A Meditation on a Most Needed Infection

"...do good..." Lk.6:35

Within the same context in which the Iesous speaks of the obligation to love those who are hostile toward us he adds another surprising imperative.  He adds that one must do good (agathopoieite - to do good, i.e. perform an action that will benefit another).  

Why would the Iesous join together "Love ye your enemies (hostile ones)" and "do good?"  And why would he state these two demands in the ethical imperative?

Paul, the Apostle, wrote:  "And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he (the Iesous) reconciled (Col. 1:21)."  In other words, we were once hostile toward Theos and he demonstrated his love toward us by sending the incomparable Iesous.  

The word for love in the Greek New Testament that expresses the love of Theos for us is agape.  It is more than a noun.  It is a noun of action.  The love of Theos is not passive and neither is it impotent, or sentimental.  The love of Theos is intrinsic to his nature or essence.  The love of Theos is uncreated and eternal.  This is the love that is expressed in the Theanthropos - Iesous.  Therefore, when we are enjoined by the Iesous to love those who are hostile toward us he is speaking from the divine ground of action.

Love, real love, is always in the imperative and expresses itself in doing good indiscriminately and without shadowy motives.  Doing good is the expression of the inward freedom that one enjoys unencumbered by reaction to the calculated hostility of others.

Love sets us free to do good so that we articulate the love of God by performing actions of benevolence for the advantage of others.  This is what C.S. Lewis calls, "Good Infection."

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