Embodying Christ's Love: The Call to Radical Love

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"Jesus takes it and states it positively, and that actually is the first thing that I want you to notice that when we consider this rule, we need to understand it as it has been given to us in this positive fashion. Jesus is making it clear that it is not simply enough for us to be passive or to be refraining from recrimination. The children of God are to be those who are initiative takers in this matter of love." [00:02:36]

"Paul actually uses the very terminology in Romans 13, where he is talking about our responsibilities within the framework of our citizenship, and he's talking about indebtedness and not allowing debts to be outstanding, and he is talking about the love for one another that fulfills the law, and then he actually uses the terminology the commandments he says, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet, and whatever other commandment there may be." [00:05:03]

"We should not regard this golden rule, so called, as a requirement which men and women by virtue of who we are and what we are are able to fulfill this in our own strength. That is what people customarily believe. They think that you come to church and you can pretty well summarize it and give it to me in a sentence they say, and if there is to be a sentence then it is going to be love your neighbor as yourself, or do to others as you would have them do to you." [00:08:04]

"Because what Jesus calls for here is not the natural response of natural men and women; it is the supernatural response of ordinary men and women. How then can I, who by nature and merely natural, respond in a supernatural way? Answer: I cannot unless, of course, I should be introduced to the power of God in the person of Christ and that that power may come and live within me so that his love may flow from me." [00:09:32]

"The test of real love is that it should be unselfish, that it is a love which is not focused upon reward, a love that is not driven by the anticipation of being paid back. If you just read what he's saying there, I think if you're honest you will agree that is exactly what he's saying. The love of which I'm speaking, says Jesus, is not driven by these things with which we are most familiar." [00:17:19]

"Jesus is calling for a radical lifestyle that is dramatically different from the framework of the surrounding culture both in his day and in our day. What credit is that to you, he says, I mean do you really think that you can put your head on the pillow at night and say to myself, you know, I'm so glad that I'm a member of the family of God, I'm so glad that I am a son of the Most High, because I've been loving those who love me." [00:28:35]

"The action to which he calls us is not natural, as I said, it's supernatural. It's to a different dimension altogether, and the only way to prove by evidence that we are no longer common sinners, says Jesus here, is to love our enemies. Isn't that what he's saying in this section of the Bible?" [00:35:00]

"Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. This is profoundly challenging, this is without question uncomfortable. Love your enemies. Am I the only one that has trouble with this? And when you preach on something like this, it's like standing on a rake all of the time." [00:38:28]

"Jesus says I want you to act in a way that is absolutely counter-cultural. I want you to live your life based on an inverted order of the social world. I want you to love your enemies, and I say to you again, this is the most uncomfortable of demands on the part of the king." [00:45:01]

"The only force that can make an enemy into a friend and a criminal into a saint and a biological father into a real parent is this agenda, and says Ed Dobson and Cal Thomas in their most helpful and striking book 'Blinded by Might' which is just out by Zondervan, it makes the most ambitious political agenda we can possibly imagine look trivial by comparison." [00:49:33]

"Notice the Jesus way in this case: the patron gives without expectation of return, without strings attached, and yet he still receives repayment, and his reward will be great, he says, if you love your enemies and do good to them and lend to them without expecting to get anything back, without operating in the modus operandi of your day, then your reward will be very great and you will be the sons of the Most High." [00:51:48]

"God is kind to the ungrateful and he's kind to the wicked. Wasn't it a lovely morning and a lovely sunrise? It certainly was spectacular where I was as I drove out of my street. Do you know who enjoyed that sunrise? Everyone that can see. Was this a sunrise just for Christian people, just for the kids of the kingdom?" [00:53:56]

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