The Golden Rule (Luke 6:27-36)

A couple of weeks ago we talked about the heart of the Christian message being love: trusting God’s love for us in Jesus and loving others the way Jesus loved us. One way the Bible describes this love is 1 Corinthians 13. We talked about growing in our capacity to love others in 1 Corinthians 13 ways by trusting that God loves us like this because of everything Jesus has done for us in his life, death and resurrection. As we stay connected to God’s love, the Holy Spirit transforms us to become more loving people. This is the aim and purpose of living as Jesus’ disciples.

In this week’s Gospel reading, Luke 6:27-36, Jesus gives us another picture of what Christ-like love for others looks like. In this passage, Jesus describes a radical love for people who are our enemies, hard to love, or who take more from us than they give to us. Jesus teaches those who are open to his teaching that we are to show 1 Corinthians 13 love to people who are against us or hurt us, to do good to those who wrong us in some way, to return blessings to those people who speak evil to us or about us, and to pray for people who treat us badly. The love that Jesus teaches is a strong and generous love which freely gives to others without considering what it will cost or if we will receive anything back.

Two verses summarize this love. The first is to do to others as we would like them to do to us (v31). This is radically different to the way our world teaches us, ‘to do to others as they do to us.’ From childish disagreements to international politics, our human nature usually wants to give as good as we get. If someone does us wrong or hurts us, our natural reaction is to do the same to them and to treat them in the same way that they treated us. The problem with this kind of reciprocal payback is that conflicts escalate, hurts increase, and situations get out of control. Instead, Jesus wants us to treat other people the way we would like them to treat us. This means putting ourselves in the other person’s position, asking ourselves how we would like them to treat us, and then behaving that way towards them.

The second statement Jesus gives us to summarise this love for others is in verse 36 when he teaches, ‘Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful’ (NIV). Some English translations use the word ‘compassionate’ instead of ‘merciful’ but the idea is the same: when people treat us badly, when they hurt us or ask something of us, Jesus wants us to show compassion and mercy by treating them better than they might treat us, to be generous and giving in our relationships with them, and to show kindness to them, even if they don’t deserve it.

This is the love that God has for us and all people. Paul writes that we were once God’s enemies because of the wrongs we had done, but we have now been reconciled with God through the death of Jesus (Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:21,22). God didn’t reject us for our wrong behaviours. He didn’t condemn us for our sin or our rebellion against him. Instead, God showed us mercy and compassion by treating us better than we deserve, giving his Son to reconcile us with himself, and restoring our relationship with him through Jesus. In his love for us, God has shown us mercy and compassion when we were against him.

We can find the way God loves us in Jesus throughout Luke 6:27-36. Our heavenly Father loved us when we were his enemies. He does good for us and all people even when we ignore or hate him. God speaks words of blessing to us even when we are speaking evil of him or other people. When people slapped Jesus on the face, he didn’t fight back but took it out of love for them. Jesus gave everything up, even his own life, out of love for us and all people. He asks for nothing back but instead that we pay his love forward into the lives of others so they can know his goodness and love through us. Through Jesus, God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked, including us when we forget to thank him or when we do wrong.

This doesn’t mean becoming a door mat or letting people walk over us. That isn’t love because it is not good for people to allow them to hurt or walk over others. Instead, when we love our enemies and do good to those who hurt us according to the measure of faith that God gives us, a few things happen.

Firstly, it shows that we know who we are as children of God. When we have faith in God’s compassion and mercy to us, and love others in the ways Jesus teaches us, it shows that we trust in his goodness to us. Children inherit their parents’ characteristics, so when we are merciful and compassionate to others, especially to those who need it the most but might deserve it the least, we reflect God’s character as his children whom he loves.

Secondly, when we love others the way Jesus teaches, we extend God’s goodness to them. When we love our enemies, do good to those who wrong us, and show mercy and compassion to people who might need it but not deserve it, the grace of God can break the cycle of wrongs and hurts by giving them an experience of God’s liberating and saving grace. As Paul writes in Romans 12:21, when we love others the way Jesus loves us, we not only avoid being overcome by evil, but we actually overcome evil with God’s goodness and grace.

Thirdly, loving those who wrong us like Jesus loves us helps people to learn a better way of living. Instead of being stuck in a pattern of ‘do to others as they do to you’, when we love others in the way Jesus teaches, we show them that the way of Christ-like love is a better way to live. We can help people experience something different and more life-giving in their relationships with us. Treating others the way we would like them to treat us gives us a more optimistic, constructive and hope-filled way to live.

Loving others in the way Jesus teaches in Luke 6:27-36 isn’t easy. Remember, it cost Jesus his life. It might also cost us in some way as we trust in Jesus and follow him by loving the people around us. However, God promises that it will lead us into a better life for us and healthier relationships with others. Is there someone who has been treating us badly or doing wrong to us, or one relationship which hasn’t been going too well or has hit a rocky patch? If we begin to show them Christ-like love, treating them the way we would like them to treat us, showing them mercy and compassion in some way, how might the Holy Spirit soften their heart, restore a relationship, or bring that person closer to Christ’s Kingdom?

More to think about or discuss:

• Do you usually treat other people the way they treat you, or the way you would like them to treat you? Why do you do that…?
• What do you think about Jesus’ teaching on loving others in Luke 6:27-36? Does it sound realistic to you? Or would you find it hard to treat others like he says? Why do you think that is?
• Who is one person you can love in the way Jesus teaches us in this passage? What are some simple ways you can show Christ-like love for that person? What might happen if you could love that person the way God loves you in Jesus?