Episode 1518: Do to Others

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode

[00:00:03] 1518 of the

[00:00:03] Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:07] Dr. Ronald Ramsey: I'm Dr. Ronald D. Ramsey. I challenge you to invest yourself, invest in others. Develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to find true forgiveness is key.

[00:00:23] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer.

[00:00:40] Scott Maderer: That is what Jesus seems to be saying. Love each other first, just love, not because you get anything, not because you Not because you deserve it, not because they deserve it, but love because loving is what stops the cycle of hate. [00:01:00] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:01:05] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. And the Inspired Stewardship Podcast will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:34] In today's Spiritual Foundation episode, I talk about Luke chapter 6 verses 27 through 38. I share how this is a hard message about stopping the cycle of hate and seeing people as other, and I also share how it doesn't mean not taking action, but the action we take isn't the one the world encourages us to take.

[00:01:57] Luke chapter 6 verses 27 [00:02:00] through 38 says, But I say to you who are listening, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from anyone who takes away your coat, do not withhold even your shirt.

[00:02:17] Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good for those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?

[00:02:36] For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much again. Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for He Himself is kind to the ungrateful and the [00:03:00] wicked.

[00:03:00] Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.

[00:03:25] How many ways can we say we weren't listening? We didn't understand. We didn't catch what was said dozens and dozens of ways. And how often do we need to say it? How often do we have to confess that we're distracted by something else or completely miss? that someone's talking to us, or even worse, we hear that they're talking to us, but we miss the point of what they're trying to say.

[00:03:51] We don't really understand the message that they're making. It may sound simplistic to say that we [00:04:00] listen, but the truth is we don't listen all that often. We hear, but we don't listen. We make assumptions. We fill in the blanks. We wait for our turn in the conversation so that we can insert a brilliant and cutting remark while the other person is just droning on about something.

[00:04:20] We often frame everything around our own understanding of things. This passage this week begins with Jesus saying, But I say to you that listen. I'm talking to you that are listening. I'm talking to the people that are listening to me. Wouldn't everyone be listening? After all, this is Jesus talking.

[00:04:43] Something that's this important wouldn't have to fight to be heard. We would all understand it, right? Are you listening? You're not hearing me. I don't know about anyone else, but I've been told that by people who were very important to me, people who I [00:05:00] really wanted to and should have been listening to.

[00:05:04] It isn't the importance of the person that's communicating that determines our willingness to listen. Often, instead, it has more to do with removing ourselves from the equation, taking out our fears, taking out our assumptions, setting ourself aside long enough to actually pay attention, long enough to stay invested in the conversation.

[00:05:28] Making a point to not make a point, making a point to not win the argument, making a point to not tell others what we think, but listen and understand instead what they think, what they believe and how they got there, not defending our own position, not expressing our own opinion, but instead pouring out ourselves, emptying ourselves and listening For true understanding of the other person that would [00:06:00] completely transform communication and yet it's something that we as humans have an incredibly hard time doing it always amazes me that some of the same people that will tell you that they're deeply Christian they believe in the Bible they listen to everything that Jesus says and they really believe that's how they should live their life will then you When you quote these passages to them, they'll turn away and say that's not what Jesus really meant.

[00:06:27] Thinking about it, when we hear statements from Jesus let those who have ears to hear, it sounds almost like it's judgmental, excluding people saying, if you're not paying attention, you lose out, you snooze, you lose. Take it or leave it. No skin off my nose. But I think instead, maybe there's an invitation here.

[00:06:45] There's a plea here. There's Jesus saying please pay attention to this. Please lean in and hear this. I know this is difficult. I know this is different. I know this is something that the world tells [00:07:00] you can't possibly be true, but this is truth. This is words of life. Because after all, that's what Jesus wants us to have.

[00:07:10] He wants us to have life, to live life, but to live a life that fills us and transforms us and gives us peace and joy that passes all understanding. He's saying, please hear this. Let this be you. The person that stops and listens and hears these words that gets out of your own head for a little while stops trying to justify our existence or ourself or our privilege or a place stops trying to say that we're the most worthy.

[00:07:43] We're the most special that we deserve different treatment and instead let us be gathered together by Jesus and listen to him as a teacher, listen to him as a father. [00:08:00] At least that's maybe how that plea is really meant. At least that's how I understand it today. Jesus had a really bad marketing plan.

[00:08:09] He doesn't give the easy message. He doesn't say, here's five easy steps to live your life. Here's five paths to money, to success, to having a better life. Instead, he preaches really difficult sermons that are hard to hear. He gives us the word we need, not the word we want. If you read through the gospel this week, here he is begging us to listen because let's face it, these are not words we want to hear.

[00:08:37] These are not words that we want to listen to. These are not words that we believe could be true. Recently here in America, there was a Bishop who preached words very similar to these, to Trump, to President Trump, a position of power. And the backlash against that was extreme. And yet the word she was preaching [00:09:00] were right from the gospel.

