Can you let it slide?

Luke 6:27-31     “But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. 29 To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. 31 And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.

This section of my study Bible is title “Rules of the Kingdom Life”, (Luke 6:27-38). It seems as though there could be many titles for this section, but they all would go against how this world operates. We are living in a self based society, a society that believes the world revolves around us, and all that we feel is entitled to us. The generation behind mine has even be labeled the “Entitlement Generation.” We are told that we are to look out for ourselves because no one else will do so; that would seem to be self-explanatory if the moto is oneself. It is in all aspects of our lives, doing whatever benefits self, and integrity and love for our fellow man have come as a cost.

Christ’s instructions to his disciples here came at a time of persecution. Christ warns them that they will be hated for their faith, and they will find trouble because of it. John 15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. They must come to understand that trouble will find them in many ways as He gives them examples of in this scripture. But they must come to expect this trouble, and in that expectation they should come to not lash out, but seek to humbly glorify Christ through it. Show the world what they do not expect; show the world they have something inside them, a free grace that all may possess. These examples that come in the face of adversities are ways to live your faith; to show His light to a dark world.

This scripture is as applicable today as it was over 2000 years ago. We here may not face the persecutions that the early believers did, but the society here is just as far from Christ. There are those believers in parts of the world that still place their lives on the line as a result of following Christ. They are facing the persecutions just as in the time of Christ. Is it too much to ask for us to forgive as we have been forgiven? Have you ever searched your soul with that thought? We are told throughout scripture to forgive those who wrong us. We are told by this we will be measured. Luke 6:37 “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. In this faces of adversity, in these times our self screams out that we have been wronged, in the humble heart set in God’s grace, extend grace to that as the example of what you have already received.