That is the last verse of Romans 12. The chapter begins with the warning not to be conformed to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Too often the world seems overcome with evil, and the worldly response is to repay evil for evil. But for those of us who are, by the mercies of God, being transformed by the renewing of our minds, we are called to take the narrow road, do that hard thing, and overcome evil with good.

The verses in between indicate how we might accomplish that: not thinking higher of ourselves than we ought, giving liberally, showing mercy with cheerfulness, loving without hypocrisy, being devoted to one another in brotherly love, showing one another honor, practicing hospitality, blessing those who curse you, associating with the lowly, not repaying evil for evil. It even says that if our enemy is hungry we should feed them or if they are thirsty give them something to drink.

What seems normal is when people get what they deserve. But Christians are called to be abnormal. We should not be quick to want to see people get what is coming to them, when we ourselves have received so much more mercy than we deserve. We all have difficult people in our lives. Impossible people. People who make outrageous demands or disregard boundaries. People who don’t seemingly deserve our patience, our kindness, our love are the very ones who need it the most. God has shed the love of Christ abroad in our hearts so full and so strong that He can and will strengthen us to feed our hungry enemy and quench the thirst of ones who frustrate our life.

The warning to not think higher of ourselves than we ought, the warning to not be haughty in mind, this should point us back to the fact that we were once lost and short-sighted and selfish and vain. We were once impossible people. Maybe we need to be humble enough to admit maybe we are impossible people to some in our lives. God loved us long before we loved Him. The Spirit of God dwelling in other believers allowed them to love us and teach us and train us when we were knuckleheads. We also ought to love one another.

I was thinking about this because of a podcast I listened to recently. It is a new podcast called Life & Lyric put on by a long time friend of Real Hope for Haiti, musician Robbie Seay. Even though he cheers for the wrong baseball team, Robbie is a talented brother in Christ. In his interview with Dr. John Perkins, he ends their time together by asking Dr. Perkins if he had any encouragement or admonishment for worship pastors and song leaders who are leading the body of Christ. Dr. Perkins replied, “We have a language of hate. We finally have put hate over love. So the musician has to sing love songs again. We have to develop a language of love. Sing it from the housetops. How can we fall in love with Christ again?”

It is good and right to love the poor. It is good and right to love the stranger. But is there someone in your city, in your life, in your church, or in your family that has sown nothing buy pain and hurt and unfairness into your life? Do you want to see that person to reap exactly what they deserve? Or is God calling you to repay that evil with good? Lean into Him and see what He is able to empower you to do. You and I are going to have to genuinely love that person in our life that does not seem to deserve it. It will be tough and might seem impossible, but what is impossible for us is possible with God.

The current culture and recent events have made that response stick in my head and slosh around in my heart since I heard it last week. I plan to continue meditating on it for weeks to come. I invite you to do the same.