Luke 6:27–49

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Dean, School of Christian Studies, University of Mobile

Love Like the Master (27–40)
The first two verses may be the root of all the previous instructions (Luke 6:20–26). “Go on loving your enemies” with agape, self-sacrificial, love like the love God has for men who hate Him or never think of Him at all. A person who loves as the Lord loves will “continue doing well to those who go on hating” him. He will “continue giving” the other cheek to one who “continually strikes the first cheek.” “Striking the first cheek” may indicate public rejection, e.g., excommunication from the synagogue. A follower of Jesus Christ may suffer rejection but will never cease to reach out over and again. If an enemy takes a disciple’s coat, i.e., outer cloak, then a disciple will yield up his tunic, i.e., undergarment, as well, always acting more generously than the situation demands. Jesus best illustrated this kind of love.

Love for others demands that a follower of Jesus “continue giving” to the man who “goes on asking.” “Not asking for your possessions back” implies forgiveness, i.e., absorbing debts (see 1 Corinthians 6:7). Indeed love like the Master’s best takes shape in what is called the golden rule: “Treat others the way you want them to treat you.”

Anybody will love those who love him, do good to those who return the favor and lend to those who pay back. Jesus’ disciples must love their enemies, do good to those who do evil to them and lend (an act of kindness) even if the debt may not be repaid. This earns great reward but also makes a disciple like God, who is kind to ingrates and mean people. In the first century, to be a “son” of someone often meant to be “like” that person, i.e., to be a son of God was to be like God. In the Bible, “showing mercy” may mean being kind to needy people (cf Luke 10:37) or forgiving and sparing the guilty.  

A follower who loves as Jesus described and modeled will “stop judging” and condemning and instead devote himself to forgiveness. Jesus never forbade His followers to make moral judgments about right and wrong. In fact, He made moral judgments Himself. So Jesus must have meant the mean spirit of condemnation. Why? Bitter judgment rebounds. “The measure you use will be the measure you receive.” It is not that others will treat the disciple as he treats them but that God will treat a judgmental person as he treats others.

Jesus’ disciples must be careful whom they follow, whether the scribes and Pharisees or Jesus. “If a blind man (the leaders of the Jews) leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” No disciple goes beyond his master, so he must choose his master wisely.

Help Others Handle Their Problems (41–42)
Often a person criticizes others when he has far more serious problems in his own life. The Pharisees condemned others for petty things but played down their own major spiritual faults. Readily they dug for a “speck,” i.e., a small piece of wood, chaff or straw, in some other person’s eye when they needed a logrolling session themselves. They were “hypocrites,” a term from Greek drama that meant “actors just playing a part.”  

Jesus required only that His disciples be kind, not that they be blind. Once a follower of Jesus gets the pole out of his own eye, he can see clearly to help a brother with a speck.

Obey the Lord (43–49)
Good trees produce good fruit, and bad trees bring forth bad fruit. Simply a tree is known by the kind of fruit it produces. The application of these verses suggests that the man who does good shows he is good at heart, while the man who does bad shows he is bad at heart. The words a person speaks serve as a singular example of this principle (see James 1:26; 3:1–12).

The fruit that identifies a true disciple is obedience to Christ. In the little parable, the solid foundation is “hearing and doing,” while the sand is “hearing without doing.” The flood that tries the foundations is not just severe tests here and now but the day of final judgment.