Fresh Bread

Guest (Male): You are listening to Fresh Bread, Dr. Harry Reeder's daily devotional from the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.

Harry Reeder: We're looking at the countercultural nature of the lifestyle of a believer in the kingdom of God as they serve the King of kings, and their citizenship is in the kingdom of God even while they reside within the kingdoms of this world. We do not let the kingdom of darkness overcome the kingdom of light. On the contrary, we have a lifestyle that manifests God's glory, God's grace, God's long-suffering, God's patience. We are able to manifest that since we have been given eyes to see and ears to hear, and a new life in Christ. We don't need to live for this world, but we can live for Christ in this world.

He gives another manifestation of that in Luke chapter six. We'll pick up today at verse 32: "If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount. 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 is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful to you."

Here again, we're being instructed as to a way of life that is not overcome by evil so that we give evil for evil, but that overcomes evil by doing good. We're free to do that because we have our life in Christ and Christ is our life. Therefore, we don't have to affirm our mark on others if they don't do what they ought to do with us and for us. He said, listen, the most rank sinner can love somebody that loves them. He is not saying that there's not a place where you put your money to work with appropriate, reasonable income and return for the use of money. It's not wrong to rent out money or for money to be rented.

What he is saying is you don't lend with your life dependent upon those people who would pay you back. You're willing to lend and not be paid back. You're willing to lend and realize that there are some people that God's going to have to ultimately be the collector on them. So what you do is you want the credit not to yourself. You do not want to make money with inappropriate credit lending. That doesn't mean you can't lend and have credit, but it does mean you're willing to lend even when people need it and without receiving interest for it.

Is that always the best thing for people who are trying to learn business sense, for people that are trying to learn how they got in the position that they're in? Of course not. If you give people money and do not make them pay you back, you're actually doing them a disservice. But we also realize that there is a place and a manner of life in which, even when you're trafficking in the things of this world, it's clear to the people whom you are helping that you're not helping them for what you can get out of them; you're helping them for what you can do for them that will move them further along.

That may mean I lend and don't get interest back. I may not get anything back, and I am willing to do that. My life does not plummet into despair if that happens because my life is hid in Christ and Christ is my life. Therefore, I can love my enemy. I can do good and I can lend because I'm a son of the Most High God. So I can be grateful to those who are ungrateful. I can do good to those who would do evil because I've got a Father who did good to me, who gave me what I didn't deserve in grace, who withheld from me what I did deserve in mercy.

Instead of justice falling on me, justice fell on His Son for me. That sets me free for a countercultural lifestyle. It's the difference that grace makes that attracts people to saving grace in Christ. Not if we live for what the world lives for but we're religious, but we live for Christ and Christ is at work in us. It shows up in some amazing decisions that they can't explain except for the transforming grace of God. Then you get the opportunity to explain that to them too. And that's another slice of Fresh Bread.

The Bible: Fact or Myth? How does the Bible stack up against true science? Good questions. Find out the answers. Request this month's free gift offer, Dr. Reeder's series, Is the Bible Reliable? Call 1-800-488-1888. That's 1-800-488-1888.