[00:09:03] Doing something different. Love your enemies. How is that even possible? Think about it. We live in a community. We live in a world. That's not possible. But he says, love your enemies. But how do we do that? Any time I've heard that, I don't know about you, but I whine and I complain and I come up with excuses and justifications of why this is not even possible.

[00:09:28] Not in today's world. Not with these people. I can love some people, but not those people, not them, not the other, not that group. This won't work in the world in which we live. We could talk about international enemies, and we talk about that, and we're called a traitor, soft on terrorism, bleeding hearts, a liberal, all of these words.

[00:09:54] We talk about loving our personal enemies, the people who can make our life a living hell. [00:10:00] But surely instead we should grow a back bone and get rid of them, hate them, push them away. We're not being asked to put up with bad treatment. We're not asked to be the welcome mat for the world, allowing anyone and everyone to wipe their feet on us.

[00:10:19] But Jesus says wait, slow down. Listen, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. But how would we? No, just listen. Bless those who curse you. Why should I bless them? Shh. Listen, pray for those who abuse you. But that's just not right. We should never put up with abuse. That's simply wrong.

[00:10:44] But listen again to the words that Jesus used. Watch what he does here. Yes, it is the same charge four times. Love your enemies. Love those who hate you. Love those who curse you. Love those who abuse you. It is still talking about love all of the [00:11:00] time, and that repetition is to make the point. But it's also talking about love in different ways.

[00:11:06] Love, do good, bless, pray for. And notice it isn't saying just take it. What he is saying is don't become that thing that you hate. Don't become the hate. Don't become the anger. Don't become the abuse. Don't lash out on others because you feel put upon. If you feel people are attacking your privilege, don't then turn around and rip the privilege from other people.

[00:11:35] That doesn't work. That's not the way to love. Instead, that's harboring hate. That's actually creating abuse and cursing. That's driving the cycle forward. Because if you hate them, then they hate you, and it's perfectly okay. It feels right. But it is giving you distance. He says, love your enemy. [00:12:00] But do good to those who hate you.

[00:12:02] Do good, notice, means encounter. You have to get close enough to impact their life somehow. You have to have a conversation with them. And then the next level is bless, blesses at arm's length. If they're not participating in the conversation, if they're not listening themselves, when they're cursing you just for being in existence, bless allows you to step back, gather yourself again, recenter yourself in Christ, turn your eyes to Jesus.

[00:12:34] And instead of hurling curses and anger in return. to hurl blessings and love in return. Blessings aren't in your face. Instead, they're laid at your feet. And then the last level is pray. When an abuser is at work, you can leave, get away, get far away, run to safety. And trust me, I understand that in some abusive situations that is nearly [00:13:00] impossible to do.

[00:13:01] But the point is, as you separate yourself from the abuse, pray, don't carry the hate with you. Run from the hate too. Leave the hate with the abuser. That's theirs, it's not yours. And then from that safe place, when you get away, pray for God's healing and God's love to transform the abuser. Wait for real transformation acting from God.

[00:13:24] Don't just go back because they tell you that they'll love you now. But see and pray for real, true change. Don't grab a hold of the inclination to return the hurt as you've been hurt. That doesn't help us heal. That doesn't make right. Two wrongs don't make a right. Hating someone doesn't make them hate you less.

[00:13:50] Let it go and instead love. Love from a distance if you need to. Pray that God's love can do what your love is incapable of doing. [00:14:00] Pray that God will step in and love your enemies as well. According to the world, if you do that, you've lost something. We live in a revenge culture, a hate culture, an angry culture, and out of that cultural norm we lose something.

[00:14:21] We're losing, right? We're not the winners. We're not the most privileged person. We're not put up at the top of the mountain. And Jesus goes on and says, and talks about losing. He says, if you always want to be even, what good is that? If you want payback, what good is that? If you want love only in return for your love, it's not even really love.

[00:14:43] Because love, true love is the love that pours out regardless of the return. It's to love like God. Why be kind? After all, why be kind? Do you do it for the good? It does. No, it does do good. It does powerful good, but that's not why [00:15:00] we should do it. Do we do it because it makes us feel good? No, although it does.

[00:15:05] Again, there's wonderful byproducts of doing kindness that make us feel good, but that's not why we do it. We should be kind and loving because God is kind and loving to us. And the reward we get is just to get to participate in that love, to love a little bit like God loves. That's why we do it. That's what it means to listen and to give others mercy, even though we have the power to not give them mercy.

[00:15:39] That is what Jesus seems to be saying. Love each other first, just love, not because you get anything, not because you deserve it, not because they deserve it, but love because loving is what stops the cycle of hate. Thanks for listening. [00:16:00] Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:16:09] As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook. com slash inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and mark it. That you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there.

[00:16:48] Until next time, invest your time, your talent, and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the [00:17:00] world.