Giving! -- Luke 6:27-38
Giving! -- Luke 6:27-38
By Pastor Lee Hemen
May 14, 2017
J. R. R. Tolkien wrote in his book The Hobbit, “Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.” This is why mothers are so important and in fact they are the ones who teach us those everyday deeds of kindness and love but they also teach us a quality that has often been lost in this day and age; they teach us about giving.
Here in Luke’s gospel Jesus teaches us about giving, what it means, how it is done, and the blessings of giving. What we fail to realize is that for the believer giving comes in various forms. In this passage from Luke we discover Jesus teaching his disciple about giving for the Christian. Let’s discover what Jesus taught about giving…
READ: Luke 6:27-38
We have all heard that believers should give but why should we give? I learned about giving from a nonbeliever. He gave consistently and without any animosity because he felt it honored his Christian wife who believed Christians should give in order to honor God. So, he would give for her so she could honor God. He later gave his life to Christ. Jesus shares with us that…
I. We are to give undeserved love! (Vv. 27-31)
“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
1. Jesus had just got done teaching who was blessed in the kingdom of God and who would be, well, cursed; that is what all those “woes” are about. Jesus knew what he was teaching was impossible for the ordinary person to do, especially people who were so wrapped up in following rules and regulations like the Jews were. Only someone who was changed from the inside out, someone born again, and someone who intimately knew the Messiah could understand what it meant to sacrificially give! So Jesus begins by relating to them “But I tell you who hear me”. Only those who actually listened and followed through knew what he meant. One must be spiritually born again. Only such a changed individual could “Love your enemies” or “do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you” and “pray for those who mistreat you”! Say what? Now if you thought that this was hard enough, Jesus continued by relating that “If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also.” This gets more and more difficult the more Luke relates to us Jesus’ words. We are not to retaliate. This is utterly impossible yet Jesus is not done there and continues that “If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.” So you mean thieves could steal from us and we should not demand our stuff back? We can’t live this way, what is possible with God is utterly impossible for us to do. However with God all things are possible. Certainly those Jesus describes here do not deserve our love. But did we deserve the love of God displayed in his sacrifice of himself on a cross for our sins? The key to these utterly unrealistic demands of Jesus is that we are to “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” For the Jewish listener who had heard all of their lives that it was an “eye for an eye” what Jesus proposed was impossible. And that was his point. Because we would know undeserved love we are to give undeserved love!
EXAMPLE: Look at the list Jesus just gave you to do. Now honestly can you do each and every one of these things on your own? My mother was not a perfect mom. She could be harsh in her discipline, selfish in her actions, and just plain ornery. And I hated it when she would remind us that we would always be her babies. When we grew to be big hulking adults this little petite woman would remind us over and over “You are always a part of me”. I did not fully understand this until I had a child and then grandkids. It is a bond that can never go away. When we trust Jesus to save us, to change us spiritually, we become his always and it is through this relationship we can do the impossible. We are to give undeserved love!
We live in such a selfish generation, so much so that it has infected our Christianity. There are those who think the church march or protest. There are those who only look for the church to meet their needs as if it were some kind of a spiritual fitness center. And finally there are those who treat the church like a grocery store and only go when they are out of something they need. Yet here in Luke Jesus teaches us that…
II. When we give we are to expect nothing in return! (Vv. 32-35)
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”
1. Either Jesus has changed you or he has not there is no shades of grey here. And if we are changed we will reflect it in how we live our lives. In the first section we just went through it was tough and no one could actually do what Jesus asked; could they? Yet Jesus asks his listeners, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?” We often feel justified in loving only those whom we deem deserving of our love however Jesus retorts, “Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that.” I have learned that some of the most loving people can be some of the most ungodly folks. But being loving is not the same as being godly. Godly folk are changed folk. So, “if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you?” Not much because “Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full.” We are to be different than the sinful world around us; we are to reflect the sacrificial love of God! Instead we should “love (our) enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.” We are not to lend but rather give. I find it odd when Christians gripe about giving money to someone and then they do not get back what they thought they should. We are not to sit back and grouse when we give someone money and we do not get repaid because believers are not to be in the money lending business. We are to be giving people because of what God gave us. His gift was no loan! It is an attitude. “Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” When we reflect Jesus we will be giving people and when we give we are to expect nothing in return!
EXAMPLE: My Mom used to say when she got really tired, “I work and I slave and what thanks do I get?” I must confess in our little wicked orneriness we would tease her with this when she would ask us to do something. My brother would be washing the dishes, I would be drying, and we both would softly repeat, “I work and I slave and what thanks do I get?” My mom would laugh and tell us that she would give us something to be “thankful” about. Sadly far too many believers have lost sight of the fact we are to be giving people simply because of who we follow and so when we give we are to expect nothing in return!
