Phillips: grace to the wicked

Sunday, December 15, 2019
    Advent III
Meditation:
    But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
    —Luke 6:35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Jesus once declared that God is “kind toward the unthankful and evil” (St. Luke 6:35), and I remember preaching a sermon on this text to a horrified and even astonished congregation who simply refused to believe (so I gathered afterwards) in this astounding liberality of God. That God should be in a state of constant fury with the wicked seemed to them only right and proper, but that God should be kind towards those who were defying or disobeying His laws seemed to them a monstrous injustice. Yet I was but quoting the Son of God Himself, and I only comment here that the terrifying risks that God takes are part of His Nature. We do not need to explain or modify His unremitting love towards mankind.
    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Making Men Whole, London: Highway Press, 1952, p. 27-28 (see the book)
    See also Luke 6:35; Ps. 145:9; Mic. 6:8; Luke 6:36; John 3:16; Eph. 4:32; 1 Pet. 4:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we so little acknowledge Your grace towards us all. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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