Read Luke 6:27-36[i]
The first and greatest commandment,
according to the Lord Jesus, is to love the Lord your God with all your
heart. The second commandment is to love
your neighbor as yourself.
Luke 6:20-26 paints a picture of what
it looks like to love God. Luke 6:27-36
paints a picture of what it looks like to love your neighbor.
The key word is compassion. Verse 36 uses the word compassion. Luke 6:36 says, “You must be compassionate,
just as your Father is compassionate.” “Help
Word-studies” defines the word used for compassion in this verse as: “compassionate,
experiencing deep pity (lamentation) as God has for people who look to Him for
help in their difficult situations.”[ii] The word visceral
also describes the response of this kind of compassion. This points to a deep-down, gut-level
response. In order to have this kind of
response, we must identify closely with the circumstances and conditions of
another person. Luke 6:27-36 shows us
how we can do this.
Luke 6:27-36 shows us how to love
like God loves.
This is only possible in the power of
the Holy Spirit. In our own strength we
will fail, and we all do fail in many ways.
It is my prayer that by looking at this scripture we will all be
strengthened with grace and empowered to love fully as we are loved. We will look at three things we can do to
help. These three are taken from the
Luke and are: 1) understand, 2) use and
3) undergird. We will look at each in
turn.
First, I must talk more about this
being possible in the power of the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus turned to the crowd and opened this subject, He said, “But to
you who are willing to listen . . .” This
teaching is not acceptable to everyone.
Just like the gospel, it is foolishness to the person without the Spirit
of God.
1 Corinthians 1:18 says, “The message
of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction!” Jesus used a parable about seeds to explain
how some are not willing to receive the truth.
He told how seed that is scattered can fall on hard soil and never even
take root. (This parable of Jesus is
found in Luke 8.) By starting with the
invitation “to you who are willing to listen,” Jesus draws attention to the
fact that the spiritual truth He is about to share is not an easy one for us as
men and women. It goes against our
natural reactions and thinking.
To us who are likely to hold grudges
and seek revenge he says, “Love your enemies.” (Luke 6:27) This teaching divides into three
subjects. The first of which can be
classified as understanding. This is
found in verses 27 through 31, and is summarized for us in verse 31.
I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. 28Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. 29If someone slaps you on one
cheek, offer the other cheek also. If
someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. 30Give to anyone who asks; and when
things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back. 31Do to others as you would like
them to do to you.
In order to “do to others as you
would like them to do to you,” one must first understand. All of the commands listed here assume that
we are taking a posture of understanding the other person. The Apostle Paul says, “Do nothing out of
selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above
yourselves, 4not looking to your own interests but each of you to
the interests of the others.”
(Philippians 2:3-4, NIV)[iii]
Think of others first. This is contrary to our human tendency to
think of our interests and ourselves. Looking
out for the interests of others is the first step in doing to others as we
would like them to do to us. This
requires understanding, understanding what they need, desire or are motivated
by. We cannot assume that what we desire
is the same as what another desires. We
cannot assume that what motivates us motivates another. The first thing we would have others to do
for us is to understand. When Jesus
tells us to turn the other cheek when someone slaps us, He shows us how far our
understanding of the other person should go.
When we seek to understand and love
our neighbor as ourselves, we have a unique opportunity. This is why I call the second thing Jesus
shows us “use.”
Yes, I am suggesting we use
others. Love does not look out for its
own interests, and yet look at what Jesus says in Luke 6:35, “Then your reward
from heaven will be very great.” This serves as a summary of this second part
of loving our neighbor as ourselves found in verses 32 through 34. These verses say:
32“If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that?
Even sinners love those who love them! 33And if you do good only to those
who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! 34And if you lend money only to
those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a
full return.
Three times Jesus asks, “Why should
you get credit.” The emphasis in this
part of the teaching seems to be on this “credit” that Jesus is talking
about. So translations say, “What
benefit is that to you?” The actual word
Jesus used is normally translated “grace.”
