Love Your Enemies, Part 3 | God’s Love is the Golden Rule

Luke 6:29-39

We were introduced last time to Jesus’ command, “Love your enemies,” and we tried to think carefully about what love really is and then how to practice that love toward others and our enemies in particular. Today, we’re going to move ahead. We’re going to consider some of these implications as Jesus clarifies his meaning with certain instances of enemy-like behavior. We want to begin by reading the text and I’m actually going to read a little more here, kind of the main body of the sermon there in Luke 6:27-38.

Follow along as I read. “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

“If you love those who love you what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to bet back the same amount. But love your enemies and do good and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most high, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

Now as we begin, get into the main body of the sermon, Jesus begins the main body of his sermon by commanding us to love to the very fullest extent and to the least loveable people and even when it costs us. Jesus takes the person who is most remote from us relationally, an enemy, that is someone who hates, curses, and abuses us, and commands us to pursue that person in love. That is, as we just read, that is how God has been loving us all along. He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. He is merciful to all. That is how we will show forth our reconciliation to him through Christ when we love others as he loves, even to those who are rather unlovely.

We’re so accustomed to that kind of love. We’re so accustomed to that kind of continual outpouring of love from God. He gives us food and shelter. He gives us both needs and wants. God gives us all sunrises and sunsets, all kinds of beautiful and pleasurable things to enjoy. He has granted us the capacity to think, to enjoy, to reason, to reflect, allowed us to laugh, allowed us pleasures, babies being born, mothers and fathers, all of that. He’s given us the physical, mental ability to work, to provide, to achieve, to reach out, to strive, to discover. All of that.

And after all of his continuous giving to us, which is his love, it’s a daily, hourly, minute-by-minute love, it’s really clear evidence of the sin-nature in all of mankind that we have taken his love for granted. Romans 1:21 says, “Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.” In other words, we, the human race, mankind, all of us born into sin with a sinful nature, we have failed to praise and thank God for his love poured out on all humanity in general and all of us in particular, each one. He has poured out that love upon all of humanity all the time.

In addition to recognizing and giving thanks to God for his love toward us, God also intends for us all to demonstrate that same kind of love toward each other. It’s not enough to just sit back and appreciate God’s gifts, to, you might say, passively enjoy, kind of like watching a program on television and just enjoying it and then turning off the television and going to bed. It’s not like that. We must also practice what God shows us. That is to say, God’s actions are our example. The daily manifestation of this communicable attribute of God, that is, God is love, that becomes a mandate for us to follow.

The two greatest commandments: love God, love your neighbor. The Bible tells us we’re to love God by loving our neighbor. “If anyone says,” 1 John 4:20, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he’s a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” So we demonstrate love for God by loving our neighbor and in Luke 6:27 and 28, Jesus extends the definition of neighbor, what does that word mean? He extends it even to those who relate to us as enemies.

I am thankful that Christ extended his love for me when I was his enemy, aren’t you? Don’t you rejoice in that daily? We’ve spurned his love. We have, each one of us, assaulted his character in some way. We’ve blasphemed his name. We’ve misrepresented him. We’ve failed to honor him as God or give thanks. But God showed his mercy while I was yet a sinner, a rebel, an enemy, he showed mercy by loving me, reaching out to me all the time. And then that love was even to a higher degree, a particularly redeeming kind of love resulting in my salvation.

Romans 5:5 says, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who’s been given to us.” Without that gift of the Holy Spirit, without that gift of God’s love being poured into our hearts, we cannot love, we will not love as Christ commands us to love. 1 John 4:19, “We love because he first loved us.” So those who are not redeemed, those who are not regenerated by the Holy Spirit, they don’t love like this because they cannot. They must first be recipients of that divine, particular redeeming grace to cause them to be born again that they may put their faith in Jesus Christ, repenting of all sin. And the Holy Spirit given to them as a gift, that love is poured out within their heart and now they are able, enabled by God, enabled by the Spirit to love as he loves.

This is precisely what Jesus is commanding here, to extend this love of God through us toward other people, having been transformed as we are. Having been transformed from enemies into friends, from strangers into children. We’re to act like God’s children and as we do, God will extend his love, which in general, for all humanity, is the indiscriminate kind of love for friends and enemies alike. As it says here, he’s gonna, he’s gonna grow that same kind of love within us. He’s gonna extend it through us to others, even to enemies.

Look at verses 29-30 again. “To the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from the one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.” When we extend the outstretched arms of love to our enemies as Jesus commands us to do in verses 27-28, it doesn’t always turn out well for us, does it? Sometimes our enemies bite the hand of love that’s been extended to them. But even at that, even when we are harmed, our Lord’s command to love our enemies, it remains.

