Luke 6:27-49

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 the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt. 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.
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."
39 He also told them this parable: "Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 Students are not above their teacher, but all who are fully trained will be like their teacher. 41 Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in someone else's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42 How can you say, 'Friend, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from the other person's eye.
43 "No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 45 Good people bring good things out of the good stored up in their heart, and evil people bring evil things out of the evil stored up in their heart. For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
46 "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? 47 As for those who come to me and hear my words and put them into practice, I will show you what they are like. 48 They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. 49 But those who hear my words and do not put them into practice are like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."

Points of Interest:

• ‘to you who are listening I say’—the blessings and woes are addressed specifically to Jesus’ followers, but what follows applies to everyone. Perhaps that means that the blessings and woes Jesus mention particularly have to do with people who are spreading Jesus’ message: ‘If you find yourself too wealthy, too full, too well-received for preaching my message, you’re probably getting it wrong.’ If it’s true that the blessings and woes apply uniquely in some way to the disciples or even the apostles, Jesus very quickly expands to include others in what follows. The rest of the sermon follows the same themes as the blessings and woes. It’s as if Jesus is saying first to the disciples, ‘Here’s what you’ve signed up for,’ and then turns to everyone else and says, ‘And you are all welcome to join up as well.’

• ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you’—this is another of those teachings of Jesus that packs a bigger wallop than you think it does at first glance. It’s not just about being a nice person: turning in lost wallets to the lost and found, not hitting your little sister, etc. What Jesus is actually saying here is, ‘Treat your enemies just like you’d hope your friends would treat you.’ This seems crazy! And even if it’s not crazy, it certainly is unfair. That might very well be Jesus’ point. Jesus is calling people beyond fairness to generosity and mercy.

• ‘Even sinners do that’—by ‘sinners’ here, I think Jesus means people who don’t believe in God and/or have no regard for him. In other words, Jesus expects that believing in God would make a practical difference in a person’s life. Specifically, belief in God should lead toward treating other people better than you otherwise would.

• ‘Then your reward will be great’—Jesus is really into reward maximization. He’s not recommending being ‘good for goodness’ sake’—as Santa Claus would say. He’s not criticizing his listeners for trying to get the best deal they possibly can. His problem with people who only have reciprocal relationships (‘I’ll treat you well if you treat me well.’) is that the strategy will never get anywhere: if you only give what you get and get what you give, you only end up breaking even. Jesus is giving us investment advice here: if we want big profits from our relationships, we should give more than we get. It’s an investment in God’s economy, and he pays very big dividends.

• ‘and you will be children of the Most High’—children naturally imitate their parents. If we imitate God, we are showing ourselves to be his children

• ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged’—our treatment of others signals the treatment we will get. It’s as if we have a choice between two different systems: a system of judgment and condemnation, and a system of forgiveness and generosity. We opt into a system by our attitude toward one another. If we choose to judge others, we’ll be surrounded by judgment—from others, from God, probably even from ourselves. If we choose to treat others with generosity, we will find ourselves in an environment completely filled with generosity toward us.

• ‘A good measure, pressed down, shaken together’—have you ever opened a potato chip bag only to be disappointed by how few chips there actually are in the bag? Jesus is promising us that we won’t have that experience with the things he is talking about. God is generous with his portions.

• ‘out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks’—in Jesus’ analogy, our heart is a tree and our words are the fruit. We can test the state of our hearts by paying attention to our words.
• ‘and do not do what I say’—it does no good to just listen to these words, or even to speak well of them. They are advice meant to be put into practice. They only help if you actually use them.

Taking it home:
• For you and your family: Try creating a judgment-free zone in your house today. Avoid judging one another, and even yourself. Check in at the end of the day. How does it feel? Do you notice a difference?

• For your friends: Pray that God would reward your friends extravagantly for any acts of kindness they perform, especially when they are kind to people they don’t particularly feel kindness toward.

• For our city: Pray for an economy of abundance to be unleashed in our city. Ask God to give us all the ability to treat others as we would want to be treated. Pray that our whole city would be changed, for the better, as a result.