Luke 6:27-36 Jesus Exposits His Own Message – Love Like the Father Loves
Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke 6:27-36, page 862 in the pew Bibles.
As you may be aware, there are different types of preaching and teaching in the church, two main types really. Topical preaching and expository preaching.
Topical preaching is when the speaker chooses a topic to talk about and finds Scriptures that apply to the topic so that the hearers can learn what the Bible says about a particular subject. A few weeks ago Will preached on the topic of choices and shared verses that pertained to that topic so that we could better understand what the Bible says about making godly choices.
Expository preaching is the mode of preaching that, if you have been here for a while, is the form of preaching that you are used to hearing. In expository preaching the preacher selects a text from Scripture, attempts to discover the original author’s meaning, shares the implications of those principles, and then the general and sometimes specific application of those principles.
This is what I attempt most of the time with the Holy Spirit’s help with an occasional topical sermon sprinkled in mostly around different holidays.
There have been a lot of great expositors through the years, and I quote some of them often, Alistair Begg, Ray Steadman, John Calvin, Martin Luther, but do you know who the best expositor every is?
It’s Jesus. And in our text for today He proves it, He does all the work of expositing for us.
Let’s look at our text and hopefully you’ll see that Jesus is not only the best expositor but the message that He gave us is life changing as well.
27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. 31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
32 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. 35 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 is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
Let’s pray.
Now if you were here last week or listened online you may remember that Jesus had just given the beatitudes, the blessings and the woes, and that’s important to remember because our text starts with a, “but.”
The blessings and woes that Jesus pronounced have a tendency to create a dichotomy, a split between people, those that have the blessings and those that have the woes. It’s natural for us to think this way. What story can you think of that doesn’t have a good guy and a bad guy, a protagonist and an antagonist?
Jesus’ sermon is instructive on how to deal with that rift between people.
Here’s how it breaks down: the message, the meaning, the implications, and the application. This is not how a four point sermon is built, this is a one point sermon.
Here’s the message, verses 27-28.
…Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
It’s as if Jesus is saying, “though I’ve pronounced these woes on certain people, your adversaries, don’t hate them, love them.”
And as much as I like finding deeper, richer meaning in the more complete translation of key words like, “love,” and, “enemies, blessing, curses, and prayer,” the message is all right there on the surface.
…Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
That’s the message, here’s the meaning, verses 29-31.
29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. 31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
Jesus gives us some examples to illustrate what He meant by love your enemies and do good to those that hate you.
It’s natural to revisit violence with violence. When someone wrongs us we naturally want vengeance, but that is not the way of Christ. The way of Christ is to love regardless of how we are treated, regardless of whether or not that love is returned or reciprocated.
There is no hidden insult here, that somehow being struck on one cheek, the right cheek let’s say, is somehow acceptable, but offering your left cheek was some weird kind of cultural retribution. Jesus isn’t being sneaky here, the meaning is right here on the surface, if someone strikes you on one cheek, offer the other cheek, don’t strike them back.
This is the definition of meekness, it isn’t weakness, it’s self-control. It may be in your power to strike back, it may be in your power to refuse to give up your coat or your shirt or your stuff, but Jesus says, “don’t.” Give to everyone who demands things from you, from the one who takes away your stuff, don’t demand it back. Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.
This is the Golden Rule, treat other people the way you want to be treated, not that they will, and not that we should expect it. We aren’t responsible for the attitudes and response of others, just ourselves and this is what Jesus commands us to do: As you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
That’s what Jesus meant when He said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”
So what are the implications of this meaning? What is it that Jesus is trying to say to us? Look at verses 32-34.
32 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount.
I love that Jesus makes this so clear, it makes the expositors task really easy!
The implication is that the life of a Christ follower is different from those that do not follow Christ, it’s a life marked by love, but not just loving those who love us but loving those that hate us, loving everybody regardless of how they treat us.
The life of following Christ is a life of following His example, He loves those who hate Him, he prayed for the forgiveness of those who crucified Him, he continues to bless, and to give, and to love those who may never return that love or turn to Him in faith. He is asking his followers to do the same.
The implication here is that the real blessings are not on this earth, they are not in this life. As the scholar said, “Divine recompense is our reward.”
And therein lies the application, verses 35-36.
35 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 is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
Loving our enemies, doing good, lending expecting nothing in return will not make us sons of the Most High, only faith in Jesus Christ can do that, but loving our enemies, doing good, and lending expecting nothing in return will prove that we are sons and daughters of the Most High because we will be acting like He does, being kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
Two things that we should notice here.
Number one, these are not suggestions from Jesus, this is not just advice about godly living, these are commands, these are imperatives. We MUST love our enemies, we MUST do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. We MUST do good to those who hate us, we MUST bless those that curse us and pray for those who abuse us.
The second thing to notice is that we are to be merciful as He is merciful as His sons and daughters because that is what our Father in heaven is like and that is how He acted towards us.
In His mercy He has spared us from the punishment that is due us because of our sin, in His mercy He paid the debt He did not owe with His own life on the cross, we ought also to show that same mercy to those who wrong us, or hate us, or take from us.
In His mercy He exchanged His life for ours that we could be forgiven through faith in Jesus. And so, we ought also to act in mercy in hopes that the Father will use that mercy to bring many more people to faith in Him.
Amen.
