Am I Living Up to
the Standard?
But to you who are listening I say:
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you,
pray for those who mistreat you. Luke 6:27-28 (NIV)
Leonardo da
Vinci was one of the outstanding intellects of all history, for he was great as
a draftsman, an engineer, and a thinker. Just before he commenced work on his
"Last Supper" he had a violent quarrel with a fellow painter. So
enraged and bitter was Leonardo that he determined to paint the face of his
enemy, the other artist, into the face of Judas, and thus take his revenge and
vent his spleen by handing the man down in infamy and scorn to succeeding
generations. The face of Judas was one of the first that he finished, and
everyone could easily recognize it as the face of the painter with whom he had
quarreled. But when he came to paint the face of Christ, he could make no
progress. Something seemed to be baffling him, holding him back, frustrating
his best efforts. At length he came to the conclusion that the thing which was
checking and frustrating him was the fact that he had painted his enemy into
the face of Judas. He therefore painted out the face of Judas and commenced
anew on the face of Jesus, and this time with the success which the ages have
acclaimed.
That is a
profound parable of the Christian life. You cannot at one and the same time be
painting the features of Christ into your own life, and painting another face
with the colors of enmity and hatred. Hatred has been the cause of many of the
problems in the world, both past and present, but hatred never has done
anything to solve these problems. Instead, hatred only serves to fuel the flames
of animosity.
Hating those who
hate us and loving those who love us is much easier, but Jesus calls us to rise
up to the standards of heaven, not live down to the prevailing principles of
this world. Responding with an eye for an eye against those who hate and harm
us does nothing more than to leave us in a blind world, holding on to hate,
which is a great hindrance to the work of God. To love this way is a choice
that we make to respond to the commands of God.
Christ
demonstrated the very love choices that He calls us to live out. Jesus did good
to those who hated Him, as in the case of Malchus, the servant of the High priest
who came to the Garden of Gethsemane to arrest and imprison Jesus. Yet, Jesus
chose to heal this man’s severed ear. Jesus turned the other cheek when the
priests struck Him across the face, He prayed on the cross for those who were
nailing Him to it, and He offered salvation to the thief being crucified next
to Him, even though he initially hurled insults at Jesus. Ultimately, Jesus demonstrated
all of these love actions through His willingness to go to the cross and pay
the penalty for sin on behalf of a world that has repeatedly shown hatred toward
Him.
How quick we can
be to quarrel. How fast we are to engage in a fight. How ready we are to revile
another. Instead, let us live up to the standard that Jesus calls us to live
by. Let us choose not just to demonstrate love, but to live a life of love, and
not live down to the baseness of hate.
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