Called to Love

Bible Story Podcast
Bible Story Podcast
Called to Love
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We are called to love everyone, even the most difficult people. In fact, Jesus calls us to love our enemies, regardless of the circumstances!

Bible Story Podcast
Bible Story Podcast
Called to Love
Loading
/

Called to Love

Key Point

We are called to love everyone, even the most difficult people. In fact, Jesus calls us to love our enemies, regardless of the circumstances!

About the Story

We are going to be looking at an important Chunk of scripture – Found in Matthew

As Bradon describes it, this chunk is often referred to as the Sermon on the Mount and holds a lot of the foundational teaching of Jesus’ ministry. 

Exactly, generally, this sermon is believed to be early-ish in the years of Jesus’ preaching and teaching journey. The disciple Matthew lays out an excellent description of what Jesus’ main themes were for teaching! 

I do really enjoy this section of scripture! I find sometimes when we read through the poetry or narrative side of the Bible, the lessons can be harder to understand or find. But there are a lot of very practical words in this sermon, spoken by Jesus, that I apply to my everyday life! 

I agree; I really appreciate the application of these teachings! Alright, Jon, start us off. Jesus spoke about A LOT of things during this sermon. So what section are we focusing on today? 

Well, we are focusing on Matthew 5: 38 – Matthew 6. This section speaks to disagreement, dislike, even Hate. 

Some pretty heavy stuff for sure. We are recording this episode on January 8th, 2021 – A few short days after the riots & storming of the Capitol building in Washington, USA. 

We are; both Bradon and I struggled with the idea of speaking about this on the podcast today. As we said earlier, we live in Canada, which makes our perspective unique compared to American citizens regarding the events. 

Exactly, but as we spoke, we both agreed our hearts were broken and saddened by the amount of hatred and violence we had witnessed hours earlier through the news. 

And this is where our lesson comes from today. Called To Love

I cannot think of any person in history more wronged than Jesus, nor anyone who has loved more, which makes Jesus’ call to love and care for everyone, including those who hurt us, so compelling.

Application

Think about this – We find it hard to love people who hurt us, wrong us, and go against us. I get that. But we do that to God all the time! We Sin, we fall short time and time again, we choose self-destruction and selfishness, yet He sent His Son, He redeemed us. He paid the price for our sins, so he could continually and forever love us! 

It is when I think of it like that, that loving others becomes a little easier. It helps me understand that it is about setting myself aside and showing others the love of God! His love is boundless, without judgement and timeless. 

It helps turn this command, to love, into something I need to do with God. Knowing that His love transforms us, heals us, and guides our hearts. I NEED Him to help me with this because if I ignore Him in the equation, I get mad, upset, and saddened by the world around me at times; it seems all too much for me to do alone! 

Which it is, too much for you to do alone. But not too much for you to do with God! 

And as simple as it sounds, sometimes, humbling myself and ditching the anger I feel long enough to invite Him into that process is the hardest part!

I cannot think of any person in history more wronged than Jesus, nor anyone who has loved more, which makes Jesus’ call to love and care for everyone, including those who hurt us, so compelling. I agree that setting my feelings aside to receive and share the gift of God’s love isn’t always the easiest. But I do know, from experience, it is the most life-changing option, far more compelling of an argument than yelling at someone! Jesus has called us to love!

By Jon Drebert

A little about me: I decided to follow Jesus at a very early age while my mom made cookies and I ate cookie dough. I have an awesome family. My wife and I have three amazing kids. I serve as the Executive Director of Covenant Bay Bible Camp at Pigeon Lake, AB. Outdoor activities, music, sports, and learning are some of my favourite things to do.

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