Happy Friday, everyone! In Matthew 5:41, Jesus is talking to his disciples, and he says to them, “If a soldier asks you to carry his equipment for one mile, carry it two.”

You know, that really sounded crazy to the disciples. You see, back in their day, under Roman law, a Roman soldier could compel—by law—a Jewish citizen to carry his equipment for a mile. Jesus says, “Don’t just look at that ask from a standpoint of fulfilling the law.” He says, “Go above and beyond. Go the extra mile.” And the question is, what in the world would fuel us to be able to go the extra mile?

And the only answer that there is, is the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have been given such freedom away from the law that now the things that we get a chance to do is we get a chance to love others and to really be generous in the way that we respond to what people ask us. So it may not be a Roman soldier who’s asking you for a favor or asking you to do something this weekend.

Maybe it’s just simply something that now you get an opportunity to respond out of the good gospel of what God’s given you and the love He’s given you – to not just go one mile, but to go that extra mile and really respond to that request with the gospel. I pray that that would be what takes you and fuels you into this weekend.

Prayer
Dear Jesus, thank You so much for the way that You went the extra mile. You went way further than, Lord, we would have even ever expected anyone to go. But You went that extra mile for us.