loved by God, loving one's enemies - 11th week tuesday 2014

Our belief in the grace of God in our life is central to our faith as Christians.  Salvation after all is a grace.  We are sustained by grace.  We will attain eternal life through grace.  Grace is a benefit freely granted by God to his creatures.  The important words in the definition of grace are “freely” and “gratuitously”.  These words are opposed to what is due or to anything I can rightfully claim.  It is something we cannot rightfully claim as our own, and it is something that is not due.  In other words it is given to us by God even if it is unmerited or undeserved.  This is an important outlook which we need to recover otherwise we cannot understand the Christian attitude.  Why is this?

Some look at God as a good businessman, and like a good businessman, God never gives anything for nothing.  And so I have to pay for God’s goodness. 

This kind of relationship with God destroys the very concept of grace as something undeserved, something unmerited and something freely and gratuitously given.  We cannot pay for God’s goodness, we cannot buy salvation.

Some look at God as a demanding God who, to use an idiomatic expression, exacts his pound of flesh.  In other words I have to earn God’s approval.  I need to earn heaven.  Again this is contrary to our belief in grace which is freely given.  You cannot buy your way to heaven.  Why?  Because it is freely given.

St. Paul has a beautiful expression to describe the grace of God in our lives.  He said, God loved us even while we were yet sinners.  You can find that in Romans chapter 5 verse 8.  To paraphrase it we could say, we were loved by God even when we were yet unlovable.

Now why am I speaking about grace when our gospel today is about loving one’s enemies and doing good to them?  I am speaking about grace and God’s relationship with us because we can never understand our gospel today if we have the mind of a businessman – a mindset that teaches us that we cannot give anything for nothing.  Our relationship is not a tit for tat; it is not a give and take; it is not “I will be good to you if you are good to me.” 

I am speaking about grace and God’s relationship with us because we can never understand our gospel today if we look at God as somebody who exacts his pound of flesh, with an outlook of earning heaven, with an outlook of earning the love and favor of God.  God gives even if it is undeserved.  God gives even if it is unmerited.  God love even if we are not worthy of his love.  In the same way one doesn’t have to be good to me in order for me to be good to him; one doesn’t have to be lovable to me in order for me to love him. You don’t have to be good to me to make me good to you.  I can be good to you even if you are not good to me.  This is my point.  Loving one’s enemies is first and foremost an understanding of my relationship with God.  It would be difficult to understand loving one’s enemies if you do not understand how God really loves each one of us.

God loved us even while we were yet sinners.  We did not deserve to be loved and yet he loved us.  There are people out there who do not also deserve our love.  But does one have to deserve it in order for me to give it?

Consider this.