1997 issue 5 - sermon on luke 6:17-49 - the demands of love - counsel of chalcedon
TRANSCRIPT
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8/12/2019 1997 Issue 5 - Sermon on Luke 6:17-49 - The Demands of Love - Counsel of Chalcedon
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(6:27-38) The Demands
of
Love
he Significance
of
but
say
to you
who hear
Jesus begins this section of
His sermon by addressing those
who are really hearing and
taking to heart what
He
is
saying, i.e., His true disciples.
He contrasts with the strong
conjunction, But, alla in
Greek, those upon whom the
woes are pronounced and His
true disciples. To them as the
blessed
ones
He
commands
them to love
their
enemies.
They will be
able to love
their
enemies, etc.
Anew life
and anew
power are
in
their hearts,
those of the
kingdom of God, vs . 20, and
they
will
show their presence in
the most distinctive and
tangible way. The fruits of
repentance which Jesus names
are those which the world
cannot achieve
by any
ethics it
may invent or practice. - Lenski
(6:27-28) The
Command to
Love
.. ove your enemies, o good
to
those
who
hate you, bless
those
who ruTSe
you,
pray
for
those who
mistreat you .
he Meaning of love
In
t is
command Jesus
announces the principle by
which the disciples of His
kingdom must
live
in their
relationships with other
people
.
This is the first time Luke uses
the word,
agapan, love, which
sums
up the whole spirtt
of the
Gospel.
Jesus
stresses that His
followers must love the
unlovely
as well as
those that
appeal to them. There are
several words
for
love
n
Greek.
Jesus was not asking
for stOlge,
natural affection, nor for
eros,
romantic love,nor for philia,
the love of friendship. He was
speaking of agape, which means
love even of the unworthy, love
which is not drawn out by
ment in the beloved but
which
proceeds
from
the
fact
that
the
lover chooses
to
be a loving
person . - Morris
In
the
New
Testament
the
verb
agape
rose
far
above
its old
and broad use,
for
instance in
the LXX, (Septuagint), and
came to be used as the
one
tenn that could express
the
very highest
type
of what
could
be called
love.
It denotes
the
...
m
COUNSEL
of
Cbalcedon Jnne,
997
love of intelligence,
comprehension and
corresponding purpose. It
sees
all the hatefulness and the
wickedness of
the
enemy, feels
is stabs and
his
blows, may .
even have something to do to
ward them off; but this fills the
loving heart with only the one
desire and aim
to free
its enemy
from his hate, to rescue him
.
from his sin, and to save his
soul.
Mere affection is
often
blind, but it
even then
thinks that it '.
sees
something
attractive in
the one
toward
whom it goes
out; the
higher love
may
see
nothing
attractive in
the one
loved, nor is this love called out
by anything that is attractive;
its
.
inner motive , be the object
worthy or not, is
to
bestow true
blessings upon the one loved,
to
do
him the highest possible
good. I cannot like a
filthy,
vicious beggar and make him
my personal
friend;
I cannot
like a low, mean criminal who
may
have
robbed me and
almost taken my
life
; I cannot
like a false, lying, slanderous
fellow who has perhaps vilified
me again and again; but I can,
by the grace of]esus Christ,
love them all, namely see just
what is wrong with them,
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desiie and work to remove that
wrong thing, and to this
end do
them
all good. - Lenski
The
Identify o
your enemies
Your enemies are those
who hate
you,
curse
you,
and
mistreat
you. The Greek
word
for enemies, eththros, is
literally the hostile ones. This
word
is used in the N.T. for
personal enemies, Gal. 4:16,
enemies ofIsrael, Lk. 1:71,
enemies of Jerusalem, Lk.
19:
43,
enemies of N.T.
witnesses,
Rev.
11:5,
and
enemies of believers within
their own families, Mat.
10
:
36
. It also refers for
hostility to God and Christ, .
Lk.
19
:27; Phil. 3:18; Acts
13
:10. Paul uses the
word
to refer to
aU
the forces
that are hostile to God,
including death, I Cor.
