This week we’ll resume our weekly devotions. I’ve missed writing these. I learn as much from them as anyone. I’ve really loved the challenge of taking the scripture readings for the day from our list in our newsletters and turning one of them into a devotion. Today’s options were Psalm 108 and Luke 6:27-38. The psalm was a song of victory, while the passage from Luke was about loving enemies. In our growing climate of anxiety and tension as we approach the mid-term elections, nothing seemed more timely than the Luke passage.

 

I’m going to encourage you to open your bible and find these passages each week. Read them for yourselves. For extra credit, read all the passages that were listed for this day, but especially the one that will be our focus for the week.

 

In Luke, Jesus is calling his listeners to love enemies, do good without demanding repayment, refuse cycles of retaliation, practice generous mercy, and examine themselves before judging others. The swirls move outward: we start in the center with the heart and then move to daily choices, relationships, and finally the kind of community our choices create.

 

Jesus is not asking us to pretend that harm is harmless or that injustice can simply be ignored. He asks us to resist becoming shaped by the very hostilities we oppose. Enemy love is not passive approval; it is the courageous refusal to let contempt define our response and our lives. Mercy interrupts the instinct to divide the world into people who deserve compassion and people who do not.

 

The measure we use matters. When we judge quickly, hold tightly, or give only when a return is guaranteed, our lives contract. When we listen generously, release resentment, and share what we can, our lives widen. Grace is not a transaction. It is a way of living that trusts love can be offered before it is earned. After all, isn’t that how God offers grace to us?

 

How can you put this into practical use? This is something you can do alone, or with a trusted friend.

 

First, think about a person or situation that triggers judgment, fear, or anger. Name those feeling honestly without letting it direct your next action. Next, choose one response that does not mirror the harm. For example, silence instead of insult, a boundary instead of revenge, or a truthful conversation with that person instead of gossip among others.

 

Now ask what pain, fear, or unmet need may be operating within you. Again, without excusing harmful behavior.  Now you’re ready to give time, attention, resources, advocacy, or forgiveness where it can be offered wisely and safely.

 

The more we can do this, the wider we might make our circle and the better we might be able to extend dignity to people beyond your familiar group, especially those who are dismissed, excluded, or misunderstood.

 

Let’s trust that the God of abundant mercy can free us from the need to answer harm with harm. That we can receive courage to seek justice without hatred, wisdom to set boundaries without dehumanizing others, and generosity that does not keep score. May we be challenged to expand our compassion until it reaches beyond comfort and familiarity. All of this shaped by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.