About this sermon
Jesus commands his disciples to love their enemies, do good to those who hate them, and bless those who curse them. Jesus himself, reviled and mistreated to the point of the cross, entrusted himself to the Father and prayed for those who crucified him. The world’s rule is to get others first, but Christ calls his people to pursue in love even those who hate them, as the Most High is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
Sermon transcript
nor tongue nor hand can show the love of Jesus what it is but His love for us all Please be seated. And will you turn with me this morning to the Gospel of Luke? Luke chapter 6. Luke chapter 6. We’ll begin reading in verse 27. Before we do so, let’s pray and ask for the Lord’s blessing. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the joy that is ours in Jesus Christ. that you are, Lord Jesus, our greatest prize.
You are the hope of hearts that are contrite, that turn from sin. You have shown such kindness to those who fall. You have lifted us up out of the mire of our sin and redeemed us. You who have ushered in your kingdom with your incarnation and your life and ministry, death and resurrection and ascension, bring us into your kingdom because of this. And you call us to a new life in you. A new life, Holy Spirit, we can’t live apart from your work in our hearts. You’ve revealed this in your word, and we come to it now and we ask that you would open our hearts to the truths before us. We pray it all in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
But I say to you who hear, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. 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. Give to everyone who begs from you. And from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? Or even sinners do the same. 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.
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. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” This is the Word of God.
I want to talk to you today about love-hate relationships. I’m sure we all know what those are like, and maybe have been in them ourselves. The way our society commonly uses them, these relationships that you’re in that are a roller coaster emotionally. Everything’s going wonderful. You love the person to death and then minutes later, hate them to death at the same time. I used to have that kind of relationship with my brother when I was growing up. Oh, we could love one another and hate one another with a passion. And are fighting with each other and even say that I hate you. Well, yeah, I hate you. I’m going to tell Mom, you better not. I’ll kill you. I’ll come back to life and kill you. You know, the way we used to talk about one another.
But I knew this. My brother, who always got the best of me when we would get into our fights, because he was much bigger, he was always there for me. When I faced a tough time, sticking up for me, being there for me, We know those kind of love-hate relationships.
I want to talk to you about a different kind of love-hate relationship that is being set forth in this passage. One where we’re the ones doing the loving and the others are doing the hating. And there are, in this world, haters. We continue to struggle with it as Christians of being haters towards one another. It happens in families. It happens in churches. It happens between churches.
Jesus is here dealing with the world, but we continue to struggle with what the world manifests. And so it would bring this challenge to all of us this morning. In a world of haters, our Lord is calling us to be lovers. Let’s look at this passage as we begin in verse 27. In a context where You hear, oh, what’s going on here in chapter 6 with all the woes and the blessings that are pronounced?
It sounds very much like the Sermon on the Mount. But likely here is a different context from the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus is presenting a lot of similar truth, which preachers do, and was common at that time. And in this particular context, we read about this large group of followers, among whom were his smaller group of disciples, and others who were coming to Jesus.
A crowd of people seeking after Him. They wanted to hear what He had to say. And they wanted something from Him. They wanted to be healed. of their various diseases and possessions. And Jesus healed them. This is the case here. This is the case in other times in His ministry. We know Jesus knew full well when people were coming to Him for their advantage, Like in the feeding of the 5,000. For a meal ticket at times. You see that in the Gospel of John and John chapter 6. Jesus fed them.
And yet at the same time, He knew what was in their hearts. And He had difficult things to say to them and they turned away. He knew he was being taken advantage of. And he gave of himself. Now that doesn’t mean that in the end justice wouldn’t be shown. But he gave of himself to those who reviled him. He didn’t revile in return as we see in 1 Peter 2. He entrusted Himself to the Lord.
And He calls us. We’re not called to die on the cross like He did for us. He calls us to the same type of life in which we give of ourselves this costly life of following Jesus Christ. And we suffer for it as we seek to show love for others. And so he says, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. There’s where love is shown, we can say in a very general way. It’s not about what you feel so much as what you do. The affections, they come with it, but that’s not what’s foundational. It’s giving of ourselves for the good of others to do good for them. Even those who hate you, your enemies.
