In the next few verses of this passage, we discover the core motivation for loving our enemies: the compassion of God. It is his kindness, grace, and compassion towards us which has set us free from the sinful patterns of our old life. If we have been so graciously loved despite our sin, it makes perfect sense for us to begin offering that same compassion to others. We are children of the one who gave everything for undeserving humanity. It’s time to start demonstrating the love our Father by loving those who don’t deserve it ourselves.

The theologian Dallas Willard has been quoted as saying that loving one’s enemies is the true test of Christlike character. It seems that Jesus would agree. As we continue into the next verses of this radical passage, we see that the inverse of Jesus’s teaching – loving only those who love us, doing good only to those who do good to us in return, etc. – makes us no different from the rest of the world. If we truly desire the gospel message of Christ to stand out in a broken society, we must consider carefully whether our actions indicate that anything has really changed in us at all, or whether our behavior makes us indistinguishable from everyone around us.

In his ministry on earth, Jesus presented a radical vision of an “upside-down” kingdom taking root in human society: a community in which the last were first, in which the poor were blessed, and in which true leaders were servants of all. Yet of all his teachings, one stands out as probably the most shocking and seemingly impossible: that we should love our enemies and do good to those who hate us. How could this be? Does Jesus really expect us to do this as his followers or is this just idealism? In this message we will explore the basics of Jesus’ most difficult teaching and explore how we might begin to practice it in a nation filled with tribalism and hate.

In the final week of our series, we are going to turn our attention to a demographic quite often overlooked when speaking of families in our suburban context: those who are single or single again. In a culture focused heavily on dating and one in which weddings are a $70 billion industry, it can feel extraordinarily isolating if you are not in a romantic relationship. In his letter to the church in Corinth, however, Paul makes a shocking claim: it is better to be single! His reasoning? That single people have the ability to fully dedicate their lives to God’s kingdom. Although our culture today is quite different than that of ancient Corinth, the invitation to see singles as a gift in our community is a strong one for us to consider. What might it look like for the singles of Grace to serve with wholehearted devotion as their spiritual family surrounds them with love?

With God’s provocative call to the husbands in our minds, we now consider what the Spirit may want the wives within our spiritual family to hear. To that end, we turn to Colossians 3, in which the Apostle Paul speaks directly to the families of the church in Colossae. Yet again, Paul is speaking into a highly patriarchal culture, but his encouragement goes far beyond the customs of the day: inviting followers of Jesus to “clothe themselves” with the characteristics of Christ. As we reflect on our own culture, which so often infantilizes, demeans, and enables unresourceful husbands, the wives of Grace must consider what it would mean for them to be champions of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience in their marriages. Perhaps through this posture of self-giving love they can demonstrate to the world that there is, even in marriage, another way to live.

Continuing with the theme of generational respect (or lack thereof), we turn to the children of Grace Church. Raised in a culture that idolizes youth and disrespects the elderly, “kids these days” – even well-meaning Christ-following ones – have a lot of bad habits and worldviews to unlearn. If the younger generations of Grace want to experience the best that life has to offer, they must learn how to accept wisdom from those who have come before, as Proverbs 4 teaches so well. If the young people of Grace can learn how to humble themselves and learn from their elders who have walked with Christ for many years, they may find new direction and hope in this confusing and anxious time.

Every generation in human history has had its own version of elders bemoaning “kids these days” and discounting their passion and new ideas as nothing more than youthful exuberance. Never before, however, has such a deep and profound level of disrespect for older generations become so accepted among the young. Into this context we seek the wisdom of God about how the older generations of Grace can become “worthy of respect,” as Paul exhorts Titus to teach, even when elders no longer have the implicit respect of the culture at large. Perhaps, through the humility and self-giving love of Grace’s elders, we can demonstrate even in our modern world that there is another way for different generations to live together.

It is a very difficult time to be a parent. From the deeply powerful technologies monopolizing our kids’ attention to the vile and horrific content they are being exposed to at earlier and earlier ages to the growing isolation brought on by the breakdown of healthy community, the role of a parent has never been harder. Sometimes it seems that no matter how hard a parent works, they are always falling short. Because of this, it is appropriate to consider what God might be saying to the parents of Grace today. Psalm 127 is a passage which famously refers to children as “gifts from the Lord” and compares them to “arrows” in a warrior’s quiver. However, it also makes a provocative claim that “unless the Lord builds a house” (by extension, a family or household), the labor of the builders is in vain. Thus, the question is raised: are we attempting to build our families under our own power? Or are our families being built by God? What might it look like to surrender control and allow God to be the driving force behind the raising of our children?

For much of human history, marriages were guided by strict cultural norms rooted in patriarchal expectations of gender roles. Common beliefs, such as the inherent inferiority of women, led to deep inequalities (and often abuse) within marriages. Thus, when the Apostle Paul suggested in Ephesians 5 that husbands should practice self-sacrificing love for their wives, it was a shocking and provocative call. In this message, as we understand the true weightiness of this passage in its original context, we will discover that it continues to be a challenging invitation for husbands today, even in the vastly different context of modern marriage. It is an invitation for the husbands of Grace Church to demonstrate in their marriages a radically different way to live.

The final disciple of Jesus we will explore is one who may have never met him in person: Saul, later known as the Apostle Paul. Beginning his journey as a hater and persecutor of Christ-followers, Paul would go on to be a leading voice in the Church bringing the gospel of Jesus to the Gentiles and establishing Churches across the Roman world. What could have changed such a zealous Pharisee into an apostle zealous for the gospel? And what does the transformation of Paul’s life trajectory teach us about the grace God has for the broken?