Last week, Dave brought us a challenging word from Luke 6:27-38, reminding us that love is a choice. In these days of social unrest, it is easy to feel incensed by the injustice we see all around us and to feel that violence is the only way our voice can be heard. A similar feeling was present in the United States in the 1960s when Martin Luther King Jr was preaching a message of racial equality and facing great opposition from the white Americans who did not agree with him. Instead of resorting to retaliation and violence, he reminded us that we are called to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us and bless those who curse us, praying for them. This seems an impossible task and one which many of us do not even attempt to do. Jesus reminds us, however, that love is not a feeling; it is a choice.
We see this in the vows taken by couples when they marry, promises to love ‘for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, in joy and in sorrow.’ It is not the language of feeling or of romance or of affection. It is the language of choice and decision. We may ask how do we love our enemies when we do not feel like loving them or how do we do anything which we do not want to do? The answer is that we choose to do so. It is all about making a decision, making a choice, and then following that choice through. He summarised it by saying, ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you.’
This means forgiving others – because we need lots of forgiveness ourselves. It means blessing others – because we need blessing ourselves. It means behaving towards other people in the way that we want God to behave to us. When we make good choices, the measure we receive returns to us in full and we know blessing from God.
