DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
Saint Luke 6:31-36
(10/19-11/1)
The Righteous John, Wonderworker of Kronstadt
Emulate God: Saint Luke 6:31-36, especially vs. 35: “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for
nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the
Most High. For He
is kind to the unthankful and evil.” To whom should
we be kind and considerate? For
whom should we go out of our way to be helpful? Should we lend to anyone who asks - even
deadbeats, beggars, and panhandlers?
Christ our God pushes us to the limit, to the edge of human reason, when He commands us imitate God our Father. The thought comes to mind, “Oh, it
is well and good for God to speak thus, after all, He has all things at His
disposal; He is above suffering; He can afford to dabble with such grand and
superior guidelines for living.”
But wait a minute: God ‘is’ kind and
considerate to you and me, sinners that we are (Rom. 5:8). He has not stayed apart in Heaven, but
came defenseless into this cruel place to deliver us from ourselves, going very
much out of His way (Php. 2:6-8). Mostly, we do not even think to ask of
Him, and yet He gives “...us all things that pertain to life and godliness,
through the knowledge of Him Who called us by glory and virtue, by which have
been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these
[we] may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that
is in the world” (2 Pt. 1:3,4). I speak foolishly, and with shame:
“God has earned the right to command us to emulate Him.” Forgive me, O my God, for daring to
speak this way, as if Thou hast need to prove anything to us mortal, sinful
men.
By weaving a clear message of accountability into the
context of His commands in this passage, our Lord Jesus Christ reminds us that
we will answer to our Father in Heaven for our words and deeds in this
life. Look at the text. Three times He asks, “What
‘credit’ is that to you?” (Lk.
6:32-34). The point
is, loving, doing good, and lending all earn credits. The image Christ fashions is of
accumulation of credits in a standing account between ourselves
and God - or debits. God rewards us
for loving those who do not love us - or perhaps even hate us, for doing good
because of others’ needs, or for lending without hope of anything
‘in return’ (vs. 35).
A word of caution here: be careful not to think of
relationship with God as mere score-keeping toward eternal life or death. That would be a parody of our
Lord’s point in speaking of credit.
His summation at the end of the passage does away with any sort of
reading like that. He softens ‘credit’
into ‘family’ relations.
We answer to “...the Most High” (vs. 35) as our
“Father” (vs. 36), and not to some stern, detached and unfeeling
monarch; our Father is ‘merciful’. Again, we have abundant evidence that
love, mercy, kindness, doing good and lending are the characteristics of God
our Father as He reveals Himself to His family (cf. 2 Cor. 5:19).
What does Christ reveal? To bereft
parents, ‘restoration’ of their children’s lives; to
incurable lepers, ‘healing’; to hungry crowds, ‘food’
in abundance; to our failures, ‘forgiveness’. The record of the Lord Jesus’
ministry is a trail of doing good to paralytics,
blind, and those chronically ill without hope. To all He extends the greatest loan ever
made. Just consider His lending. Truthfully, it is hard even to think of
what He lends as a mere loan. More
properly we should conceive of God’s actions as a gift, a precious
endowment given to our entire race without strings, interest payments,
collateral, or any guarantees accruing back to our merciful Father.
Read this passage carefully. It is a plea to try the way of the Lord
- to risk being kind to the hateful, doing good to the
unappreciative, giving to others as we can from whatever resources God has
placed at our disposal with no hope of return. In a way, it is a challenge and an
encouragement to begin with little efforts and graduate to greater ones as God
gives us grace.
Govern my life, Thou that governest
creation with Thy word and unutterable wisdom.
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