What a Strange Kind of Love: Luke 6:27-36

I have read Luke 6:27-36 countless times through the years and I have found that what Jesus taught His followers in regards to how they are to treat those who are their enemies, those who have harmed them, is so startling, so beyond the realm of human comprehension and possibility that most people, even the followers of Jesus, simply say, “I can’t.” Let me give you just one illustration of a conversation I will never forget.

After I became a follower of Jesus my family, one-by-one, followed. My mom and I were always close, but when she began reading the Bible it gave us something to talk about that we never had before. Then, one day while I was in college, I got a phone call from my mom. She was terribly upset. She had read, in Matthew 6:15, that Jesus said, “...if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:15 NIV) Mom was distraught. She told me that she was afraid she was going to go to hell because she could never forgive her stepmother for what she had done to her. I grew up only a couple of miles from my grandfather and step-grandmother so I knew the story all too well. My mother’s stepmother made Cinderella’s evil stepmother look like a global icon of motherhood! My mom, when she read Jesus’ words, felt the weight of the bitterness, resentment, and hatred she felt for her stepmother.  

I don’t think Jesus’ words struck my mother in some unique way. I bet there are some of you who are here this morning and there is an “evil stepmother” of some type in your story. Someone who has cut you to the core, someone who has caused you so much pain in life, and the hurt and bitterness are raw and fiery. I want to ask you to set that aside for a moment and totally lock in for the next few minutes on trying to gain a deeper understanding of the strange love and mercy of God. Let’s read our Scripture for this morning found in Luke 6:27-36.

27 "But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. 32 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:27-36 NIV)

It is so important for you and me, whenever we study God’s Word, to know the context of the Scripture we are studying. Far too many people read a verse, or a section of God’s Word like we just read, and immediately launch into what they think it means. That can be so dangerous and can easily lead us to totally miss what God desires to teach us. 

The context for our Scripture goes back to verse 20 where Luke tells us Jesus turned to His disciples and began to teach them. The disciples were those Jesus would train by instruction and example, through His words and the things He did, so that they would carry the Gospel to the nations after His death, resurrection, and ascension to the right hand of God the Father. They would have to endure poverty, hunger, sorrow, and persecution but the hardships they would suffer would lead to their blessing. Jesus contrasted those who would suffer because they followed Him with those who would live for themselves and prosper in this life. Jesus made it clear that His disciples would encounter two kinds of people in this life: Those who follow Him and suffer for His sake and those who live for themselves and oftentimes oppose the followers of Jesus. How should Jesus’ followers respond to those who oppose them, slander them, and even intend to harm them? That’s our focus for this morning.  Take a look at Luke 6:27-28 one more time. Jesus tells His disciples.

27 "But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. (Luke 6:27-28 NIV)

I want you to notice something in these two verses that is very important. There are four Greek verbs that are used, which are translated, “love, do good, bless, and pray.” Each of these four Greek verbs are in the “present imperative” tense.  What does that mean? I’m so glad you asked! The “present” tense tells us that “love” is to be an ongoing or continuous action, not a one and done kind of action. The “imperative” tense tells us that Jesus isn’t suggesting that we love our enemies nor is He asking us if we would consider loving our enemies, but He is commanding us. The same is true for doing good, blessing, and praying for our enemies. 

How many of us hear Jesus’ command and say, “That sounds like a plan. Got it. I’ll get on it right now!” Jesus’ command is totally out of step with our modern-day understanding of our relationship to those who hate us, curse us, and mistreat us. Let me reassure you, it’s not just those of us who live in America who think this type of response is crazy–every culture in every nation throughout time would consider Jesus’ commands as more than strange. There is one exception and that is the culture of those who worship YHWH. We can go back to the Hebrew Bible and learn how God instructed His people to respond to their enemies. Turn with me to Exodus 23:4-5 and Proverbs 25:21 and let’s read together.

4 "If you come across your enemy's ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to return it. 5 If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help them with it. (Exodus 23:4-5 NIV)

21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. (Proverbs 25:21 NIV)

Did you notice that both of these instructions require action, not mushy feelings, not a flutter of our hearts, or a tingling in our soul, but action. The kind of love that we are most familiar with is a love for those who love us, those who have shown they are worthy of our love, those who reciprocate all of the nice things we have done for them.

Thankfully, we are not left to wonder what type of love Jesus had in mind when He told His disciples to love their enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you. In the Greek language there are different words for different types of love. There is the love we share as friends, “philos,” which means, “loving or beloved.” There is a family-type love which is identified as “storge” love. There is the romantic love which is called “eros.” I bet some of you can still remember when you first fell in love. You will never fall into the kind of love that Jesus calls us to have for those who have it out for us. The verb form of “agape,” which is used here, appears 137 times in the New Testament. This type of love has no strings attached. It is a love of choice and not merit. It is a love that continuously chooses to love regardless of how the other responds. Did you hear that? The agape love we are to have for those who have hurt us, used us, abandoned us, and beaten us down is a choice that Jesus calls us to make. I want us to sit in that just for a moment. That statement, left by itself, will cause us to simply walk away either in dejection because we know we do not have it within ourselves to make such a choice or because we would rather hold onto the rope of burning bitterness we think will choke the life out of our enemies. We are asked to make the choice to love, do good, bless, and pray for our enemies by the very One who chose to love us, while we were His enemies. Paul wrote,

7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:7-11 NIV)

When you come to truly understand every single word of what Paul wrote it will drop you to your knees in humility and awe of the glorious love of God our Father exhibited through the reconciling power of His Son’s willing death for His enemies…that’s me, and that’s you. 

