Terms

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

TERMS

Luke 6:37-38

37 "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." 

NIV

Four behaviors, two which we should not do, and two we should do. We should not make decisions about people and thus pronounce them guilty. It would appear Jesus is not discussing the enactment of civil law and the ramifications of breaking it, but rather about our looking upon people who have yet to accept him as their Savior and determining them to be sinners, not like us, and condemned to hell. He could also be talking about not having a judgmental attitude toward any person, which in fact would seem to make us feel better about ourselves, possibly even superior to those we judge as doing something wrong. Certainly we cannot ever think we have the ability to condemn anyone, to declare them guilty. Yet what Jesus says here is right after he tells us to love our enemies. Should we not see that all mankind is the same, we are all sinners who are saved by the grace of God. Each person has the same choice as all others and just because we made one choice, to accept Jesus, does not mean we should consider them any different, able to make their own choice. As to the other two commands of Jesus, to forgive and give, these we are definitely supposed to do. Somehow it appears, the forgiveness should be aimed toward others, and the giving aimed toward God. How can a person return in good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over as it is poured into our laps? Yet cannot God reward us with all this for our giving to one another? In his Sovereignty, he has the complete right to render to us an abundance for our generosity to those who have a need. This might be in contrast to those who store up everything for their own abundance. Forgiveness is one of the most difficult behaviors. It is very easy to remember all the offenses a person has committed against us. Our long term memory records and recounts these each time a person does something we deem to be an offense. Surely God declared not only would he blot out our sins but that he would not remember them, he would not mark them down, or ever mention them again. Jesus tells us we should do the same, which is if we want him to forgive us, which of course we do. Who in their right mind would want God to not forgive them? So then we are to forgive all offenses, which means we need to somehow either remove those offenses from our memory, or make a clear choice to never think, or mention them to a person again and live, loving them as if they have never offended us. This may be the true sense of giving. No Judging, no condemning, forgiving and giving, all social interactions of a true believer. In doing so we certainly receive no judgment and condemnation from God, and we receive forgiveness and giving from God. Can we be agreeable and obedient to those terms? 

Living Up

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

LIVING UP

Luke 6:32-36

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 sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

NIV

We are to live as children of God rather than children of men. These sinners, or the original language implies pagans, live well with each other. This pagan word carries the implication of people with no religion, which in this case, Jesus means those who are not his followers, who have not accepted him as the Lord. He is telling us we need to live differently than those who live according to the law of men. Surely he says even the sinners, do this and that. Men who do not know him as Savior still live according to some a semblance of rightness, loving those who love them, doing good to each other and lending for repayment. All that is not bad in itself, that is the way most people may live, but Jesus is calling his followers to a higher standard. This is the gospel of love. What does Jesus expect? For God so loved the world he gave Jesus. Men hate God, yet he came as a man to die for them. This is how we are to behave toward all people, even the ones we don’t like. There is the rub. There are some people which just rub us the wrong way, so how are we supposed to love them? But if we are only nice or love each other, than what credit is that to us? If we just hang out with other believers, all the time condemning the ways of the world, we might well take on the attitude of judgment, thinking better of ourselves than we should. Why can’t they see the truth, they are so closed-minded, or just plain dumb. We are so smart, we see the truth. When we start to separate ourselves from them, dividing the saved from the lost, we may be in danger of not loving them, even those who call us closed, or weak minded for believing in Jesus. Here is where the rubber meets the road, for we are to be kind to them, love them, and be merciful to those who are not believers in Jesus. Do we do that in the face of death? It appears that is the standard Jesus set. Do we live up to that? 

Show them Jesus

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

SHOW THEM JESUS

Luke 6:27-31

27 "But I tell you who hear me: 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 strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. 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.

NIV

Here it that golden rule we have heard about for years, do onto others as you would have others do onto you. That does, in some sense, seem introspective, being concerned so much about others treat us that is motivates us to certain behavior toward them. But here it is. Jesus tells us if people hate us because of him, we should love them instead of hating them back. If they insult us, that is strike our cheek, we should not insult them back, but let it go and smile at them, as if it meant nothing. If anyone takes anything of ours, we should not repay that same action, but offer more. That is not easy, as it seems to oppose the human nature. But that is just it, we should not be controlled by our human nature, we should be controlled by our spirit, which is born again, a new creature, like Christ. Of course that is easier said than done. How exactly do we love an enemy? Which enemy is he referring to? Does he mean those who would wage war on us as a country, or those who hate us, therefore are against us, so then being an enemy, because we are believers? That word enemy is defined as an adversary and that would certainly apply to those who refuse to accept Jesus, therefore we should not judge or condemn them, but love them, show them kindness, goodness, mercy and compassion. The fact is when we treat them as we would like to be treated we treat them well. There is no division among us, we are the same people, the same as everyone else. The only difference is we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, and they have not, at least yet. What caused us to accept Jesus? Did we find him all by ourselves, or did someone love us enough to tell us about him? Surely the Spirit is the one who convicts men of their sin, it is not us. Yet the reason for the actions of the Spirit are motivated by God’s love for them, just as he sent Jesus for that reason. So of we want to be accepted and loved, so we accept and love them. Show them Jesus. 

Rejoice or Woe

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

REJOICE OR WOE

Luke 6:23-26

23 "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets. 24 "But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. 25 Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. 26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.

