Love: power to change an unjust world
Daily Scripture
1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Luke 6:27-36
1 Corinthians 13
4 Love is patient, love is kind, it isn’t jealous, it doesn’t brag, it isn’t arrogant, 5 it isn’t rude, it doesn’t seek its own advantage, it isn’t irritable, it doesn’t keep a record of complaints, 6 it isn’t happy with injustice, but it is happy with the truth. 7 Love puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things, endures all things.
Luke 6
27 “But I say to you who are willing to hear: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. 28 Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on the cheek, offer the other one as well. If someone takes your coat, don’t withhold your shirt either. 30 Give to everyone who asks and don’t demand your things back from those who take them. 31 Treat people in the same way that you want them to treat you.
32 “If you love those who love you, why should you be commended? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, why should you be commended? Even sinners do that. 34 If you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, why should you be commended? Even sinners lend to sinners expecting to be paid back in full. 35 Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing in return. If you do, you will have a great reward. You will be acting the way children of the Most High act, for he is kind to ungrateful and wicked people. 36 Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
Each election year, Resurrection (and many other congregations) join in a campaign (the 2024 version is “Do Unto Others”) to express the kind of life to which these verses call God’s people. Maybe that idea sounds “soft” to you, less powerful than campaigns aimed at tearing down various sets of “wrong” ideas or people. If so, ponder the powerful view Bishop Michael Curry (who preached at Resurrection in October 2020) suggests. “Someone once said that Jesus began the most revolutionary movement in all of human history; a movement grounded in the unconditional love of God for the world; a movement mandating people to live that love, and in so doing to change not only their lives but the very life of the world itself. I’m talking about power. Real power. Power to change the world.” * You say you want to change the world? Then try living out Jesus’ wisdom for the agape 1 Corinthians 13 described, by treating people “in the same way that you want them to treat you.”
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In which (if any) of your day-to-day relationships are you able to readily and easily live out most of the qualities of love 1 Corinthians 13 listed? How are those qualities essential to achieving a more truly just world? How can God’s love help you to grow in your capacity to love more fully? Paul also said love does not boast and is not self-seeking. Have you ever wished that other people would envy something about you or your life? Might a desire to produce envy in others ever tempt you to boast? As you compare Jesus’ positive impact on our world over the last 2,000 years with the sad legacy of all the violent, self-serving tyrants who’ve tried to build empires, can you more clearly understand Bishop Curry’s words about love’s “power to change the world”?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, keep me clear about my daily need for your empowering grace to nurture and grow me. And grow me into a person who makes forgiving and loving the world-changing rhythm of my life. Amen.
GPS Insights
Ashton Barlow
Ashton Barlow is a returning intern this summer at Resurrection, working in Public Relations. He is a junior at the University of Nebraska Wesleyan studying Theatre Arts and Religion & Philosophy. He teaches Middle School Theatre throughout the year and works in his school's campus ministry department. He loves to write in any medium he can, including plays, music, and poetry.
College is always a time of immense change for people. You make new friendships, learn new things, become your own person as you curate a different environment for yourself. It was all of these things for me. One of the things that I have become very passionate about in college is injustice in our world. It’s become a driving force in my life.
I can get very serious about projects I work on. My friends will sometimes walk by me and say: “Oh, Ashton is in business mode.” Because I am so focused on what I am doing that… lets just say–it would not be a good idea to talk to me. Even if I am working on a project for my Campus Ministry or an event for those friends, I can get so wrapped up in everything that I forget the reason that I am doing it.
I’ve learned that care and justice is more than just getting stuff done… it’s more than donating money, it’s more than furiously working on a project. It is loving others, loving people that don’t always return it, doing good, it is giving freely. That’s what Jesus talks about in Luke 6, and it paints a wonderful picture of what Love and Justice should look like. For me it’s taking the time to slow down, to listen to those around me when I am busy, and to take a break from the business mode to make sure they are taken care of. It’s my small way of trying to share compassion with those around me.
© 2024 Resurrection: A United Methodist Church. All Rights Reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* Curry, Bishop Michael. The Power of Love (pp. 9-10). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
