Luke 6
“How blessed you are whenever people hate you and ostracize you and insult you and denounce you as a criminal on account of the Son of Man. Be glad when that happens; yes, dance for joy! because in heaven your reward is great. For that is just how their fathers treated the prophets
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“Woe to you when people speak well of you, for that is just how their fathers treated the false prophets!
Nevertheless, to you who are listening, what I say is this:
“Love your enemies!
Do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you,
pray for those who mistreat you.
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But love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing back! Your reward will be great, and you will be children of Ha‘Elyon; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Show compassion, just as your Father shows compassion.
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A talmid is not above his rabbi; but each one, when he is fully trained, will be like his rabbi.
Luke 6:22-23, 26-29, 35-36, & 40
Jesus wants us to become like Him. To sit at His feet and walk so closely to Him that His dust covers us. This is why He deliberately and prayerfully chose 12 disciples who would be with Him everywhere He went. They would hear Him preach to the masses, receive in-depth explanations and revelations of His teachings, and see how He lived His life, both privately and publicly. He knew these men (minus Judas Iscariot) would be the ones to go out into the world to tell others about Him, to Spread the Gospel of the Kingdom. The same charge has been given to us – to go and preach the Good News to all nations. But if we are not walking closely with Him, what Jesus will we be preaching? Will it be the Jesus of the Bible – the Jesus who is concealed in the Old Testament and revealed in the New? Or will we preach a Jesus that we have shaped in our own minds, molded by societal changes and human emotion?
Paul writes about this in 2 Corinthians 4:
For this reason, since we have this ministry, just as we received mercy, we do not lose heart. Instead, we renounced the hidden shameful ways—not walking in deception or distorting the word of God, but commending ourselves before God to everyone’s conscience by the open proclamation of the truth. And even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so they might not see the light of the Good News of the glory of Messiah, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Messiah Yeshua as Lord—and ourselves as your slaves for Yeshua’s sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Messiah.
God is the One who grants us knowledge and shines His light in our darkened hearts. Jeremiah and Ezekiel both prophesy about the new covenant:
“I will put My Torah within them.
Yes, I will write it on their heart.
I will be their God
and they will be My people.
No longer will each teach his neighbor
or each his brother, saying: ‘Know Adonai,’
for they will all know Me,
from the least of them to the greatest.”
Then I will give them one heart. I will put a new Spirit within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may follow My laws, keep My ordinances and practice them. They will be My people and I will be their God. As for those whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things and abominations, I will bring their ways upon their heads.” It is a declaration of Adonai Elohim.
This covenant promised that God would put His Spirit within us and that His Word would be written on our hearts. That is why is it so hard for me to accept the belief that God is okay with gay marriage. With transgenderism. With abortion. How can we claim to have God’s Spirit in us if we accept and condone, or even give ourselves over to the things that God calls sin? It breaks my heart to see professing Christians believing this kind of falsehood. Because ultimately it means that they just don’t see Jesus as better than. That His ways, all His ways, are true. They want to pick and choose the more popular teachings like do not judge, and love your neighbor (often taking these out of context), and ignore some of His others – pick up your cross, die to this life, endure suffering, know that people will hate you because of Me. It’s interesting that Jesus says, “Woe to you when people speak well of you, for that is just how their fathers treated the false prophets!” I often think that if my beliefs stand in complete opposition to society, I’m probably on the right side, and even Jesus recognized that the right presentation of truth was not going to be the most popular.
If we truly desire to be more like Christ we have to be rooted in His Word. Jesus tells us what it looks like to abide in Him in John 15:
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He trims so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. The branch cannot itself produce fruit, unless it abides on the vine. Likewise, you cannot produce fruit unless you abide in Me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for apart from Me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and is dried up. Such branches are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned.
“If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you. In this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples.”
“Just as the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you. Abide in My love! If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and your joy may be full.
“This is My commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this: that he lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you.
“I am no longer calling you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. Now I have called you friends, because everything I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I selected you so that you would go and produce fruit, and your fruit would remain. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in My name.
“These things I command you, so that you may love one another.”
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But you are not of the world, since I have chosen you out of the world; therefore the world hates you.”
We were not called to be loved by the world, but to show the world the love of Christ. Christ’s love, Christ’s truth, may often sound like hate to those in the world who are dying to their sin, but that does not mean that we should change or distort the message. Our desire for approval, to be loved, cannot be filled by the world, but only through abiding in Christ and obeying Him because His ways lead to the fullness of joy.
LORD, I want to be like Christ! To be well-trained to become more and more a reflection of my Rabbi. Do not allow fear of rejection and desire for approval to cause me to lose sight of the foundation of truth that is laid out in Your Word. I want to be like the man Jesus describes at the end of Luke 6, who hears and does what You say, building my life and my faith on the solid bedrock of Your truth! AMEN!
Living Stone 