Luke 6:27 Commentary and Bible Study

Here is a word from the Lord Jesus Christ to his people, to believers. Indeed, unbelievers cannot even begin adequately to respond to these words. A response can only be made by the help of the Holy Spirit with the new nature, the grace of God working in a converted heart. Here is a word to believers about conduct and about character. ‘But I say unto you which hear.’ The preceding verses have been dealing with the drift of conduct, which is inevitable in this sinful world, in worldly hearts. But there is a style of life and conduct which is so different. Now the Lord is addressing his people, people who have altogether deeper aims and higher aims. Here are instructions which go so much against the grain of anything that you find in the world, and indeed cut across worldly objectives and aims and desires. How can you obey these requirements of the Lord and still belong to the previous category of persons? Impossible. If you only want to consider yourself and your pride and your reputation and your riches and comforts, then can't be prepared to accept slander and abuse for the Lord’s sake. So, very properly at the start of verse 27 there is this ‘but’, because now we are dealing with a lifestyle and an attitude which is so different.‘But, I say,’ and these are the words of the Lord. We belong to the Saviour now, and we note that he says this with all his personal authority. He's going to bind these rules upon us, these commands. So, if we serve him, if we are saved by him, if we love him and we want to honour him and to be used by him, if we want to grow to be like him, obviously we are going to listen especially carefully to these words. ‘I say unto you which hear’ – he is now singling out those in the crowd who have spiritual understanding, those who grasp that he is the Messiah, the Lord of all, and who are going to be particularly careful to remember and to carry out all these instructions. You who truly appreciate spiritual commandments, you who are converted, who belong to me, who owe me everything, I say to you particularly. These words are of enormous importance, but they are not always complied with. ‘Love your enemies.’ This is a very strong instruction. Who are these enemies? They are of course people who are against you because you are believers. They are people who are your enemies as well as people who hate you for all sorts of reasons, and we mustn't distinguish between the two for the purposes of these instructions. Some people do distinguish between them. They say that if somebody is your enemy on account of Christ then you must bear it patiently, but if somebody hates you and does not know you are a Christian then you are entitled to be rude to them; if they are unpleasant to you, you can be unpleasant back. But, if you think that they are unpleasant to you on account of your faith, then you must behave yourself. That is rather overstating what some people say, but some do try to make a distinction. But that is not right: the two are in the same category; the second is an expansion of the first. Maybe somebody is dealing with you on the telephone and they are hostile towards you. It doesn’t matter that at the end of this conversation you will never see that person again. Anybody who is hostile to you, anybody who is unreasonable: that is your enemy. It may be in the family circle that you have enemies, but it’s probably more likely that you have most enemies in your place of employment or study. Should you work well and should you attract some commendation, it may be that people will be jealous of you, and apprehensive lest you should supplant them in the promotion stakes. It may be neighbours who dislike you or have it in for you. The instruction is, love your enemies. What is meant by love? Is it ‘philadelphia love’, brotherly love, close affectionate love? Am I under an obligation somehow or other by the grace of God to find within myself fondness and affection for the most unreasonable and perhaps despicable of people who are my enemies? No, it isn't quite that. What right do we have to modify or interpret our definition of love? Why is it not the very highest, warmest, fondest, closest love? Well, we can tell it isn't that, because the interpretation is provided for us down in verse 35-36. The kind of love that we are to have is the kind of love which God shows generally to all men and women in his mercy in providing for them. God continues to keep the breath of life in those who are his enemies and yet we read in Scripture that he is in a particular way fond of his people. There is a great difference. He is merciful, sympathetic, compassionate; he has pitying love for his enemies even as he sustains them in life, even as he pleads with them for their souls and for their eternal situation. So it isn't a warm, fond love. God loves his people in one way and he loves the lost in another way. And so we can distinguish here when we consider love. But even shorn of that tender fondness, it is still a very strong word. ‘Love your enemies’ – that is the general title of the sermon, as it were. And there follow three points: ‘do good to them which hate you, ²⁸ Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.’ The Lord Jesus Christ very often provides sermon notes in his discourses, a title and three headings. ‘Do good to them which hate you.’ We have to actually do good deeds. In our actions we must show our sympathies and our respect and our willingness to be conciliatory with deeds which encompass courtesy, helpfulness, the offer to resolve the problem in an amicable way. It is the same in trading. The tendency of the world now is to fly off the handle or be very rude or to put on a neurotic fit at the first tiny evidence that the trader may be not dealing with you perfectly. That is actually forbidden by the Lord. If you think somebody's trying to swindle you, that's an act of hostility. He is your enemy. He is trying to injure you or hurt you in some way. So how do you respond? You are entitled to get what is your due and your right, but you have got to go about it in as helpful and as courteous a way as you possibly can.