You know, in Matthew 22, that when Jesus is asked about the greatest commandment, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength. And the second. Next in line, love your neighbor. As yourself and that neighbor can be your brothers and sisters in Christ, it can be anyone. As we learn in the parable of the Good Samaritan.
But here he goes a step beyond that. To kick it up a notch and say, Love your enemies. Now, your enemies can be your neighbor, but he makes it very explicit here. Love those, do good for those who have animosity towards you, who show hatred towards you.
Who we see in verse 28 would curse you as they would curse him. here in mind are the followers of Jesus Christ, who the world tends to curse, to show animosity towards, even when we seek to live at peace with them, even when we aren’t showing animosity in return. And we’re just trying to do good for them. And what do we get in response? Hatred. And they will curse you. If you’re living for Christ, you’re going to find that people who know of your profession in the Lord and your desire to follow Him are going to speak evil of you.
He said, bless them. Don’t revile them in return. When I was laboring in South Africa, the church there used to speak about those who they would call them bless you brothers. And these bless you brothers were those who were stabbing them in the back, but whenever you met them face to face, they would literally say, bless you brother. I’m not asking us to be bless you brothers in that way, but I am saying we need to be bless you brothers and sisters who don’t go around stabbing people in the back, but who seek to do good for them.
That doesn’t mean being naive and that doesn’t mean sweeping sin under the carpet and not dealing with those things. That doesn’t mean That we fail to recognize the suffering that we have to undergo. That doesn’t mean in the end that God is going to let everybody off the hook.
But it does mean that we ought to actively seek to do good for them. Even when they mistreat us. And Jesus says, pray for those people. who abuse you, who mistreat you. Now, we know about abusive relationships and how such can be categorized that way. But the truth of the matter is when we sin against one another, we are guilty of abuse. That when parents are raising their children, seeking to in love, And within the context of a Christian home mistreating their children, there’s a sense in which that is abuse. But he’s here talking about those whose lives manifest this in a very pronounced way.
They mistreat you because of your profession in Jesus Christ. pray for them. Oh, I do. You might say, I pray for them that God’s justice would be done. Is that wrong? This would be a whole nother sermon on the types of prayers we can pray legitimately. And what we know from the Psalms as imprecatory prayers of praying down God’s judgment upon someone. Is it wrong to want God’s justice to be done? No. When we look at 1st Peter 2, we see Jesus who was reviled and mistreated to the point of dying on the cross.
He was. He wasn’t just oblivious to what was happening. It isn’t the case that justice will not be done upon those who put him to death, but he entrusted himself to his Father who judges all things rightly or justly. You see, one day that vengeance will be taken. Not by us. One day all the wrongs will be made right. All the wrongs that are done against us. Everything will be set straight.
But in this life, it may not be the case. We, Paul makes it very clear in Romans 12, as much as is possible, we ought to seek to live at peace with one another and we ought to be peacemakers and we ought to try to bring about reconciliation and relationships. But sometimes it doesn’t happen. And we get mistreated.
Pray for them. You know, there’s something about speaking to our Heavenly Father, not about the vengeance that we want for someone, but praying for their good. It’s difficult, isn’t it? As we offer up complaints to our Heavenly Father about how someone’s treating us, as if to suggest, you know, Lord, I deserve better than this, than what I’m getting. Because as we’re praying to our Heavenly Father, we know that is not how He has treated us.
He has shown mercy to us. You know, look at What happens down here at the end of this passage? He’s kind. He does good to the ungrateful. Those who have received his good things and they’re not unthankful and they’re rebellious against him. He continues to show his kindness. And we know from Romans chapter two, that that ought to lead them to repentance. And it doesn’t. And one day God’s vengeance will be brought out against them. But we know that he shows that mercy and we’re called to it.
As your father is merciful, you be merciful. And it’s difficult when we’re praying about some particular situation and what we’re going through is we reflect upon the fact that I’m talking to God who is above me and beyond me in all ways. Holy. Beyond compare. And he’s been merciful to me. He does good to me. He does not give me what I deserve. He, in Jesus Christ, has removed my sins as far as the east is from the west.
