Luke 6:27-38
A. INTRODUCTION
There always seems to be someone whose one aim in life is to stir up trouble. It could be a family member; it could be someone we met a school, work, or any number of other places. But, regardless of who it is, or where we met them, there are people that we come across, from time to time, who just seem to want to make life as difficult as can be. And for a reason that is a mystery to everyone but themselves.
Now, obviously, our experience of the opposite is also true. There are people we meet who are not out to get us, whether members of our family, or friends—people we trust, and people we feel comfortable with. However, even then, family and friends can sometimes turn. And friendships don’t always stay as we would like them to.
The question today, then, is ‘How do we cope with those who are determined to make our lives as miserable as can be?’ Should we ignore them and just hope they will go away? Should we retaliate, and treat them like dirt, just like they treat us? Or is there an alternative that we should consider?
Well, I think if we are serious about the issue, then we would be hard pushed not to follow the advice of someone who was continually surrounded by enemies. And, in fact, whose enemies succeeded in even putting him to death. And that is Jesus. Because, regarding the issue of dealing with ones adversaries, he had quite a few things to say. And this passage from Luke’s gospel is full of advice when it comes to dealing with one’s enemies.
However, it comes with a warning because what Jesus said might surprise many.
B. LOVING YOUR ENEMIES
1. “Love Your Enemies” (27-31)
Because Jesus’s first suggestions were not bits of advice but commands. Commands to all who claimed to be followers of him. And this is what he said: ‘Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you. Speak well of those who curse you; pray for those who abuse you.’
Indeed, far from ignoring our enemies or retaliating against them, Jesus said that the mark of a good disciple is that we should actually be kind to these people. We should actively pursue a relationship with those who go out of their way to hurt us and do us wrong. And, despite what they inflict on us, we should desire good, and we should desire to do good for these people and not respond with any hostile acts at all.
But, of course, if we do that, Jesus said, there is no guarantee that they will change. There is no guarantee that they will soften their approach or even come around to being friendly at all. But Jesus said, even if they don’t, we should continue to persist in being friendly, despite whatever continues to be thrown our way.
Now of course, that is not an easy thing for anyone to do. And yet, Jesus said if we are true followers we would do it willingly, and not reluctantly at all. And why should we treat our enemies this way? Because of the vital importance of the golden rule. ‘Do to others as you would wish them to do to you’ (31).
In other words, if we want to be treated with love and respect, the way forward is to treat others with love and respect too.
Of course there will aways be some who won’t respond in like manner. But ignoring people, or retaliating against them, usually does nothing to help the situation. Indeed, it often makes the situation worse. As a consequence, Jesus command to love our enemies makes a lot of sense, even if it’s a very difficult thing to do.
2. “Do Good” (32-36)
And the second bit of advice, that Jesus gave, regarding how we should treat our enemies, brings into sharp contrast the idea that it’s much easier spending time and caring for our friends than our enemies. And that caring for friends is eminently more rewarding because they are usually caring back.
And yet, despite that, Jesus questioned the motivation for spending time with friends rather than with enemies. And by doing so, he raised the whole issue onto to a higher plain, particularly in regard to our need for God to be with us, and for us to be God’s people in the world.
And Jesus clarified this in two ways:
Firstly, that God’s goodness goes out to everyone alike. As a consequence, he doesn’t spend more time with people who are easier to get on with but treats everyone equally and fairly. And the implication is: so should we. (Indeed, if we thought about it, if God didn’t treat people that way then most of us—if not all of us—wouldn’t be believers today.)
And secondly, if we are who we say we are—disciples of Jesus—and our role is to be Jesus’s messengers, then it’s our role to bring God’s love not just to those who are easy to get on with, but those who can be very difficult and sometimes plain nasty too.
However, Jesus said, if we do that, if, as followers of Jesus, we share God’s love with friends and enemies alike, then we will be rewarded. But not just with the kind of love that we know that our friends will give us, but with a heavenly reward—the gracious undeserved act of thanks from God himself.
3. “Be Merciful” (36-38)
And the third suggestion from Jesus, regarding how we should treat our enemies, are again not words of advice, but a series of commands. ‘Be merciful; do not judge; forgive; and give.’
Because, if God is unrestricted in his goodness—and his mercy has gone out to every human being that has ever lived, none of whom were (or are) worthy of his love or forgiveness—because we’ve all made mistakes . . . And we’ve all had times where we haven’t treated God as we would like him to treat us . . . So, if God is unrestricted in his goodness, then we, as Jesus’s disciples, should be totally unrestricted in our love too—even to the point of bringing our enemies into our care.
The mercy of God, that we rely on for ourselves, provides a pattern for us all to follow. And if we are unwilling to follow that pattern, and if we instead end up judging others, then we can hardly expect God’s mercy ourselves. Indeed, we will find ourselves on the other end of God’s judgement too.
‘Do not judge, do not condemn others,’ Jesus said. And the reasons that he said that?