NIV

Here is the whole of the truth. Although we can parse each of the individual aspects, poor, hungry, weep and hated, and as we can see the opposites, rich, well fed, laugh, and well loved, the truth is actually in the comparisons. Jesus is making the point there is a difference between the life of a believer and that of an unbeliever. As we looked act all the aspects of the believer which is focused on Jesus, and that in doing so our reward is heaven, eternal life and that is cause enough to rejoice and leap for joy, we also see what happens to those who focus on self, woe. The opposite of heaven is woe. It surely would seem the right course of action is to look to Jesus. Who in their right mind would choose woe? Yet it appears some would rather focus on being rich, well fed, and self-comforting, laugh at their sin, and seek the praise of men. Jesus says all of that is their only reward and when their life is finished, woe. He makes is very clear that we believers should not get distracted by all that and put ourselves in jeopardy by becoming just as the unbeliever in our seeking after those things. We have been told to seek first his kingdom and righteousness and he will provide for us that which we need. Be the believer and receive his reward, or be like the unbeliever and get his woe. The choice is clear. But we still have all the temptations to want all the stuff, to be rich, to eat well, to enjoy life, and have people like us. Can we have a little of both worlds? Certainly some people do speak well of us, even unbelievers. Some churches focus on doing so much in the community the unbelieving community will speak well of the church, and maybe just maybe, some of them might visit the church. But if we were to tell them they are sinners who are condemning themselves to hell, they may not speak so well of us. So where is the line? How far do we become like them in hopes they will see Jesus? If we try too hard, we might forget our own focus and begin to see things as the world does, looking for riches, great food, nice clothes, new homes and cars, accepting of our failures, our sins, without remorse, thinking we have none, and enjoying the praise of men. What is our goal? This life or the one which follows? If we say we what to be more like Jesus, then we should start being more like Jesus, telling people the truth, the difference between being able to rejoice or getting the woe. 

Hated and Blessed

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

HATED AND BLESSED

Luke 6:22

22 Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.

NIV

It does seem rather odd to be hated because we are disciples of Jesus in today’s world, but in fact it may be truer than we realize. During the early church, those who were disciples of Jesus were in fact thought of as men of sedition. They were considered as men who stirred up trouble among the Jews. Paul was accused of that very thing. James tells the believers that it is the rich who drag them into courts, the rich who slander the name of who those disciples belong to. The name Christian or Nazarene were names of reproof, not of noble ideals. Today is a little different in that we are considered by some as a Christian nation, but that is not really the way it is. We may have started out that way, but that is not how we are now. Those of us who are believers have been set aside from society in some sense. Men want laws to prohibit symbols of Christianity from the public square. Others use the name of Jesus Christ but give him a middle initial with no respect for him at all. If we say too much about Jesus or our faith, we might find ourselves being shunned by many. Others think we are foolish to believe, that their concepts of the world are far better than ours. If we look around we can see many ways in which men hate us, exclude us and insult us because we belong to Jesus. Being a born again believer in Jesus Christ is not the normal lifestyle of the average American, we are in fact a very small group in the whole of society. There may be many who think themselves as Christians, but still think otherwise about us who are born again. That is fine, we cannot bend to the thinking of the average American, or for that manner the average so called Christian. We must remain true to Jesus, to the truth of the word of God. If we do not allow the thinking of the world to infiltrate our thoughts, Jesus tells us we will be blessed. 

Weeping and Laughing

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

WEEPING AND LAUGHING

Luke 6:20-22

20 Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22 Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.

NIV

As we now examine being blessed because we weep for we will laugh, we cannot help to compare that in some sense to being poor in Spirit and having the kingdom. Although that deals with the spiritual aspect of life, this weeping seems to deal with more of the intellectual aspect of life. When we take the time to consider life itself, and it’s temporal state which concludes with death, if we have no hope of eternal life, the hereafter, we should in fact weep, mourn or lament, for there then is no purpose for our life at all, other than to simply try to satisfy our own desires for a brief moment. But if we do in fact lament over the fact we are lost, then we will, not spiritually at first, but intellectually decide to follow Jesus and we will laugh, or as Matthew says, be comforted. Someone who is dead in their sin, dead in their spirit cannot make a spiritual choice but they must see the end of their life intellectually and understand it ends with nothing, this should cause anyone to mourn, to weep, to lament. How good does life get when we come to that realization? We can laugh, we are comforted by the fact Jesus will come back for us and take us to where he is. Life just doesn’t get any better than that. Knowing this and combining this fact with all the rest of scripture, especially about not worrying about this life, what we will wear, eat, or whatever, we can have a whole different perspective on all the happenings within our daily life. Once we were weeping over life, but that was before meeting Jesus, now being comforted. What can life bring us that will stop us from this comfort? Nothing! What can life do to destroy our laughter? Nothing!  Some may remember a saying about the wealthy, laughter all the way to the bank, but we can laugh all the way to heaven. 

Hunger and Satisfied

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

HUNGER AND SATISFIED

Luke 6:20-22

20 Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22 Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.

NIV

Having looked at the poor we now turn our attention to the hungry. Once again Matthews’s record of these words include righteousness. That is those who hunger after righteousness will be filled. Luke leaves what it is we should hunger for to our imaginations except Jesus was in fact speaking about himself. The crowds were hungry for his words, his healing, his power, as they followed after him with such veracity. A person who is at the brink of starvation will hunt down food with that same mindset. These people had been spiritually at the brink of starvation under the authoritative administration of the law by the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the teachers of the law, so when Jesus came along with his love, compassionate healing and his power and authority with which he spoke, they were being spiritually satisfied, filled. Some of us today could be in the same situation which those people were. We could be in church, but yet starving to death spiritually, remaining in hunger for what Jesus has for us, love, compassionate healing and power, not to mention his righteousness. If we hunger for Jesus, we will find all of him. But if we hunger after the things of the world we will remain at the brink of starvation. If we feed on the world, we might be fat, but we will still be starving. We need to hunger after Jesus and if we do that we will never go hungry, for we will be satisfied.