Loving our enemies isn’t just a nice idea to keep in our Christianese arsenal; it’s a challenging practice that can transform our hearts and those around us. In this bite-sized Bible cast, we dive into Luke chapter 6, where the call to love our enemies is laid out in stark terms. I share a personal moment of realization about how my husband’s love reflects God’s affection for me, which got me thinking about how we can extend that love, even to those who aren't exactly on our Christmas card list. We explore how showing love to those who mistreat us isn't merely for their benefit; it’s a powerful act that can connect them to God's love in tangible ways. So grab your journal and let’s tackle some reflective prompts that can help us embody this radical love in our daily lives!

Takeaways:

• Sitting still and reading the Bible might seem impossible somedays, and that's okay! It's not the only way to spend time with God or in His Word.
• Loving our enemies is not just a lofty ideal; it actively transforms our own hearts and minds.
• Experiencing unconditional love can reveal how God loves us through those close to us.
• Reflecting on how God has shown us love can extend our capacity to love others, even our enemies.
• Engaging with scripture like Luke 6 encourages us to act with mercy and grace, especially in divisive times.
• Turning the other cheek is about demanding respect and correcting others while maintaining our dignity.

Want a more grounded, sustainable walk with Jesus but feel like your life and brain are too loud? The free Noise Journal helps you spot what’s really draining you and make a simple plan to clear it in one hour. Download it here!

Sitting still and reading your Bible sounds like torture right now, but you still want to get into the word.

I got you.

Welcome to today's bite sized Bible cast.

Also, there is like the coziest thunderstorm happening right now, so please enjoy the little ambiance today.

We are in Luke chapter 6.

Today's verse of the day from you version is just verse 36, but if you have been with me for any amount of time, you know I like to not just stop at the one verse of the day.

We're going to read the entire little section, not the whole chapter, but we're going to start in verse 27.

And I'm reading out of the NRSVUE and the section prepare yourself is titled love your enemies.

Let's get into it.

But I say to you who are listening, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.

Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

If anyone strikes you on the cheek, or for the other also.

And that doesn't mean what you think it means.

We'll talk about that in a sec.

And anyone who takes away your coat, do not withhold even your shirt.

Give to everyone who asks of you.

And if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again.

Do to others as you would have them do to you.

If you love those who love you, what credit is it to you, for even sinners love those who love them.

If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you, for even sinners do the same.

If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment, what credit is that to you?

Even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much again.

Instead, love your enemies, do good and lend, expecting nothing in return.

Your reward will be great and you will be children of the most high.

For he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Oh my goodness.

I really hope you can hear this rain.

Okay, I took my microphone out so hopefully you can.

You can hear the rain while I'm talking.

And it's not going to cancel the noise.

This is my favorite kind of weather.

Okay, let's get into it.

Sorry, I think I can hear my little guy up and moving.

So we are on a bit of a time clock here.

Let's keep moving.

Of course, this is a passage that we've all heard a million times.

And we know the concept of loving our enemies, but actually putting it into practice can be very, very different.

And a Lot more difficult than thinking about it in theory.

And a thought occurred to me yesterday while I was sitting in church that now, with this being the verse of the day today, kind of has an interesting juxtaposition.

Almost too much juxtaposition.

Like, it's just right up to the line.

But I'm gonna let it slide.

Bonus points if you know that reference.

So I was sitting in church with my husband yesterday.

And for those of you who don't know, this is my second marriage.

My first marriage, my ex would agree with me on this was absolutely terrible.

And so we ended up getting divorced, which was a lot of sanctification for me.

And I ended up meeting my now husband, Cameron, who is the most Christlike person I have ever met in my entire life.

And being loved by him has taught me so much about how Christ loves us.

And so I was sitting in church with my husband yesterday.

He had his arm around me, and we were like, all snuggled up, and he was kind of like rubbing my shoulder, and I had my head, like, against his head.

And I was just thinking about how loved and safe I felt in that moment.

And then it hit me that in this relationship, in this marriage, Cameron's affection to me is a proxy for God's affection to me.

God is able to.

To show me his love through the love of my husband.

And that just for some reason, had never struck me.

And it struck me.

It was kind of this aha moment.

So I leaned over and I whispered it to my husband.

He's like, oh, yeah, yeah.

And then reading this this morning, you know how there's kind of the idea of like, oh, somebody needs a hug.

When people act in ways that are unsavory, that are rude, that are selfish, that are.

Whatever the case may be, a lot of times, yes, they do need affection and they need Jesus.

And reading this this morning, it kind of clicked for me of, oh, loving our enemies is not just about us.

It does a lot of good for our heart.

It does so much for our heart when we choose to forego what feels like our birthright of righteousness, anger, and instead choose an unnatural emotion towards people who hate us, who despise us, who persecute us, who say terrible things about us, who treat us poorly even, who just disregard us or have disdain for us.