How then, as I understand the grace that has been poured out on me, that I can’t show the same to others and desire And so it may be that there’s somebody in your life who is acting wickedly and maybe against you and maybe a brother and sister or sister in Jesus Christ.
Well, it’s entirely appropriate that we ought to pray that that person would be brought to repentance, that they would turn away from such behavior. But the Lord would have us to pray such things along these lines. Father, cause them to see their hearts. Maybe it’s an unbeliever. Bring them to the point where they see the ugliness of their sin and the beauty of you, Lord Jesus. Father, do it in the most gracious way possible.
Yeah, there are people in my life right now. I fear for them. I fear for the path that they’re on. But as I recognize the kind of paths I’ve been on and can get on and how God has shown mercy to me, my desire for them, even in their hatred towards me, is that God would bring them to Himself, that they would enter into His love, that they would see what they’re doing, but that God would do it in the most compassionate, gracious way possible. When I know what’s in my heart, I want God to get them. I want His justice to rain down upon them. I want to be a son of thunder. That God deals with that person. But it’s not right. As I consider how gracious God has been to me.
So you get slapped on the cheek? Oh, what an insult. You ever been slapped in the face? I have. It smarts more emotionally than it does physically. Offer Him the other one. And as Jesus literally talking about being slapped, which could happen in the context of somebody who turns away from the Lord in the synagogue and in Roman society, Somebody takes your coat, give him your shirt too. Is he speaking about these things literally?
Yes, but more than that. And in a way that seems like there’s an exaggeration to create an effect for us. Give to everyone who begs from you. If that was the case, then I would have nothing. Somebody takes away your stuff. Don’t demand it back. Don’t go to the police. Is that what he’s saying? Yes.
And yet no. He’s not saying that we ought to give of ourselves so much that we no longer do what we’re supposed to do and provide for our families. That doesn’t mean as I don’t know about you, I’ve been in cases where somebody’s come to ask something of me and I knew it was for something that was evil. Had a young woman who was helping out our family in South Africa one time come and ask for money. And as I inquired what she needed it for, found out she wanted the money to go to the doctor to have an abortion. Should I give to such a person? I said, no. More importantly than the specific examples, Jesus is clearly setting before us that we ought to give of ourselves to others.
It’s costly to be a disciple. Even knowing at times we’re being taken advantage of. Even knowing that Sometimes the good we do for others, what do we get in return? We get unthankfulness and mistreatment. I can think of people in my life, how about you?
That as you give to them, not only are they not thankful, they see you as somebody that they can get an advantage from, and they keep coming back, and you know they’re using you. And Jesus is saying, allow yourself to be used, to be taken advantage of.
Even those who mistreat you, I’m sure many of you have heard of Polycarp, that apostolic father who was a follower of the Apostle John, a disciple of John, who became the Bishop of Smyrna. And there’s that famous account of the martyrdom of Polycarp. Could very well be somewhat embellished to a certain degree.
But within the midst of that account, the Roman officials are coming after him and he learns of it. He wasn’t going to leave Smyrna, and he’s encouraged to do so, and he goes and takes up hiding at a farm, and they eventually come there, and he leaves again, and they start to torture some of the servants, who then confess where Polycarp is, and they finally catch up to him, and he’s in this cottage, and the fleeing is over. This 86-year-old man who simply wanted to serve Jesus Christ was arrested and martyred. And when the soldiers came to arrest him at this cottage late at night, he had supper prepared for them. He would lay out to dinner before, and he would say, for a while, and the account says he prayed upwards of two hours. And these soldiers came under great conviction. What are we arresting this godly man for, who means no one any harm, who has laid out this dinner for us, and is praying for us?
You see, As we seek to do good for others. These types of things can happen who hate us. Who mistreat us? We respond to them in such a way, and isn’t that exactly what Paul says? Takes place in Romans 12. Don’t take vengeance out on others. Don’t repay evil with evil. Repay it with good, because in doing so, you heap burning coals upon your enemy. Ah, yes, burning coals. I’ll do good for them, because burning coals will come streaming down on their head.