15:25 . The Enemy is
Satan himself in Mat. 13:24{
and Lk. 10:9. He is the
absolute enemy of Christ, His
kingdom,
and
His disciples.
(Obviously we are
not
to love
Satan
in
any sense, since
he
is
totally and irreparably evil.)
The Meaning of those who
hate you
Hate in
verse
27
is literally
the hating
ones. In
the O.T.
hatred
of God's people is hatred
of
God Himself, Num. 10:35.
As
the wicked love evil and
ha t
e good,
so
the righteo1l$ love
good :lnd hate evil, Mic. 3:2.
They hate
what
God hates, Psa.
97
:10 ; Amos 5:15. This hatred
is
not
an emotional thing,
but
an
actual disowning of evil and
those who commit it. Hating
God is ignoring His
commandments
and
persecuting His people. Those
who hate God may
be
strong,
and they show their hatred by
repaying evil for good, but in
the long run their opposition to
God is doomed to failure, Psa.
34
:21; 35:19;
38
:19-20; 69:4;
86:17.
In
Matthew 6:24
and
Luke
16:13 lOving and hating express
the thought of preferring the
on
e master to the other. The
N.T. also teaches that the
disciples
of
Christ will
be
hated
by
others, Lk. 1:71; 6:22,27;
Mat. 10:22 . To
e
Christ's
disciples one must hate all
others for Jesus' sake,
i.
e., the .
unconditional claim of]esus
means that earthly ties
must
be
put second. - TDN This is
not
psychological hatred but a
total commitment that gives
absolute priority to Jesus.
THEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
Both O.T. and N.T. teach
that God
ha
tes various things
and
people, Dt. 12:31; Amos
5:21; Provo8:13;
Provo
6:16f;
Psa. 5:
5-6
; Rom. 9:13. Jesus
Himself loves righteousness
and
hates and repudiates evil, Heb.
1:9 quoting Psa. 45 :7.
In
the writings of the
Apostle John love and
hatred are frequently
mentioned.
In
John divine
love conflicts
with
cosmic hate.
The
world's
hatred
for God,
Christ,
and
God's people is sin.
The world is blinded and
impelled
by
darkness and
therefore hates the light,
In.
3:20. Since
Jesus
is the light,
the world hates Jesus, 7:7. In
so
doing
it
hates God, 15:23-24.
It
also hates
the
disciples 15: 18.
To live in
the
light is to be a
target of hate. To hate
the
brethren is to live in darkness, I
In . 2:9,11. Yet there is a
proper hatred, as inJn.
12
:25 ,
which
states tha t
one must hate
one
's life in
this
world in order
to
keep
it
for eternal life. - TDNT
The Meaning o
those
who
curse you
Curse
in
Greek,
kataraomai, denotes
wishes
and
utterances designed
to
bring harm
upon someone
from a supernatural
source
.
The
Law of God curses those who
break
or
disregard it, Gal. 3 :
13
;
Dt. 27:26, and
it
is God's curse
which applies to all impenitent
sinners withol.jt exception.
Jesus
took th
e curse
upon
Himself vicariol.jsly for all God's
chosen people,
that we might
be
reconciled to God
and
placed under His blessing, II
Cor. 5:17f.
For
on
e
man
to
curse another is for the
one
uttering the_curse to
act
as God.
It is to wish
harm or damnation
upon
another, in spite of the
death of Christ, because
the
other is ha ted by him.
