Sunday Scripture

 

Lovely graphic from Abby at Little Birdie Blessings

Again this Sunday, I'm sharing from the Made for Community reading plan from Love God Greatly that I worked on back in 2015.  With this study, as I have often done, I used the SOAP method of Bible study.  Just a quick reminder that the S is for Scripture, O is for Observation, A is for Application and P is for Prayer.  The second section is Made for Community with People.  So here we go with the Scripture for the fifth day of that section. 

S= "But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward will be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest; for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil."  (Luke 6:35)

O= This verse is part of Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Plateau.  Here He seems to be specifically addressing His disciples, and this verse seems to be part of the Beatitudes.

In verse 31 Jesus has said, "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them."  In verses 32-34, He points out that:
1) Even sinners love those who love them.
2) Even sinners do good to those who do good to them.
3) Even sinners will lend to those whom they expect will repay them.
But here in verse 35 He explains how His people are to be different.  They are to love their enemies and do good to them; they are to lend, hoping for nothing in return.  They will find great reward in doing things God's way, and will be showing themselves true children of Him who is kind to the evil and the unthankful.

A cross-reference for "love" in this verse is Romans 13:10 -- "Love worketh no ill to its neighbor: therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law."

A cross-reference for "do good" is Hebrews 13:16 -- "But to do good and to share forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased."

A cross-reference from Leviticus 25 for "lend" speaks of not exacting interest or expecting repayment from an impoverished brother one is helping.

For "reward", several cross-references are given.  Luke 19:17 -- "And he said unto him, Well done, thoug good servant; because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over two cities."              1 Corinthians 3:14 -- 'If any man's work abide which he hath built upon it, he shall receive a reward."

C.I. Scofield notes, "For the faithful service of the saved, [God] offers rewards."

A=  I would have said this was a familiar verse,  if anyone had asked me.  But it has impacted me today as never before.  In general, I would say that I understand the truth of this verse and I seek to obey it.  But there is someone to whom I could be showing more love and doing more good -- something I had pulled back from because of the person's attitude toward me.  Prayerfully, I plan for that to change!

P= "Lord, once again I thank You for Your Word and for its convicting, transforming power.  This is a verse I needed to study, but would not have noticed it on my own.  I thank and praise You for directing my attention to this particular study at this time, and showing me this important verse today.  Help me to put it into practice, in Jesus' name, Amen."

And that is the simple study for this week.  Hope you were blessed by it!