TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even the pagans do that? Matthew 5:46-47
Read: Matthew 5:46–47
Listen: Matthew 5
TODAY’S MESSAGE
Jesus draws attention to how others love when he confronts the audience and their view of love. The tax collectors love those who love them; the pagans greet their own people. His point is obvious—it’s easy to treat those you like well. Everyone does that. Jesus wants more from his followers.
Jesus’s teaching earlier in the sermon helps us see why. Jesus gives us his followers an abnormal calling—they are to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14-15). Jesus wants his followers to stand out and be different from everyone else. If they act just like everyone else, how could they be the light to the world?
This message is for us too. Watch this video clip as Pastor Jeff Manion reminds us about the importance of this calling. How we respond to those who persecute us could make us stand out. We are different than the world when we are kind to those who disagree with us politically or otherwise. We stand out when we show love to those who live, parent or look different. More importantly, we shine a spotlight on Jesus for the world to see if our radically abnormal love stands us apart.
IN YOUR CHAIR TIME TODAY
In your notes app or journal, brainstorm some ways you can love someone you might not usually consider being kind to this week. Be sure to follow through with it today or this week.
NEW TESTAMENT READING PLAN
Join us this year as we read through the New Testament.
Today’s reading is Romans 12.
Download a printable PDF of the BTW week here.