June,
1997
f THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon f
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8/12/2019 1997 Issue 5 - Sermon on Luke 6:17-49 - The Demands of Love - Counsel of Chalcedon
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The Meaning of
those who mistreat you
The Greek word for
. mistreat, epereadzo, is used
only
three times in the N.T.,
Luke 6:27, Matthew 5:44; I
Peter 3 :16. It means to
threaten, mistreat, revile;, abuse.
he Historical and Theological
Context for this Command
he Enemies ofGod's People
According to the B ~ e d i c t u s
In Zacharias' hymn
of
praise,
THE BENEDICTUS, Luke
1:68-79, Zacharias praises God
by saying:
Blessed
by
the
Lord
God of
Israel,
for He has
visited
us
and accomplished redemption for
His people; and h ~ r a i s e d up q
horn
of salvation for US in the
house
ofDavid His servant---as
He spoke by the mouth ofHis holy
prophets from ofold--- 'Salvation
from our enemies, and from the
hand
of all who hate us ... '
vss. 68-71. Verse 71 describes
salvation in terms of victory
over our enemies and over
those
who
would
harm us
as
.
the people
of
God. Salvation,
according to Luke, is
not
escape; rather it is deliverance
from enemies by victory over
those enemies. God delivers
His
people
from their enemies,
not
by
rapturing thern out of
the midst
of
their enemies, but
by destroying their enemies ..
This is the work of the mighty
Horn
of
Salvation
for
us
in
the
House
of
David
, Le., jesus.
Christ.
He
strikes and destroys
our enemies for us. Our
enemies are any individual,
force human r d ~ c i I i i c ,
movement, in$titution, nation
or culture that seeks to hinder
us
from hallowing Goo's riame
and
doing God's will
on
earth
as
it
is in heaven. See Psalm
106:10-12 to which verSe 71
refers.
These enemies are to be
dealt with
in
two ways
, according to the
Word
of Goo:
(1).
We
are to love them; and
(2). We are to hate h ~ .
We are
to
Love
these
Enemies, Luke 6:27
lovable
in
us or
in
the world?
Was
it
something that
stimulated the eternal heart of
love? Nothing whatsoever.
It
was entirely
and
altogether in
spite of us .What rnoved God
was His own eternal heart of
love unmoved by anything
.outside itself.
It
generates its .
own o v ~ n t and activity--
an utterly disinterested love.
lloyd-Jones, pg.
304
This is a t r ~ e n d o u S l y
important priftciple, betause
When olitenemies harm us according to our Lord that is
we are not to seek our own the kind oflove that we are td ' .
revenge and strike them back; have, and the love that we are .
we must maintain a proper to manifest with respect to
attitude toward them. Our others. The whole secret of
treatment of others
mUSt
never . .living
this
kind
of
life
is
that
depend upon
what
the:y; are, or man should be utterly
upon
what they do to
us
. It . .detached. He
must
be
detached
mUst be entirely contrc>lled and . from others in the sense that
hiS
.
governed by our view of them behavior is
not
governed' by
and of their condition. --- what the:y do. But still more ;
There are people who are evil, . important, he should be
foul
and
unjust; nevertheless detached from himself until
GOdsends
ram upon
t h ~ and . a
man
is detached from
hi inself
causes the sun to shine upon he will never be detached from
t h ~
Mat. 5:45 . -- How does what others do to that self.
As
He do so? The answer must be long as a man is living for
thatGodisnot dealing with himself, he is sensitive,
t h ~
according to what
the:y
watchful and jealous; he is
are or according to whatthe:y enviolls and is therefore always
do to Him. What is it, if one reactingirnrnediately to what
may ask such a question with others do. He is in intimate
reverence, that governs God's contact with them. The only ,
attitude to them? The answer is way to detach youtselffrom . .
that He is governedby His own what others do to you is that ,.
love which is absolutely you firshJf all detach yourself
disinterested. In other
words f rom
yourself. -
lloyd-jow
,
it does not depend
upon
pg.304.
anything that is in
US, it
is in One of the most tragic ,
spite of us . - Lloyd-jones, pg. things about us is that our lives
3D3
What moved God to love are 50 much governed
by
other
the world, John 3:16? Was it people and
by
whatthey do to
something loving, lovely, or us and think .about us . Try to
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COUNSEL o Chalcedon .
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June, 1997
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recall a single day in your own
life.
hink
of the unkind and
cruel thoughts that have come
into your mind and heart.
