35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Lk. 6:35
The keyword in this portion of scripture is “nothing”.
Jesus wants us to have the kind of heart that He had when He was here on earth. It is soft, gentle, forbearing, patient, forgiving and extremely loving. When you have the heart that Jesus had you can do the things that Jesus commanded us to do – a feat which is impossible otherwise.
Because of the heart that He had, Jesus could boldly address the difficult things that are involved in our human relationships. Today, we will look at two of the issues that He talked about: doing good and lending. Jesus said, “… do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again”.
Notice Jesus did not just say, “do good, and lend”. That is hard enough. But Jesus added: “… hoping for nothing again”.
Since the language used in the English translation here may not very clear, let us turn to another rendition . The Swahili Bible says: “… don’t expect to be repaid by the one you have lended to”.
Now, how about that? On the face of it, lending might appear to be a non-issue. You lend me, I repay you, deal. But the hard truth is that in the lending/borrowing schema, the one who lends often feels that they have a certain ‘right’ over the person they are lending to. They can even feel patronising, and bullish. There is a certain power attached to our ability to lend.
But, according to Jesus’ words here, that feeling of control is not the biggest challenge. The greatest trial for the one who lends is what Jesus talked of here: “… do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again”.
We hardly think about it, but the minute we lend to someone, we subconsciously wait for them to repay us. It is the same when we do a good deed. We expect appreciation at the very least and, ultimately, repayment of the good deed that we did.
But Jesus said, “Do good and lend, and do not expect to be paid back”.
The Bible says that then, “ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.”
In other words, in order for us to become children of God, we must lose. That talks of a really, really big heart. There are believers who have a big of everything – except their hearts. There are believers, for example, who call themselves the King’s Kids; and they live a particular kind of lifestyle. But to be a true child of God, you will need to do more than wear the latest fashion jeans and live the high life “in the name of Jesus”.
To be a true child of God, you will need to have the kind of big heart that Jesus had. The true child of God is the one who can do good to everyone – friend, foe, and everyone in between – and expect nothing in return.
The true child of God is the one who can lend, and consider it as if he has given, not lended. He is thinking, “That guy had a need”.
God’s love in us knows no bounds. It is as endless as the universe is endless. We only need lay down our lives on the altar, and we will discover that love in us.
[There are two major bus stands in Mwanza City: the one for south-bound buses and, here, the north-bound one]
Cross of Christ 