Application of the Golden Rule: When I love and do good to my enemies, I am doing what my Heavenly Father does for me. And I am showing myself to be his child. I am being supernatural rather than merely natural.
Repeating the ethical–and spiritual–principle on which this entire section of Jesus’ sermon hangs is necessary here, to connect the portions before and after it to each other:
In the verses which preceded this, Jesus told me to love, treat well and speak well of those who oppose, hate and mistreat me. He also told me not to resist those who assert their authority–whether that authority is legitimate or illegitimate–against me, and to give without expecting anything back, even from thieves. But I am to show my non-resistance on a calculated and loving way, designed to show those exploiting me what it is that makes their actions wrong.
Why am I to respond in these very unnatural ways? Because it is right to do so. I should do to others what I would like them to do to me, not what I expect them to do to me.
In the next four verses, Jesus develops another reason I should be unnaturally good toward those who are bad to me: so that I may be like my Heavenly Father, who is infinitely good to me even though I am bad. But he first emphasizes how unnatural what he is teaching really is to sinful humans:
But, because everyone does these things, if I also do them, they do not count to my credit before God, or, in reality, before other people. It would earn me a bad name if I consistently failed to show reciprocity for love shown me or good things done for me by others. But doing only what is expected of me, what everyone else does, too, does not show anything particularly good about me:
Jesus uses three examples of the things everyone does, that do not count to my credit.
I know that there are a few rare people who seem to have no capacity to love at all. And literature–and life–are full of tales of unrequited love. But, as Jesus points out, it is usually expected by both parties to a loving relationship that their love will be returned in some way. Even sinners love those who love them. This is natural.
Similarly, the trading of reciprocal favors is the usual human way of doing things–in friendship, in business, in casual society, and even in international diplomacy. Everyone does good to people whose favor they wish to win, expecting that their favor will be reciprocated. And maintaining a friendship also generally requires regular trading of favors. But if one party to a relationship consistently fails to return the favors done for them, ad does this for long enough, the favors will end, and the relationship itself will fade away–sometimes even turning into enmity. This is also natural.
And even sinners lend money or things to those around them who need it. Sometimes it is lent at interest or to obtain favors or profit in some other way, sometimes not. But it is nearly always lent with an expectation that it will eventually be repaid in some way. And if a recipient consistently fails to at least try to repay the loan, to give something in exchange, the donor’s generosity will tend to dry up. This, too, is only natural.
I am told to do all of these very unnatural things because, even though they appear to cause me loss here and now, they have a great reward:
This is Jesus’ statement of the Golden Rule in a slightly different form, showing its reward.
But, wait. My enemies want to harm me and won’t return my love. And I am told not to expect anything back when I do good to others–friend or foe–or when I lend. So what is the great reward?
The reward is that I will be a child of God, who is kind in the same way:
The point is not that I will become a child of God by being kind and merciful, that I will someday in the future (probably after I die) be given my adoption into his family as a reward for my kind deeds here. No, the great reward is that Ican know right now that I am his child because I am responding to sins and demands against me the same way he responds to me. I am being merciful in the same way he is merciful.
I am being supernatural, rather than merely natural.
Here is a reminder of the outline of this section of Luke 6. I just finished point number one. The real freedom comes in points two and three. Stay tuned!
Email me: Ian Johnson
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