Grace is favor or a gift. When we do something good for another we feel
good about ourselves. Therefore, there
is benefit. The world practices this. Parents can and should do good for their children. However, this does not go beyond what is
natural. Jesus says, “even sinners do
this.” Jesus gives a call to go beyond
what is natural. Jesus said, “Then your
reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children
of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked.” (Luke
6:35) Acting like the Most High is going
beyond the natural. In addition, Jesus
gives a reason for doing this. That
reason is “storing up treasures in heaven.”
In addition to pointing our thoughts toward credit, Jesus points out a
great reward in heaven.
When we look out for our own
interests, it is usually in relation to the things of this world. Jesus taught us in Matthew 6:20-21, “20Store
your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do
not break in and steal. 21Wherever
your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”
Other people represent our
opportunity to store up treasures in heaven.
Actually, I know of no other way.
There is a strange bit of irony here.
The more selfless I am with others here, the more treasures I store up
in heaven. This is why I called this
“using others.” While there may be no
reward, thanks or benefit for doing good to our enemies in this life, Jesus
says there is great benefit in heaven.
Along with the thought of “using others” to store up treasures in
heaven, we should be aware of the temptation that accompanies this. Jesus said, “Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be
admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1)
When we do our good deeds for a
reward here on earth, we get all the reward we are going to get right here on
earth. The Lord, who knows our hearts,
knows when our hearts are set on heavenly values. The only way to do this is to love God with
all our hearts and our neighbor as ourselves.
We have said we should seek to
understand and use the opportunity to store up heavenly treasures. The third thing we can do is undergird.
By undergird, I mean support.
The natural thing to do when another
hurts us is to seek to hurt that person in return. Let’s read what Jesus says in Luke 6:35-36:
35“Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very
great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is
kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. 36You must be compassionate, just
as your Father is compassionate.
Lending without expecting anything in
return is doing good. It is also supporting
others in their efforts. It shows us
what “doing unto others as we would have done to ourselves” looks like.
Throughout this passage, Jesus talks
about doing good to our enemies. We are
to bless those that curse us. We are to pray
for those who hurt us. This is not just
passively accepting abuse. It is
actively working for the good of someone else.
Jesus gives God as our example.
He says, “You will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he
is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked.”
God pours out the blessings of food,
rain, joy and life on all humanity, even on His enemies. He invites all humanity to come to Him and
enjoy eternal life. However, there is
need for clarification. He does not
leave the guilty unpunished. If they do
not pay for their crimes in this life, they will in the next. The only way to escape punishment is to come
to Jesus and accept the price that He paid.
Seeking the good and undergirding the
efforts of others does not mean enabling them or supporting sin and evil. Leviticus 19:17 says, “You shall not hate
your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor,
lest you incur sin because of him.”
(ESV)[iv] We can see from this that we can show hatred
by allowing another to continue to sin.
It is not supportive to lend money to people so that they can continue
with destructive patterns. This is where
understanding comes in. The idea is to
seek the other person’s good.
Jesus called for us to be
compassionate like God is compassionate.
God causes everything to work together for our good. Love is exemplified in working for the good
of those who have hurt us. The
undergirding is the foundation. There is
no need to support the rotten part of the building, but there is a need to
avoid the temptation of pulling the rug out from under those who have hurt us.
Compassion grows with the ability to
put ourselves in another’s place. Think
of the mercy and compassion God has shown to us.
Let us pray that in the power of the
Holy Spirt we will be strengthened with grace to love fully as we are
loved. Let us seek to understand others
and use every opportunity to store up treasures in heaven and undergird the good
in others.
[i]
Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New
Living Translation. Copyright © 1996,
2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Steam,
Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
[ii]
http://biblehub.com/greek/3629.htm
[iii]
Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New
International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica,
Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
[iv]
Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good
News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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