Hello everyone.
Today's post will continue to examine Jesus' sermon in Luke 6, this time focusing on Luke 6:37-42. As Jesus continues this sermon, he is teaching us the kind of people we ought to be. He has just established in verse 36 that we are to be merciful, as God, our Father, is merciful. In what follows, Jesus explains to us how we can be merciful. These imperstives that Jesus gives also back up the Golden Rule that Jesus gave in verse 31, treating others the way that we would like to be treated. For example, I don't want to be judged, therefore, I should not judge. Here are four imperatives to help us live the Jesus lifestyle:
- Don't be judgmental. This is what the Pharisees were like. They felt free to judge everyone. But that did not give them the right to judge. Only God has that right. It is our nature to be self-righteous and make judgments on other people, but this is not the Way that Jesus is presenting here. Jesus’ way is to extend mercy and non-judgment.
- Don’t condemn. This seems to go along with the whole non-judgment thing. If we do not offer condemnation to others, we in turn, will not be condemned.
- Forgive. God has forgiven us, and we, in turn, must forgive others. This doesn’t mean that we pretend that the guilty are innocent, but we should learn to let go of the offenses committed against us. Forgiveness is hard, but necessary for us and for others. Forgiving is being like Jesus, who forgave those who were killing him, even as they were doing it.
- Give to others. Jesus makes it plain here, that how we give will determine how we are given to. The measure that we use will be used toward us. In fact, it seems that if we give of ourselves generously, we will reap far more than we have given. If we are stingy, we will receive very little in return. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into our lap. (verse 38) The blessings will just keep coming if we are generous.
This is how we show mercy, and how we obey Luke 6:31. This is the Jesus Lifestyle. We live a life among others without judgment or condemnation against them, forgiving them and giving generously to them. An important note here is that this is not about physical blessing. This is about greater blessings of not being judged, not being condemned and being forgiven.
Darrell Bock points out that these four imperatives are to be taken together. Each also brings a promise. Bock says this, “What is commanded is an attitude that is hesitant to condemn and quick to forgive. What is probitied is an arrogance that reacts with hostility to the worldly and morally lax, viewing such people as beyond God’s reach. What is censured by Jesus is an attitude like that of the Pharisee….Such an attitude is really self-righteous and usurps God’s role. (Bock, 605-606)
After teaching us how to obey the Golden Rule and be merciful, Luke says that Jesus teaches them a parable. His parable begins with two questions: ‘Can a blind man lead a blind man? Would they not both fall into a pit?’ These are great questions with obvious answers. A blind man should not lead another man because they would both fall into a pit. Jesus then talks about teachers and students. The student is not above the teacher, but does become like the teacher. The teacher cannot teach something that he or she does know about.
So, if a spiritual teacher is in truth spiritually blind, think Pharisees and teachers of the law, they really have nothing of value to teach, and their disciples will learn nothing and fall into a pit. In Luke 6, Jesus is not specifically addressing the Pharisees, but in Matt. 15:14, he does say basically the same thing about them. ‘Leave them (the Pharisees); they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.’
Choose your teachers carefully, otherwise, you may find yourself in a pit. Jesus is offering a comparison between good teaching and bad. The Pharisees are judgmental and arrogant. Jesus is neither of those things. He is the good teacher that we should follow, and when we are fully trained, we will be like Him.
Jesus continues to talk about self-righteousness. He paints an image of a man with a wooden beam sticking out of his eye, trying to remove a speck from another man’s eye. The image is actually somewhat comical, because we all know that the man with just a speck in his eye is going to get whacked in the face by the guy with the beam in his eye. It is not that the speck shouldn’t be removed. It should be. But let the man with the beam in his eye remove the beam first. This makes it safer to remove a speck without doing serious harm to the other man.
Jesus, calls the beam-eyed man, Hypocrite. And in truth, that is what he is. The beam-eyed carefully examines others, without any real self-examination. He makes judgements on others while missing his own glaring weaknesses. If I were to have a beam sticking out of my eye, then I am in reality, blind. Real self-examination, stemming from a humble walk with God, leads me toward the ability to teach others. These four imperatives, the questions that Jesus asked and the story of the man with the wooden beam in his eye, all seem to point back to being merciful as God is merciful and obeying the Golden Rule of Luke 6:31. If we can be like this, then we living like Jesus - the Jesus Lifestyle.
Tom
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