Giving has fallen out of vogue in many churches today. And in some they never mention it, teach it, or require it thinking that they will win the favor of their audience by doing so. Jesus teaches us something we have forgotten about giving, namely that…
III. God will bless our giving! (Vv. 36-38)
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
1. Because we have been saved by grace we are to be gracious people. We are to live lives of grace and so Jesus teaches us to “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” In God’s mercy, his grace, he came as Jesus to die for us but more than that to rise from the dead to show us that he could give us eternal life through our faith in him. It is not based on anything we have done; it is solely because of his mercy, his grace. In this truth Jesus tells us, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged.” To “judge” here does not exactly mean to pronounce critical judgment, nor does it refer to simple judging at all, whether favorable or unfavorable. The context makes it clear that the thing here condemned is our willingness to look unfavorably on the character and actions of others, which leads invariably to the pronouncing of rash, unjust, or unkind judgments. We would say, “To look down our noses”. Therefore Jesus continued, “Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.” As believers we are required to weigh the lives of fellow believers, but here Jesus is concerned with our judging or condemning those who are still in sin. We are told to “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” The whole idea here is one of what the believer’s life is now to be about. When we freely accept what God gave us we are to freely forgive others. Our salvation is not based on this but it shows what we believe. Christians should be the most gracious giving people on the planet. We should never ever have a problem in supporting our church, ministries, or missions. Forgiven folks are giving folks because we know that if we “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.” Now this is not some name-it-and-claim-it or blab-it-and-grab-it garbage but a spiritual reality. We are blessed when we give. We should never give in order to be blessed; we are to give because that is who we are. It is a way of life “For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” We cannot out give God. God will bless our giving!
EXAMPLE: My mom was one of those mothers who understood giving back more than what she received. This petite fiery redhead would tell us miscreants, “I will beat you until you can’t stand up and then I will beat you for falling.” Of course she only made good on this threat a few times; being the wild and woolly kids we were we knew she had to catch us first. As believers we should live our lives without any fear of retribution and in the grace of God. Therefore we should live lives of givers knowing that God will bless our giving!
Conclusion:
We are to give undeserved love! When we give we are to expect nothing in return! God will bless our giving!
----
This article is copyrighted © 2017 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission.
By Pastor Lee Hemen
May 14, 2017
J. R. R. Tolkien wrote in his book The Hobbit, “Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.” This is why mothers are so important and in fact they are the ones who teach us those everyday deeds of kindness and love but they also teach us a quality that has often been lost in this day and age; they teach us about giving.
Here in Luke’s gospel Jesus teaches us about giving, what it means, how it is done, and the blessings of giving. What we fail to realize is that for the believer giving comes in various forms. In this passage from Luke we discover Jesus teaching his disciple about giving for the Christian. Let’s discover what Jesus taught about giving…
READ: Luke 6:27-38
We have all heard that believers should give but why should we give? I learned about giving from a nonbeliever. He gave consistently and without any animosity because he felt it honored his Christian wife who believed Christians should give in order to honor God. So, he would give for her so she could honor God. He later gave his life to Christ. Jesus shares with us that…
I. We are to give undeserved love! (Vv. 27-31)
“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
1. Jesus had just got done teaching who was blessed in the kingdom of God and who would be, well, cursed; that is what all those “woes” are about. Jesus knew what he was teaching was impossible for the ordinary person to do, especially people who were so wrapped up in following rules and regulations like the Jews were. Only someone who was changed from the inside out, someone born again, and someone who intimately knew the Messiah could understand what it meant to sacrificially give! So Jesus begins by relating to them “But I tell you who hear me”. Only those who actually listened and followed through knew what he meant. One must be spiritually born again. Only such a changed individual could “Love your enemies” or “do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you” and “pray for those who mistreat you”! Say what? Now if you thought that this was hard enough, Jesus continued by relating that “If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also.” This gets more and more difficult the more Luke relates to us Jesus’ words. We are not to retaliate. This is utterly impossible yet Jesus is not done there and continues that “If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.” So you mean thieves could steal from us and we should not demand our stuff back? We can’t live this way, what is possible with God is utterly impossible for us to do. However with God all things are possible. Certainly those Jesus describes here do not deserve our love. But did we deserve the love of God displayed in his sacrifice of himself on a cross for our sins? The key to these utterly unrealistic demands of Jesus is that we are to “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” For the Jewish listener who had heard all of their lives that it was an “eye for an eye” what Jesus proposed was impossible. And that was his point. Because we would know undeserved love we are to give undeserved love!
