Yours is the kingdom of God.

Luke 6:12-38 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. ¹³ And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles: ¹⁴ Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James and John; and Philip and Bartholomew; ¹⁵ and Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot; ¹⁶ Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

¹⁷ Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place; and there was a large crowd of His disciples, and a great throng of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon, ¹⁸ who had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were being cured. ¹⁹ And all the people were trying to touch Him, for power was coming from Him and healing them all.

²⁰ And turning His gaze toward His disciples, He began to say, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. ²¹ Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. ²² Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. ²³ Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets. ²⁴ But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. ²⁵ Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. ²⁶ Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.

²⁷ “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. ³¹ Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. ³² If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. ³³ If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. ³⁴ If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. ³⁵ But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. ³⁶ Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

³⁷ “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. ³⁸ Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”

Once again Jesus used the attention that the miracles brought about, to create a teaching moment: a large crowd of His disciples, and a great throng of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon, ¹⁸ who had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases…       What Jesus is speaking about in this passage is not karma, it is not what goes around comes around. Jesus is speaking about how our actions and attitudes here on earth affect the heavenly kingdom. We won’t always see the return on our actions, we may love, bless and pray for many people who continue to hate and mistreat us. We are to do these things, act in these ways, not because it makes our life easier, but because we are “sons of the Most High.”

Jesus says: “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.” This is a new covenant mindset. Even in the law, given to Moses it says: you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, ²⁴ eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵ burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.(Exodus 21:24)      Much of what we normally experience in our society today is more of a combination of Jesus teaching and the law. We tend to do unto others as they do unto us. The world often says watch out for number one, take care of yourself without regard for how it impacts others. Unfortunately it is true that is  the method for success and achievement in this world, so the question becomes where do we want our success and achievement measured, here, now, in this life or in the eternal kingdom of heaven.

It’s important for us to recognize that one of the primary reasons that many people failed to recognize Jesus as the Messiah is that they were looking for a political leader. One who like others in the past would be sent from God to change their political situation, to free them from the oppressive rule of the Romans. Jesus came, not to deliver them from Roman rule, but rather to free them from their bondage to sin. Jesus came to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth. It is a spiritual kingdom, affecting what is in us, changing how we believe, think and act. Jesus was not and is not a political leader. While this nation and every nation for that matter needs Jesus, He is not the one who would be our president.

We need, in this political season we are in, to recognize that there are different mandates for individual believers, the church and the government. While it is a good thing to have elected officials who operate based on Godly values, unless we want things to get worse we don’t want a government that loves our enemies. The role of government is to protect its citizens. Our government, unlike we as individual believers, should not offer the other cheek to those who strike. We as individual believers and the church collectively need to operate in the spiritual realm, praying for both our own leaders and our enemies. As believers we need to recognize that: our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12) We need to engage the enemy there.

Our government, our police and our soldiers do however confront real flesh and blood enemies. These enemies are not concerned with how they impact the kingdom of heaven, they use real bullets and real bombs and cause real suffering here and now. As Christians, believers and followers of Christ, we need to hold up our end of the battle, fighting the spiritual warfare where Christ has given us authority. He says:  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:19)  Unless we are ready to truly live as Jesus did, unconcerned about the political conditions and unconcerned about our lives on earth, not caring if we are ruled here by democracy, socialism, communism or radicalism, we also need to support those whose mandate it is to protect and defend our nation. We need to do our best in this time to elect strong leaders with strong values.

Jesus words today are meant to encourage and exhort believers that the conditions on earth and in this realm are neither permanent nor the most important. As believers we are to:  Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. (Colossians 3:2) We should pray for an extra measure of grace and discernment for those of our leaders and authorities who are believers, they need to find the balance of their mandates as believers, leaders in spiritual things and leaders on earth.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit, You are the God of heaven and earth, the God of the present and the God of eternity. Give me wisdom, discernment and grace to live effectively both here on earth and in Your eternal kingdom. In Jesus name, the name above all names I pray.   Amen.