Choosing that unnatural emotion isn't just about the work in our heart, and it's not just about the human to human interaction.

Our affection towards our love, love towards people on earth who despise us is a proxy for God to Be able to love that person directly, tangibly, sometimes physically.

Like, have you ever given a hug to someone that you really don't like and you're like, really doing the Lord's work?

Yeah, you are.

And so, and we're gonna keep this one really, really short today.

I have two prompts for you.

With most of these bite sized Bible casts, I like to give a prompt or two for you to break out your journal or go for a walk and think about it, or voice note about it.

Basically just think through it and process the prompts in some way.

Whatever is going to work for your brain, your capacity right now.

The first is to sit with your journal or however you want to process this and ask God to show you the ways that he has loved you recently.

This is.

Isn't something that we really think about very often.

Of course, we all have kind of those monumental things in our lives that we can point at and go, oh, yeah, this was God working.

I certainly have many, many of them.

But ask God to show you what are the little ways that he's loved you lately?

What are the little things he's done to show you his affection, to show you his support and his love and his encouragement.

And then once you have a little list I want you to add, ask him who he needs you to give that love to, who he needs you to be that tangible point of connection for.

Especially if it's someone who maybe is not your favorite person or someone you feel is undeserving.

I had to work through something in my heart this morning to be very vulnerable with you, where I was like, okay, God, but I feel like some of the people that you've given me to do this whole love your enemies thing, I feel like they're not very deserving.

I kind of wish I had like a more deserving person in front of me that I need to love on your behalf.

And yeah, I kind of got my hand slapped a little bit.

He kind of was like, so you're missing the point.

It is not about you.

It is not about them.

It is about me and my glory and my purposes being furthered.

And I was like, okay, all right, I'll take that note.

And especially when we're living in a very divisive time, incredibly divisive.

This can be a really tall order.

I also said we would talk about the whole turning the other cheek thing.

So we'll touch on that briefly before I let you go here to go work on those two prompts, which again are ask God to show you the ways that he has loved you lately.

And two, ask God who he wants you to be, that tangible touch point of his love for you here on Earth.

Now, the turning the other cheek thing, I love the Bible project.

The guys over there are so intelligent, they are so articulate and they do such a great job of breaking down theological concepts, digging into the original context, the historical context, the cultural context, all of that.

And I was listening to it a little while ago.

Tim Mackey, I forgot his name for a second.

Sorry, Tim Mackie.

Tim Mackey was explaining that the concept of turning the other cheek is actually about basically correcting someone's view of you and giving them the opportunity to try again.

So in the Jewish culture, if someone slapped your face, I believe it was with an open palm.

That was a sign of disrespect.

Whereas slapping with the back of the hand.

I think I'm getting this right.

I should probably look this up.

Was kind of a peer to peer rebuke.

So one was like punching down, essentially saying, like, you are beneath me and I'm correcting you.

And the other was peer to peer saying, hey, I'm going to correct you.

Turning the other cheek is not about saying, hey, yeah, hit me again.

Here you go, it's right here.

I'm going to take more of it.

I can take your abuse.

That is not it at all.

It is saying, I will hear what you have to say, but you're going to speak to me respectfully.

You are going to do it with honor.

You are going to do it face to face.

You are going to do it peer to peer because I am not beneath you.

Here, try again.

I'll try to find the Bible Project episode and link this in the show notes on my podcast, which is now it had been the True Grip podcast with Rachel Grit.

I have renamed it recently to the Jesus and ADHD podcast, which I'm very excited about.

Hopefully that helps me with all SEO things, which is super fun.

It's like, yeah, SEO is so much fun game marketing stuff.

But.

But yeah.

So that is all I have for you today.

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I would love for you to share this with a friend.

And if you have not already, I would love for you to download the One Hour to Quiet the Noise journal.

That is a free journal that I put together to help you find and make a plan to eliminate sources of chaos in your life one ridiculously teeny tiny action step at a time.

That is free.

You can find that at the link in my bio and there will also be a live version of Walking through that together because I got some feedback from people that had downloaded the journal and I had asked them like, hey, did you get to it?

Every single person who responded was like, oh shoot, I forgot about it.

So we're doing a live work through here on TikTok that will be happening every other Tuesday, I believe, at 10am but there will be details for that when you sign up for the Noise Journal.

Excuse me.

So definitely go download that.

I've gotten some really good feedback that has been really helpful in helping people kind of pull together the thoughts that have been in their head.

Put it on paper.

And as ADHDers, we tend to want to take on everything all at once.

This is designed to help you pick one teeny tiny action step that's going to be repeatable, sustainable, actionable and effective.

So that is free.

Go check that out in the link in my bio.

And thank you so much for spending some time with me today.

I'll see you in the next one.

Bye.