EXAMPLE: Look at the list Jesus just gave you to do. Now honestly can you do each and every one of these things on your own? My mother was not a perfect mom. She could be harsh in her discipline, selfish in her actions, and just plain ornery. And I hated it when she would remind us that we would always be her babies. When we grew to be big hulking adults this little petite woman would remind us over and over “You are always a part of me”. I did not fully understand this until I had a child and then grandkids. It is a bond that can never go away. When we trust Jesus to save us, to change us spiritually, we become his always and it is through this relationship we can do the impossible. We are to give undeserved love!
We live in such a selfish generation, so much so that it has infected our Christianity. There are those who think the church march or protest. There are those who only look for the church to meet their needs as if it were some kind of a spiritual fitness center. And finally there are those who treat the church like a grocery store and only go when they are out of something they need. Yet here in Luke Jesus teaches us that…
II. When we give we are to expect nothing in return! (Vv. 32-35)
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”
1. Either Jesus has changed you or he has not there is no shades of grey here. And if we are changed we will reflect it in how we live our lives. In the first section we just went through it was tough and no one could actually do what Jesus asked; could they? Yet Jesus asks his listeners, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?” We often feel justified in loving only those whom we deem deserving of our love however Jesus retorts, “Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that.” I have learned that some of the most loving people can be some of the most ungodly folks. But being loving is not the same as being godly. Godly folk are changed folk. So, “if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you?” Not much because “Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full.” We are to be different than the sinful world around us; we are to reflect the sacrificial love of God! Instead we should “love (our) enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.” We are not to lend but rather give. I find it odd when Christians gripe about giving money to someone and then they do not get back what they thought they should. We are not to sit back and grouse when we give someone money and we do not get repaid because believers are not to be in the money lending business. We are to be giving people because of what God gave us. His gift was no loan! It is an attitude. “Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” When we reflect Jesus we will be giving people and when we give we are to expect nothing in return!
EXAMPLE: My Mom used to say when she got really tired, “I work and I slave and what thanks do I get?” I must confess in our little wicked orneriness we would tease her with this when she would ask us to do something. My brother would be washing the dishes, I would be drying, and we both would softly repeat, “I work and I slave and what thanks do I get?” My mom would laugh and tell us that she would give us something to be “thankful” about. Sadly far too many believers have lost sight of the fact we are to be giving people simply because of who we follow and so when we give we are to expect nothing in return!
Giving has fallen out of vogue in many churches today. And in some they never mention it, teach it, or require it thinking that they will win the favor of their audience by doing so. Jesus teaches us something we have forgotten about giving, namely that…
III. God will bless our giving! (Vv. 36-38)
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
1. Because we have been saved by grace we are to be gracious people. We are to live lives of grace and so Jesus teaches us to “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” In God’s mercy, his grace, he came as Jesus to die for us but more than that to rise from the dead to show us that he could give us eternal life through our faith in him. It is not based on anything we have done; it is solely because of his mercy, his grace. In this truth Jesus tells us, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged.” To “judge” here does not exactly mean to pronounce critical judgment, nor does it refer to simple judging at all, whether favorable or unfavorable. The context makes it clear that the thing here condemned is our willingness to look unfavorably on the character and actions of others, which leads invariably to the pronouncing of rash, unjust, or unkind judgments. We would say, “To look down our noses”. Therefore Jesus continued, “Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.” As believers we are required to weigh the lives of fellow believers, but here Jesus is concerned with our judging or condemning those who are still in sin. We are told to “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” The whole idea here is one of what the believer’s life is now to be about. When we freely accept what God gave us we are to freely forgive others. Our salvation is not based on this but it shows what we believe. Christians should be the most gracious giving people on the planet. We should never ever have a problem in supporting our church, ministries, or missions. Forgiven folks are giving folks because we know that if we “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.” Now this is not some name-it-and-claim-it or blab-it-and-grab-it garbage but a spiritual reality. We are blessed when we give. We should never give in order to be blessed; we are to give because that is who we are. It is a way of life “For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” We cannot out give God. God will bless our giving!
EXAMPLE: My mom was one of those mothers who understood giving back more than what she received. This petite fiery redhead would tell us miscreants, “I will beat you until you can’t stand up and then I will beat you for falling.” Of course she only made good on this threat a few times; being the wild and woolly kids we were we knew she had to catch us first. As believers we should live our lives without any fear of retribution and in the grace of God. Therefore we should live lives of givers knowing that God will bless our giving!
Conclusion:
We are to give undeserved love! When we give we are to expect nothing in return! God will bless our giving!
----
This article is copyrighted © 2017 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission.
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