The idea there is that you, in responding to their evil with good, would bring them to a point of conviction, maybe even their conversion. And you hear people speak about that. How in their lives, and in their rebellion to Jesus Christ, and how they treated people. How they were won over by Christians who showed love for them and did good for them. Who knows what might happen?
So, don’t! It’s no big deal if you do good for those who do good for you. You love them because they love you. What’s the big deal? What’s the benefit? People in the world do that all the time. We were talking a little bit this morning before we prayed about this phrase quid pro quo and how we relate to one another.
This for that. Something for something. That’s how our society operates. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. Jesus says that’s no big deal. You do good for those who do good for you. You lend to someone else, expecting to get it all back. Sinners do that. Hey, buddy, can you loan me five bucks until next payday? Sure. But if that money doesn’t come back, That guy goes right to him and says, where’s my five bucks, pal? Instead, love, do good, lend, expecting nothing in return.
There is a test of love. When the people in your life, sometimes it’s parents towards their children, Sometimes it’s towards people in the church of Jesus Christ. We all have different contexts where this has been shown, where we seek to show love to others and we get hatred in return. And then we’re upset. Jesus is saying. Don’t expect anything in return. The Lord knows what you’re doing. The Lord sees it. He knows the love and the kindness you’re showing to others. It is not going unnoticed.
He’s called you to such a life because of the one who has acted that way towards you. the one we read of in Romans chapter 5. While we were yet sinners in rebellion to God, Christ died for the ungodly. You know, the foundation of what we see in 1 Peter 2, verse 21, What would Jesus do in answer to that question? He’s left you an example to follow in His steps. And you are to follow that. And it’s a good question to ask, what would Jesus do in this situation?
He’s my example. But it doesn’t begin there. That’s where it began with liberal theology, is they reduced Jesus to nothing but a moral example. And that question arose out of a book written by somebody who was a theological liberal. But it’s an awesome question. But at the foundation of it is this question, what has Jesus done? He bore your sins, Peter says on the tree. He died for you.
And as you enter into that grace that is shown to you, and you know the sacrifice he has made for you, it now makes it possible. Only then is it possible for you to follow his example, because otherwise it just isn’t going to happen. apart from some external moralistic way of trying to show love to all mankind. We need to experience the love of Jesus Christ. And once we do, we can show it to others. Jesus says, Your reward will be great. He sees it. You will be sons of the Most High. He’s not saying, by doing this, you become the children of God. You will be manifested as such. And John makes it very clear, doesn’t he?
You can’t say you love God and hate your brother. Your love for your brother will show your love for God. The more you understand The love that has come from Jesus Christ to you, then you’re ready to fulfill the golden rules stated here. We know quite well from Matthew 7, 12, but it’s there in verse 31, as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. At the time, it looks like Jesus was the first to state this in a positive way.
There was this rule, don’t do to other people what you don’t want them to do to you. You know, we can say to our children, do you like it? You can say to a little boy, do you like it when somebody comes up and grabs a toy out of your hand? No. Don’t you do it to him. Okay, Mommy.
Jesus is saying, think about what you want others to do for you. How you want them to treat you when you mess up, when you fail, when you sin, when you hate. You want them to scream at you? You want them to write you a scathing letter? You appreciate it when people show pity on you and are compassionate.
Do the same. The world knows nothing of this truly. I remember seeing this cartoon. Maybe you’re familiar with the cartoon strip It used to be in the Sunday paper all the time. I don’t know if it is anymore. The Wizard of Id, this little mythical kingdom. And there was this little short king in Id.
And in this one cartoon, he’s standing out on the balcony and he says to his people, remember the golden rule. And down in the crowd, somebody says, what’s that? And someone else says, He who has the gold makes the rules. That’s the golden rule of our world.
Or, do to others before they do it to you. Get them before they get at you. Jesus is calling us to a totally different life. May we seek it. Think right now in your life. Pick one person that as far as you know, maybe you’re at peace with everybody. You’re unique. Please tell me what your secret is later that you know hates you. Will you alienate yourself from them? Or will you actively pursue them in love? Jesus desires it. Let’s pray together.
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