What produced them?
.Somebody else
How
much of
our thinking and acting and
behavior is entirely governed by
other people.
It
is
one of the
things that make life so
wretched. You
see a particular
person and your spirit
is
upset.
-- Other people are controlling
you. 'Now,' says Christ in
Romans
12:17-21-- Neverpay
back
evil
for evil t
anyone.
Respect what
is
right in
the
sight
ofall
men.
fpossible, so far as
it
depends on
you,
be
a
peace
with
all men. Never
take your
own
revenge, beloved, but
leave
room
for the
wrath ofGod,for it
is
wriUen, 'Vengeance
is
Mine,
I will
repay, says the Lord
. 'But
ifyour
enemy is hungry,feed
him, and
if
he is thirsry,
give
him a
drink;for
in so doing you
will
heap burning
coals upon
his head.
Do
not be
overcome by evil, but
overcome
rather we are to keep on' loving
people, knowing that God will
take care of our enemies. (5).
We
are to feed our enemies,
Provo
25:21, which will
tum
them away from harming you,
Mat. 5:38f, silence them, Tit.
1:11 ,'shame them and possibly
lead them to conversion, I Pet.
3:16. And (6). we must not let
evil
get us down or seduce us;
but by goodness of life
overcome evil, vs.
21.
We are
to Hate
these
Enemies,
Psalm 139:19-24
ffect,
'you must get out of that
condition.
Your
love must
become such that you will
We mllst believe that C;od
is
the Judge and
leave
the
execution of vengeance
and retribution to Him,
no longer be governed and
controlled by what people
say. Your life
must be
governed by a new
principle in yourself, a new
principle oflove.'
This may sound
shocking to some; but hear
me out. The disciples of
Christ live out the entirety
of their lives
in
terms of
the commands, definitions
and limitations on
life
"The
moment we have that,
we are enabled to see people in
a different way. God looks
down upon this world and sees
all the sin and shame, but He
sees it as something that results
from the activity of Satan. -
We must learn to look at other
people and
say
:
'Yes,
they are
doing this, that and the other to
me. Why? They are doing it
because they are dupes of
Satan; because they are
governed by the
god
of this
world and are his helpless
victims. I must not be
annoyed. I see them as
hell-bound sinners. I must do
everything I can to
save
them.'
-lloyd-Jones, pg. 304-305.
The
New
Testament expands
this command to
love
our
enemies in several texts, the
most notable of which is
evil with good. (1). As private
Christian citizens we must not
take upon ourselves the
responsibility to execute the
demands of justice in the place
of the
civil
government,
vs.
17
a.
(2). We must maintain a
deportment that finds approval
among people generally,
vs.
17b.
(3).
We must be
fully
and
totally committed to peace in
all our goals, methods and
relations, vs.
18.
(4). In
everyday relations, we must not
take revenge upon those who
may deserve it; rather we must
rest our
case
with the perfect
justice of God,
vSS.
19-20. We
must believe that God
is
the
Judge and leave the execution
of vengeance and retribution to
Him. We must not be
concerned with revenge; but
found in the written Word
of Christ the
King.
Christ
commands us to love our
enemies in His Word, defines
how that command
is
to be
obeyed in His Word, and also
places limits on that command
in His Word, I John 2:15. The
point
is
that the same Lord who
commands us to love and help
our enemies
also
commands:
Should you help
the
wicked and
l ve those who
hate
the LORD
and so bring wrath
on
yourself
from
the Lord?,'-
II Chron. 19:2.
A
man who is laden with guilt of
human blood
will be
a
ugitive
until
death
; let no one support
him
,
Prov. 28:17.
0
that
Thou
wouldst slay the wicked,
0
God;
Depart from me, therefore,
men
of
bloodshed. For
they speak
wickedly, and Thine enemies take
Thy name in vain. Do
I
not hate
those who hate Thee, 0 LORD?
June, 1997 'IlIE COUNSEL of
lu\kedon
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