Jesus teaches us to turn the other cheek and to love our enemies (Matthew 5:38-48).  In other words, forgiveness and love reside at the very heart of Christian moral teaching.  And yet justice and moral accountability are equally important to pursue as disciples of Jesus Christ.  For many of us this presents a conundrum.

This is because some assume that “I forgive you” means “that’s alright.”  In other words, some misunderstand the nature of forgiveness and mistakenly believe that forgiveness excuses the one who has done wrong.  Quite to the contrary, as we shall see on Sunday in our continuing study of The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us to forsake retaliation.  He does not instruct us to be permissive about sin or to believe that sin has no consequences.  He does, however, teach us that justice is in God’s hands, not in ours.

Similarly, Jesus’ admonition that we love our enemies leads any number of us to believe that the Greek word for “disciple” might better be translated as “doormat.”  Again, this is based on a misunderstanding.  Love is not synonymous with approval or feelings of affection, so loving our enemies does not mean accepting abusive behavior or feeling well disposed toward someone doing bad things.  Love is a steadfast commitment that we give away to someone as a gift.  We commit to work for their good, that is, for their reconciliation to God in Jesus Christ, no matter what.  This is much easier to do when we like someone and when they act in a pleasing way.  But this is probably not the person who most needs our love in this sense.