Now we’re going to cover verses 29-30 in a three-point outline. First, in verse 29, we’re going to see how love governs our expectations. How love governs our expectations. Then, secondly, in verse 30, we’ll see how love governs our attitudes. So first, expectations, then attitudes. Then taking the, both of those verses together, thirdly, we’ll see how love governs our reactions, or we should say our responses. Our expectations, then attitudes and then reactions, okay?

Let’s get right into the first point, love governs our expectations. Love governs our expectations, (comma) dictating how we expect to be treated. Christ commands us here to love even in the face of injury to person or property, which is what we see there in verse 29. The language here, I’ve got to admit is pretty strong and it comes out well in our English translations. “To one who strikes you on the cheek,” literally that is, punch you in the jaw, you are to offer the other also.

Many of us, I know many of you are more familiar perhaps of the milder expression over in Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew 5:39, “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” And that, over there in that context, is about enduring a personal insult, not an attack, not injury. Obviously, an insulting slap on the cheek could be included in what Luke records here because this is more extreme. Here in verse 29, the picture has something to do with something hurts you more than your pride being offended. It has to do with taking a punch in the face.

In fact, look at the rest of the verse, “From one who takes away your cloak don’t withhold your tunic either.” The cloak refers to an outer garment, like the clothes we wear on the outside, which is seen on the outside. It’s made up of fabric that’s durable, it can hold up to normal wear and tear, which, you know, depending on what you do for a living, can be quite severe. So strong outer cloak clothing.

Tunic, that refers to something that’s softer. Softer is worn as an undergarment. Softer, close to the skin, underneath the cloak made of more comfortable, cooler, breathable fabric. So if someone comes after your outer garment, like your coat, your outer shirt, don’t’ withhold your inner garment either. That’s what he’s saying here. Agape love means we’re willing to endure physical attack resulting in injury and even the loss of our clothing.

Now, under what circumstances is this ever going to happen? Under what circumstances are you going to find yourself punched in the jaw and having your clothes ripped off your body? Any former New Yorkers here? This is a mugging, right? That’s what’s pictured here. He’s describing a mugging, in which the violence is intended as a means to intimidate, to overcome any resistance that you may offer to having your stuff stolen, your wallet, your jewelry, in this case, your clothing, which in the First Century, clothing was a pretty expensive commodity. Jesus is saying something that is getting our attention, isn’t it?

In verses 27 and 28, the verb forms there and the pronouns there are in the plural because Jesus is speaking to his disciples as a group, those who are the hated, the persecuted for his name’s sake. But in verse 29, Jesus takes this to you, to me, to all of us individually, each and every one of us. “When someone strikes you personally, you individually on your cheek, when someone takes away your own cloak,” he’s not taking here about social, political movements. He’s talking about individual trials in individual day-to-day practical life.

So we’re not supposed to look at verse 29 and then immediately move to images of Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. We’re not trying to change the world here. We’re not trying to undermine systemic structures of social injustice. We’re doing this simply to follow Christ, who is leading us into conformity with the love of his father. It’s something far more profound and eternally significant than some temporary, external reform of social structures, which are here today and gone tomorrow.

Okay, so then what does this mean, “to turn the other cheek?” We talked about what it does not mean. Well, now we want to talk about what it does mean. Listen, in the same way that, remember back when we talked about the opening of this sermon and who Jesus was speaking to? In the same way that Jesus was talking about the internal thoughts and attitudes in defining rich and poor, that is it doesn’t have to do with actual dollars and cents in the bank account, but rather has to do with one’s attitudes and affections towards dollars and cents. It’s the same thing here. Jesus is getting, he’s using a very poignant, powerful, vivid image of getting mugged to get at the heart of our attitudes of verses 29-30, teaching us to practice meekness in love.

I don’t know if any of you have ever been robbed, ever been mugged. I hope not. I hope it’s not a common experience. I’ve been robbed, not mugged, but robbed. Some thieves, we were living in Californian and out there the garages are not all closed. Sometimes you have a parking bay, and you park in there, but it’s all open. We had our bikes are all chained up. We’re seminary students, poor, and don’t have much, but we had bikes that we liked to take out for, you know cheap opportunities for some recreation and refreshment and then a locker out there were all of our tools and other things were stored and all chained up.

I came out there one day to find chains cut, the bikes gone, all my tools, men, you understand, right? Come on. All my tools gone. Okay so there’s the loss you feel and then there’s the anger that you feel. There is the desire to retaliate. You feel it’s not just the loss of property, but you feel like someone has kind of come in underneath the armor. They’ve come in and they’ve, they’ve, they’ve done something against your manhood and you just want to strike. I don’t know. Do you guys feel like this? You just want to strike out.