Well, firstly, if we want God to be merciful and forgiving to us, then it’s hardly appropriate that we should behave in a different manner to others, regardless of who they are or what they’ve done. None of us is perfect, and only one little mistake is enough to disqualify us from a place with God. Indeed, we need God’s mercy and forgiveness ourselves. So it is hardly appropriate to treat anyone any differently.
Secondly, our duty as believers is to be merciful and to forgive. Because if we have been assured of God’s mercy and forgiveness ourselves, then that is something that we should want to freely bestow on others as well. Judging others is not a task that God has given us to do. Rather, showing people that God is merciful, and is willing to forgive is the task he has given us.
And thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, we need to remember that there is only one judge—and that is God himself. Therefore, if we go around judging and condemning others, we actually put ourselves in the place of God, as though God is a nobody and irrelevant. And, when we are dependent on God’s love and forgiveness ourselves for our salvation, then that is a very serious position to pur ourselves in, indeed.
God’s judgement falls on those who judge. So if we usurp God’s role as judge, then we can only expect our sense of superiority, and our hardness and blindness to our own faults, to be the subject of God’s judgement too.
What we will receive from God will be in accordance with the measure that we, ourselves, have employed. Human generosity is rewarded by divine generosity. However, human mean-spiritedness, particularly in regard to hating others and the lack of forgiveness, will be responded in like manner too.
C. IMPLICATIONS
Of course, having said all that, and it all makes sense in theory, the reality is that for most us loving one’s enemies doesn’t necessarily come easily, when it comes to the practice.
1. Forgiving Our Enemies
From an international perspective in the last hundred years alone there have been people responsible for the deaths of millions like Hitler, Pol Pot, etc; there have been people responsible for mass shootings; there have been people imprisoned for murders, armed hold-ups; people who have stolen and continue to steal; and many of whom may have affected us in some way. And, on top of that, from our own personal perspective, I have no doubt we have all come across some very difficult people—people who have not made our life easy. Indeed, some who seem to have been determined to make life very hard for us indeed. And many of these people we may have found very difficult to care for or to forgive.
However, what we should remember is that are no rankings in sins or crimes as far as God is concerned. A sin is a sin is a sin. And, on that basis, none of us may be any different to God than the people who, in our eyes, are so familiar. Any sin causes a distance between us and God.
Now we all have done things that we’ve done wrong; we have all done things—inadvertently or not—of which we are not proud; and we have all, at times, not given God his due. So, difficult or not, we need to care and forgive. And we need to have an attitude of including our enemies and doing good to them. Not only because God has done the same for us, but because that’s what he demands of his disciples as part of their responsibility to share God’s nature with the world.
Now, that won’t be easy. Far from it. To start with it may be extremely difficult. But we are required to follow Jesus’s teaching (and example) nonetheless.
2. Refusing to Forgive our Enemies
However, having said that, have you ever come across people who refuse to have anything to do with certain people, who refuse—point blank—to forgive? Well I’m sure we all have. And whilst this is not part of Jesus’s teaching in this passage, the end result of the refusal to even try to be good to enemies—the end result of a determination not to forgive, and even the end result of openly retaliating against one’s enemies—is that the people who refuse to forgive often become bitter, resentful, and twisted themselves. They become consumed with hatred. So much so, that they become unable to put the past behind them and, in doing so, they harm themselves far more than the other person ever intended to do in the first place.
In other words, those who refuse point blank to have anything to do with loving their enemies, apart from alienating themselves from God—with his love and forgiveness—actually harm themselves more than they were hurt by the other person. And all because they refused to love their enemies, and forgive.
D. CONCLUSION
As we go through life, then, it is inevitable that someone, or some people, will seem to go out of their way to give us a hard time. And why they do that is usually a mystery to everyone but themselves.
The truth, however, is that if we are followers of Jesus, we are not called on to ignore these people or even to retaliate, but we are called on to actively pursue a relationship with them. We are called on to want to do them good and to be prepared to forgive at every call.
And the reasons why this is so, are: Firstly, because if we want to be treated with love and respect then that is how we have to treat others. We should ‘do to others as we would wish them to do to us’. Secondly, because God’s goodness goes out to everyone equally, that gives us a model to do exactly the same. Thirdly, because if we are disciples of Jesus, then our role is to be messengers of God’s love, and we have to portray that in deed as well as in word. And, fourthly, because if we want God to be merciful and forgiving to us, then we should be merciful and forgiving to others in return.
However, two warnings. Firstly, if we take on the role of judge, then we will be acting as though we are God ourselves. And God doesn’t like being usurped. As a consequence, we will be given a fitting reward. And secondly, what happens to those who are unforgiving and resentful, is that they simply harm themselves even more, and often more than the other person originally intended to do.
Loving our enemies is not an easy thing for anyone to do. But, despite that, we have been given plenty of reasons by Jesus why we should pursue such a difficult course.
But if we take it step by step—and with God’s help—I’m sure that the pursuit of such action will not only draw us closer to our God, but the impossible task that it seems to be now may not be the impossible task that it may seem at first at all.
Posted: 1st May 2024
© 2024, Brian A Curtis
www.brianacurtis.com.au