Lending or Gifting
If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive 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 Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:34-36) So I was listening to someone explain this recently and they said Jesus meant we should have the attitude of giving someone a gift when we lend to them. At first that sounded somewhat plausible. But after contemplating that idea for awhile I began to question whether in fact this is really what Jesus had in mind. If God expected us to just give gifts to others then it would have made more sense to simply say it that way. The question begs itself as to why Jesus would choose to use this word 'lend' when it has such obvious definitive implications that...