I don’t know about you, but I love karma. When someone blows past me on Jiles Road while I’m doing the speed limit—and there’s one of Kennesaw’s finest waiting just over the rise—those blue lights flash, and I cheer. They got instant karma!

But in most of our lives, karma doesn’t hold up. There are many more times when the car blows past me and nothing happens—except they make it through the next light while I catch the red. We mostly don’t get what we deserve.

That’s why the Gospel is “good news.” It says we don’t get what we deserve; rather, we get what we don’t deserve. That is what Jesus is saying in this passage: act more like your Father in heaven. Give the people you come in contact with what they don’t deserve.

So many times, we treat life as a transaction. Our interactions with people are based on how they treat us. Notice that Jesus dismantles that idea by telling us not to treat people as they treat us, but as we wish they would treat us. That’s not a game changer; that’s a world changer!

Try it as you go through your day. Be intentional about it. Look for ways to give without expectation, to love someone through your actions in ways they can never repay. Let that kind of open generosity begin to replace the desire for people to “get what they deserve,” and instead allow you to love them as God loves you.