One of my favorite books of all time is a little book called, The Ragamuffin Gospel, written by a man named Brennan Manning. Brennan was a broken man, broken to the core, but I believe it was his acute awareness of his brokenness that gave him such insight into the deep, deep reservoir of God’s love and mercy.  His understanding of God’s love for himself translated into a radical forgiveness for others. Brennan wrote, in his book The Rabbi’s Heartbeat,

The summons to live as forgiven and forgiving children is radically inclusive. The demands for forgiveness are so daunting that they seem humanly impossible. The exigencies (urgent action requiring great effort) of forgiveness are simply beyond the capacity of ungraced human will. Only reckless confidence in a Source greater than ourselves can empower us to forgive the wounds inflicted by others. In boundary moments such as these there is only one place to go – Calvary. (Manning, Brennan. The Rabbi’s Heartbeat.)

I can look back over my life and trace out the lineage of my enemies going all the way back to grade school. Some were more bitter enemies than others, but I’ve got a list…and you do too. When I was young I lacked the resources to be able to actively show love towards those who opposed me, do good for those who hated me, bless those who cursed me, and pray for those who desired me harm, but “in Christ” or better yet, with Jesus in me, I now have resources that this world knows nothing about. Now, if I am unwilling to actively love, do good, bless, and pray for those who hate me, I can chalk it up to only one thing: my willful disobedience. That stings doesn’t it? It is intended to sting. How can I, one who has been loved so deeply and forgiven for so much, refuse to love and forgive someone else? Let’s move on. Turn to verses 29-31 with me. Let’s read it together.

29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. (Luke 6:29-31 NIV)

“If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also.” Some have misused this verse in grotesque ways. Jesus is not encouraging those who are being physically abused to keep enduring the abuse. If you are in a relationship in which you are being physically abused, you need to separate yourself from your abuser. Remove yourself from the threat of harm, but do not stop praying for your abuser. 

I would encourage you to read Romans 12-13 together. In Romans 12, Paul encourages the believers in Rome to love their enemies, not to seek revenge, and to not be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good. Then, in Romans 13, Paul talks about the authority of civil government and its God-designed purpose in society to hold back and to punish evil. We can see an example of this in Paul’s own life when he appealed to Caesar, in Acts 25, when those who hated him were planning an ambush to kill him. Do not allow people to tell you that it will get better, he or she will change, if you will keep praying and be patient. Keep praying for your abuser, but remove yourself and utilize the civil authorities God has put in place to protect you. 

Now, the actual context of “turning the other cheek” is most certainly very different from what I’ve just shared with you. I shared what I did because I have heard that verse misused in such horrific ways. The actual context is in connection with what Jesus had told His disciples about how they would suffer for their faithfulness in following Him. Most Bible teachers agree that Jesus was instructing His disciples about how they should respond when they are rejected or mistreated because of their allegiance to Him. Once again, Jesus is our example. Peter lived and traveled with Jesus for the three years of His ministry before Jesus was crucified. He saw every detail of Jesus’ way of life. Peter was there and watched how Jesus responded to the crowds who came to Him for help. Peter was also there and watched how Jesus responded when those who hated Him tried every way possible to eliminate Him. Years later, Peter wrote,

23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. (1 Peter 2:23 NIV)

There is this one scene in John’s Gospel that comes to mind when I think of the way Jesus refused to call down legions of angels and wipe out His enemies. Jesus had been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. The guards had taken Him to be questioned by Annas. We find the story in John 18. Jesus answered Annas, but one of Annas’ officials didn’t like Jesus’ answer and slapped Him in the face to humiliate Him. Jesus didn’t turn the other cheek, but neither did He retaliate in any way. Jesus asked,

23 “If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” (John 18:23 NIV)

When people lash out at us because of our love and commitment to Jesus, we are never to retaliate. The way we respond to those who oppose our faith will either be a testimony of the difference Jesus makes in our life or a tragedy of our betrayal of our Lord and Savior. Let’s move on.

Jesus said, “If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.” In biblical times, a “coat” was like an outer garment and a “shirt” was like an undershirt. If you take this literally, in the not too distant future, you will be running around naked without a nickel to your name. I believe Jesus was telling His disciples to hold on to Him tightly and hold everything else loosely. We can become so attached to our possessions that they possess us. Everything we have is a gift from the Lord to be used for His purposes and not the fulfillment of our selfish pleasures. We are to be generous, but good stewards of all that the Lord has entrusted to us. This goes for Britton Christian Church as well. Let me give you an example.