So we feel, we feel this anger, we feel this desire to retaliate, the desire for vengeance and it’s not just to get our stuff back, it’s to pay that dude back for what he did. Come on, taking my kids’ bikes! What are you thinking? I’m a seminary student, I’m doing work for the Lord! Even as I’m feeling it, I can see how incongruous it is to my Christian profession. That is what I say here, that taught me a lesson. It taught me about the anger that exists in my heart with just the slightest provocation can erupt and come forth.

That’s what Jesus is doing here with this illustration. How would you respond if this happened to you, a mugging? He’s getting to the heart of our attitudes and he’s getting to the fact that he wants us to teach us to respond in the meekness of love. When we pursue obedience from the heart to Jesus’ command to love, not just our friends and relatives, not just our neighbors and acquaintances, which you all understand is hard enough. We’re to love even our enemies and when we pursue obedience from the heart to love like God loves, then we will be like Jesus Christ, who described himself in Matthew 11:29 as “gentle and lowly in heart.” We’ll be meek people.

Meek people don’t treat hostility and persecution for the sake of Christ, even if that should result in bodily injury or the loss of property, we do not have an attitude of vengeance or retaliation. Why? Because, just to remind you of our point, love governs our expectations. It dictates how we expect that we ourselves should be treated. Jesus loved sinners. They responded to him with hostility, beating him, scourging him, stripping his clothing, spitting on him. They stripped his clothing and gambled for it at the foot of the cross upon which he was crucified, right in front of him, adding insult to injury.

How did Jesus respond? He didn’t react in anger. He didn’t retaliate. He didn’t return insult with insult. He responded in love, praying for his executioners. He prayed, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” According to Luke 23:34, get this, it says he prayed while they were casting lots to divide his garments. Jesus loved his enemies. When they injured him, when they took his clothing, he responded with meekness and grace, showing even more love for them.

Beloved, that is the example that should govern our expectations. That is the example that dictates how we expect to be treated. If we follow him, we are going to be treated the same way for his sake. If we’re treated the same way, we need to look to him yet again to find in him the perfect example of a meek and loving response. I like how the commentator Alfred Plummer put this. He said, “So far as our personal feeling goes, we ought to be ready to offer the other cheek and to give without desire of recovery whatever is demanded or taken from us. Love knows no limits,” get this, “love knows no limits but those which love itself imposes. When love resists or refuses it’s because compliance would be a violation of love, not because it would involve loss or suffering.” End quote.

Listen to what Peter, Jesus’ closest disciple, was able to discern from Jesus’ example, you might, if you’re quick, you might be able to turn over to 1 Peter 2:19 to follow along. If you’re not quick, sorry. But remember on the night of Jesus’ betrayal, Peter drew a sword that night. Remember that? He tried to decapitate those who came to arrest Jesus. He saw, I think Peter saw clearly the injustice, the utter injustice of what was happening.

Here they’re coming to arrest and to hurt and to harm and to scourge and eventually probably to kill one who never committed one sin. That’s absolute injustice. If that’s not worth fighting, if that’s not a cause worth fighting for, I don’t know what is. He drew a sword. He was going to decapitate this guy. He responded like we all instinctively tend to respond and Jesus, remember he told Peter, “Put the sword away,” and healed Malchus, who ducked the blow, but still lost his ear. Jesus restored the ear. Once again, Jesus loving his enemies right there. And then Jesus submitted to the suffering, the persecution of that satanically inspired force of darkness. That unjust suffering became the vicarious suffering that resulted in the forgiveness of sins for all of Christ’s people. Peter also in that moment discerned an example that’s set for all of us.

Look at 1 Peter 2:19, “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”

I just want you to see how verse 29, it’s about attitude toward Christian persecution, it sets our expectations, dictating how we should expect to be treated as followers of Jesus Christ. And because we set our mind expecting shabby treatment in the service of Christ, and sometimes even violent hostility for our Christian testimony, we won’t be surprised at the hostility.

 1 Peter 4:12 says, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you, as though some strange thing were happening to you. But in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings, rejoice.” Now an expectation of suffering, persecution, sets our attitudes as we’re going to see in our second point. But first, let me just mention that Paul applies this principle of non-retaliation rather broadly. Romans 12:19-20, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, as it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ To the contrary, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him,’” he’s quoting out of Proverbs 25 here. “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Look, we love our enemies. We leave the punishment of our persecutors’ sins to God. We hope to see that persecutor be saved, and then all that persecutor’s sins are going to be forgiven in the cross work of Jesus Christ, like ours are. Wouldn’t that be even better, to sit before the throne of God for all of eternity worshiping God with your persecutor? Because that same sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross that saved you from your sins saves him from his sins or her from hers. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

This is about setting our expectations. This is about loving our enemies, leaving the punishment, the vengeance to God. We love our enemies and that overcomes their evil with good, just as Christ loved his enemies, overcame their evil with his good.