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. (John 3:16)
- Love one another. Just as I have loved you (Jesus said), you also should love one another. (John 13:34)
- By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:35)
- Maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)
- Faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)
And today, right in the middle of today’s gospel reading (Luke 6:32-38): “But love your enemies.”
When we put all these together, we get a great picture of what love looks like, according to Scripture. First of all, God is love. God and love are synonymous. God loves us, and will always love us, because God is love.
We are commanded to love the Lord our God, not to earn God’s love, but to return God’s love. We love because God first loved us. God’s love has been poured into our hearts. That is why we can love God. And that is how we can love one another, just as we are commanded to do.
We don’t always do that very well, of course. We sin. But God’s love remains. And in fact, God so loved the world, and God so loves us, that he gave his only son, Jesus, who loved us, who died for us, and who taught us how to love.
We are taught to love others as Jesus loved us. And in fact, we are taught that our love for one another is what will show the world that we are followers of Jesus. Our love for one another will cover all sorts of sins. Whatever else our shortcomings, if we love one another, we know that we are on the right track. Because the greatest of all of God’s gifts, and God’s commands, is love. God is love. God loves us. So love God. Love our neighbor. Love one another. And yes: love even our enemies.
But today’s gospel reading is asking a lot, isn’t it? Love your enemies, do good, don’t judge, don’t condemn, forgive. Jesus is asking a lot of those who follow him. These teachings just seem so difficult, and, frankly, so misused over the years, that it’s tempting to ignore them.
But the thing is, if we follow Jesus, we can’t just cut and paste the things that Jesus said that we like, or that we find easy to do. We also have to tackle the harder things, too. We have to wrestle with what it means to love our enemies, and do good to those who hate us, and bless those who curse us, and pray for those who mistreat us.
Today’s Gospel reading is also a laundry list of maintaining a healthy relationship. When we truly believe that we can love our enemies, we can pray for those who mistreat us. We can hold our judgment and look through different eyes. We can give and receive. We can forgive. “Forgiving,” Bishop Desmond Tutu said, “is not forgetting; it’s actually remembering – remembering and not using your right to hit back. It’s a second chance for a new beginning.”
And this kind of forgiveness is only possible when we truly believe that God is in charge of this world. When we don’t really believe that, we try to take matters into our own hands. And we lose the ability to love and to forgive and to bless and pray for those we might consider our enemies.
“God’s dream,” Bishop Tutu once said, “is that you and I, and all of us, will realize that we are family, that we are made for togetherness, for goodness, and for compassion.”
God’s dream for us starts with God’s love for us. And God’s dream for us becomes real because of God’s son, who loved us enough to die for us. And God’s dream for us is shown to us through people like Bishop Tutu. But also through people like you and me.
The world will know we are followers of Jesus by our love for one another. But the world will become convinced of this love when we love even our enemies, just as Jesus taught us to do. Let us love God, and love ourselves, and love one another. But let us also love those who will not love us back, until all the world knows the love that we are blessed to have in Jesus. Amen.