Years and years ago the word got out that this church would help people who were struggling. Ministries like Study Buddies, the BritVil Food Pantry, and the King’s Klinic were started by people in this church to help those in our community. At the same time, there were many people from the neighborhood who came to me for help with their electric bill, gas bill, or rent money. I learned that some people were taking advantage of us. So, what do you do? Stop helping because some people are using you? That’s not an option if you want to live out the life Jesus has called us to live. Instead, we came up with a work program. In the early days, I would tell folks, “We would love to help you keep your lights on or avoid being evicted. Here’s how we can help. We will pay you for the time you work and send that money to the landlord or OG&E to be applied to your bill. Take a day and pray about it. If you want to work here at the church and earn the money to pay your bill then come back tomorrow and you can go to work.” By allowing them to think about it, it gave those who really didn’t want to work, an out. The work program created a filter that has been a tremendous help for our desire to be good stewards and generous at the same time. 

I could speak for days about how once we recognize how generous the Lord has been with us, in every way imaginable, it will loosen our grip and open our hands to be generous with others. Our time is limited so we must move on. Many of you have heard of the Golden Rule, which is found in verse 31.

31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. (Luke 6:31 NIV)

Jesus could have chosen to speak like so many other wise teachers before and after Him. They all said something like, “Don’t do to your neighbor what you don’t want him to do to you.” Gautama Buddha wrote, “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful” (Udanavarga 5:18). In the 15th century before Jesus was born, Hinduism’s golden rule was stated: “This is the sum of duty. Do not unto others that which would cause you pain if done to you.” In the 5th century before Jesus was born, Confucius said, “Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you.” We’ve come a long way from what these wise thinkers taught their followers. In the United States the golden rule is often, “Do whatever you think you can get away with” or “Do what you need to do to get whatever it is that you want.” Confucius and Gautama Buddha’s teaching is far superior to our modern-day philosophy, but they fall far short of what Jesus taught His disciples. Jesus urged His followers to act, to “do to others as you would have them do to you.” We are to care enough for others that we actively seek to bless them with no thought of anything in return from them. 

In verses 32-34, Jesus pointed out to His disciples that if they love those who love them they are not acting any differently than unbelievers. Read those verses with me.

32 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.  (Luke 6:32-34 NIV)

Jesus used three examples to teach His followers the difference between His love and the natural tendency of all people in their relationships with others. The way we love, do good, and lend to others is based on the principle of reciprocity. I will love you if you love me back. If you’ve done a good deed for me then I’ll do a good deed for you. I’ll lend you my truck if you return it to me full of gas. If you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. That’s the way of the world, but Jesus’ way is altogether different. Jesus said, 

35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:35-36 NIV)

The byproduct of loving, doing good, blessing, and praying for our enemies is two-fold. First, we are told that our reward will be great. There’s not a cash bonus attached, but something far greater and that is God Himself. I’m certain that if you have ever walked in Jesus’ steps and forgiven someone as Jesus has forgiven you, you know the Lord is pleased, there is a sense of great reward in knowing the Lord worked through you in such a significant way. Your releasing the one who harmed you cost you, but the reward was so much greater than the cost wasn’t it? Second, we are told that we “will be children of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” Now, don’t think this means that salvation comes through forgiving others. Salvation is the free gift of God and there is nothing you could ever do to earn the salvation He has given you. At the same time, when we love our enemies the way God loves His enemies we show the world that we belong to our Father. There is an unmistakable family resemblance when we choose to forgive. 

Last of all, before we leave, we need to hear this: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” And His mercy was put on full display in His Son Jesus, who was God Incarnate, God in the flesh. Is there someone in your office who despises you because of your unapologetic love for Jesus? Do you have family members who go to church, say they love the Lord, but think you’ve taken this love, for someone you have every reason to despise, way too far? Are there kids at your school who mock you  and call you “weak” because you don’t strike back at those who talk behind your back? Good. You are in good company my friend. Jesus was hated by the Pharisees. He was abused by those who ripped His back to ribbons with the cat o’ nine tails. They took away His coat and His shirt when they stripped Him naked before all the world and nailed Him to the cross. He was cursed as they hurled insults at Him as He hung on Calvary’s cross. And how did He respond? He looked down at those who hurt Him and then He looked up and asked the Father to forgive. 

And you say, “Yes, but that’s Jesus.” I am fully aware of that my friend. And the power of Jesus’ love is made available and effective in the lives of those who come to Him. Have you ever stopped to think that God could have reconciled you to Himself any way He chose? Afterall, He is God. He calls the shots and writes the rules. He could have just issued you a get out of jail free card, but instead He sent His Son, His Perfect Son, to live the life He desires to live through you and me. As we learn about His willingness to forgive us we can see what He is capable of doing through us. We will never be able to forgive until we experience His forgiveness. Won’t you receive Jesus’ forgiving, reconciling love this morning?

Mike Hays