Love Your Enemy?

The other day, I was going through our Santa Monica Summer Project devotional called "Four Sevens", which goes through the Gospel of Luke. The scripture passage of the day was Luke 6:1-45. Below is an excerpt of Jesus's words:

"But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. 

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back."

Most of us have heard this before. Love your neighbor, love your enemy--wait, what? What is this? I'm supposed to just let people slap me and take my money without paying me back? How does that make sense? Can anyone actually live like this for any length of time? Surely eventually one would run out of money (or patience).

I grew up in America, where we preach the gospel of focused hard work resulting in personal reward. I'm a conservative Republican and Christian. The free market is our guiding force, and we worship at the altar of capitalism. It is so easy to slip that word--"Christian"--into our established beliefs; to add that label to a list of others we've accumulated. But the true gospel doesn't preach hard work resulting in reward. The gospel says that only by dying to ourselves can we truly live. It's not until we come to the end of ourselves that God can give us a new beginning. It's not about adding a label to our list, or reconciling the Bible with our beliefs. It's about letting the list turn to ash and letting our old beliefs die away. We trade our ephemeral happiness for eternal holiness. 

This is the Gospel.
It's not a promise of an easy life. It's a promise of an abundant life.

This isn't fair. It's forgiving.
This isn't logical. It's loving.
This isn't defensive. It's divine.
This isn't sustainable. It's sacrificial.
This isn't capitalism. It's Christianity.