Jesus 101: Radically Forgiving


"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44) may be the most difficult of all Jesus' commands!  It calls us to do something unnatural, something that in some ways seems unjust.  

Its radical nature is one reason why some teachers have said that Jesus' Sermon on the Mount was intended for the time in the future when Jesus reigns on earth!  Who can follow such difficult commands?

But Jesus showed us it could be done by his own life, as he loved everyone.  He spoke harsh words about the leaders of his people, but he asked God to forgive them while he hung on the cross.

Jesus said we're to practice this kind of radical forgiveness so we can be sons of our Father in heaven.  In Jesus' time, people used the words "sons of" in an adjectival sense.  Instead of saying "evil men," they said "sons of evil."

So to be a son of the Father is to behave like the Father.  The Father practices radical forgiveness toward us.  We should show the same toward others.

We who live in an age of great hate and violence need to hear this command.  We need to go out into our communities and practice God's kind of radical forgiveness.  We need to take God's kingdom with us into the world and be his agents of transformation.  

Reflecting on the Father's love, Jesus said, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." The word Jesus used for "perfect" means to be complete.  You may be perfectly moral, but you're not "complete" until you love the way the Father loves.  

The Fathers loves those who don't love him, practices radical forgiveness, and commands us to do the same!

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