Some time ago, I began blogging on our Sunday sermons to help myself review; today, I’m continuing that by covering our Sept. 27 sermon, on Matthew 5:38-40, by Pastor Mark Lim.

As usual, I won’t summarize the sermon, since you can stream it if you want to hear yourself, but will focus on what I take away from it. This sermon really dealt with the idea of retaliation. God had put this law in place in the Old Testament to restrain sin and to restrict this attitude. Retaliation, though, comes naturally to us – we think it’s the way to make sure sin is dealt with, and to ensure we’ll be treated fairly – in marriage, in relationships, in sports, etc. If someone trips us in basketball, a frequent response might be, “Well, if you’re gonna play like that, then I’m…” But here, in Matthew, we’re called to have a different attitude – instead of calling for our rights, we are to give people even more than they deserve.

God calls us to something amazing here. He’s not telling us to passively resist evil, like Ghandi did, but to go far further – to love even our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us, to do love like God loved us. We’re called to be like our Father, and to be like Christ, our example. Sometimes it’s easy to say, “Well, I’ll try…” but no, God wants to share his glory, his character with us and make us like him. So, this is not something too difficult for us; it’s something God calls us to and empowers us to do.

Overall, this was an important and timely reminder about my relationship with my kids. Sometimes, I can catch myself having thoughts of, “Well, if they’re not going to do that to help around the home even though I’ve asked them 20 times, then maybe I should let them see how they like it if I quit serving them breakfast…” or similar. There’s this aspect of me asking whether they’re responding to my loving service in a “fair” way. But that gets it completely wrong and is really challenging the minute I turn it around. Christ lovingly served me by dying on the cross for my sins – and by doing so much more for me every day, when I’ve repaid him with so much sin. When my kids fail, it should be a powerful reminder of how much more I’ve failed Christ, and his great love for me – and then a challenge to show them the same love Christ has shown me, though it may take getting down on my knees before God and begging him to help me do so.