The Change of Learning to Love Like He Loves :: Sermon on the Mount {Week 20-22}

Matthew 5:43-48 (ESV)

You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love only those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.

 

I am so far from perfect.

And I won’t lie.

There are many people who annoy and irritate me. People who are inefficient and unresponsive, and not likeable at all.

Then there are people who offend me or hurt me, sometimes intentionally. And it is so difficult to tolerate them, exert patience with them, and ultimately love them.

I don’t love them well. I really don’t.

You might think I do. But what you don’t know, is how much I edit myself. I know how to smile and respond kindly. But sometimes the self-control reaches a limit, and it puts me straight over the edge.

I reach my limit.

And if you knew me well, you’d know that when I finally reach my limit—when I can’t stomach the self-editing anymore, I sling about 10,000 words over the course of only a few minutes, and unload all that’s been happening inside, usually to my husband.

And you know what?

It stinks. It’s horrible. And it’s not what I’m called to.

Sure I may look like I have things together from the outside, and you might too, but don’t let looks fool you. My heart is often far from loving those extra-grace-required people, and if you could read my thoughts you’d be shocked.

And I need to change.

But change is hard.

Change hurts.

Changes stretches and convolutes, and makes something new that wasn’t there before.

And it’s painful.

It requires me to kill behavior that is easy and comfortable, in order to gain a new view.

A view that allows me to love like He loves.

Behaves as He does.

A view that allows me to become more like Him.

And I have so far to go to love like He loves.

I’m selfish and endlessly feed my pride. I protect my own heart at all costs and become annoyed and hurt and offended by others who inconvenience or wound my over-nurtured self.

And when I’m annoyed or hurt or offended by them, it’s really because I’m thinking about me.

It’s because of my selfishness and pride.

And they become blinders, keeping me from seeing others for who they really are, where they’ve previously been, and what they really need. I’ll never be able to see the pain that’s causing them to be annoying, hurtful, or offensive in the first place.

Because I’m too busy focusing on my own self.

Defending self,

preserving self …

always so obsessed with my own self.

And in this state it’s impossible to love like Him.

And not that it’s wrong to love myself. But I’m called to love my neighbor as much as myself, and to love and pray for those who are difficult for me to love.

The crazy thing is, God’s love for me isn’t dependent on me.

He loves me, regardless of me.

No matter my icky attitude,

my failed efforts,

or my prideful heart.

His love for me has NOTHING to do with me.

And this … THIS is what He is asking of me … asking of us. To love like He loves.

“Our treatment of others should never depend upon what they are, or upon what they do to us. It must be entirely controlled and governed by our view of them and of their condition … because God’s love does not depend upon anything that is in us, it is in spite of us.”                                                                       

~D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

This is our start–the beginning of the hard change of learning to love like He loves. A love that brings hope.

“We must love for one reason only, not that we can ever redeem or make anything out of them [our enemies], but that in this way we can display to them the love of God … and for them to know: what the love of God has done for us, it can do for them.”

~D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

I need to change, so when I look at someone I see who they could become, instead of who there are right now. I need to give a love that believes and hopes in their potential–a love that has the potential to transform.

Because that’s what God did for me.

Do you feel annoyed or hurt by others?

Is it hard for you to see their hurting heart?

In what circumstance is it the most challenging for you to love?

Continuing on in memorizing the Sermon on the Mount, with Ann and this community. Join us?

This week and next, on to Matthew 6:1-4 (ESV)…

{WEEK 23}

 

Matthew 6:1-2 (ESV)

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

 

b o p y r b o p i o t b s b t f t y w h n r f y f w i i h t w y g t t n s n t b y a t h d i t s a i t s t t m b p b o t i s t y t h r t r

 

{WEEK 24}

 

Matthew 6:3-4 (ESV)

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

 

b w y g t t n d n l y l h k w y r h i d s t y g m b i s a y f w s i s w r y

 

*Linking with Women Living Well, Do Not Depart, Denise in Bloom

**Photo Credit: Andrew Eadie, Flickr Creative Commons

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For When You Need to Quit Performing to Earn God’s Love and Blessing :: Sermon on the Mount {Week 2} When You Long to Be Satisfied and Supremely Happy :: Sermon on the Mount {Week 3} For When You Want to Know How to Really Teach :: Sermon On the Mount {Week 1}