Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 6:20
And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed [be ye] poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.
20. Blessed be ye poor ] Rather, Blessed are the poor. The makarioi is a Hebrew expression ( ashri), Psa 1:1. St Matthew adds “in spirit” (comp. Isa 66:2, “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word”). But
(1) St Luke gives the address of Christ to the poor whose very presence shewed that they were His poor and had come to seek Him; and
(2) the Evangelist seems to have been impressed with the blessings of a faithful and humble poverty in itself (comp. Jas 2:5; 1Co 1:26-29), and loves to record those parts of our Lord’s teaching which were especially ‘the Gospel to the poor’ (see Luk 1:53, Luk 2:7, Luk 6:20, Luk 12:15-34, Luk 16:9-25). See Introd. p. 27.
“Come ye who find contentment’s very core
In the light store
And daisied path Of poverty,
And know how more
A small thing that the righteous hath
Availeth, than the ungodly’s riches great.”
Cov. Patmore.
“This is indeed an admirably sweet friendly beginning…for He does not begin like Moses…with command and threatening, but in the friendliest possible way with free, enticing, alluring and amiable promises.” Luther.
for yours is the kingdom of God ] St Matthew uses the expression “the kingdom of the heavens.” The main differences between St Matthew’s and St Luke’s record of the Sermon on the Mount are explained by the different objects and readers of these Gospels; but in both it is the Inaugural Discourse of the Kingdom of Heaven.
(i) St Matthew writes for the Jews, and much that he records has special bearing on the Levitic Law (Luk 5:17-38), which St Luke naturally omits as less intelligible to Gentiles. Other parts here omitted are recorded by St Luke later on (Luk 11:9-13; Mat 7:7-11).
(ii) St Matthew, presenting Christ as Lawgiver and King, gives the Sermon more in the form of a Code. Kurn Hattin is for him the new and more blessed Sinai; St Luke gives it more in the form of a direct homily (‘yours,’ &c., not ‘theirs,’ Luk 6:20; Mat 5:3; and compare Luk 6:46-47 with Mat 7:21; Mat 7:24).
(iii) Much of the Sermon in St Matthew is occupied with the contrast between the false righteousness the pretentious orthodoxy and self-satisfied ceremonialism of the Pharisees, and the true righteousness of the Kingdom which is mercy and love. Hence much of his report is occupied with Spirituality as the stamp of true religion, in opposition to formalism, while St Luke deals with Love in the abstract.
(iv) Thus in St Matthew we see mainly the Law of Love as the contrast between the new and the old; in St Luke the Law of Love as the central and fundamental idea of the new.
For a sketch of the Sermon on the Mount, mainly in St Matthew, I may refer to my Life of Christ, i. 259-264. The arrangement of the section in St Luke is not obvious. Some see in it the doctrine of happiness; the doctrine of justice; the doctrine of wisdom; or (1) the salutation of love (Luk 6:20-26); the precepts of love (Luk 6:27-38); the impulsion of love (Luk 6:39-49). These divisions are arbitrary. Godet more successfully arranges it thus: (1) The members of the new society (Luk 6:20-26; Mat 5:1-12); (2) The fundamental principle of the new society (Luk 6:27-45; Mat 5:13 to Mat 7:12); (3) The judgment of God on which it rests (Luk 6:46-49; Mat 7:13-27): in other words (1) the appeal; (2) the principles; (3) the sanction.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
20-26. Beatitudes and Woes.
This section of St Luke, from Luk 6:20 to Luk 9:6, resembles in style the great Journey Section, Luk 9:51 18:34.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
See this passage fully illustrated in the sermon on the mount, in Matt. 57.
Luk 6:21
That hunger now – Matthew has it, that hunger and thirst after righteousness. Matthew has expressed more fully what Luke has briefly, but there is no contradiction.
Luk 6:24-26
These verses have been omitted by Matthew. They seem to have been spoken to the Pharisees.
Who are rich – In this worlds goods. They loved them; they had sought for them; they found their consolation in them. It implies, farther, that they would not seek or receive consolation from the gospel. They were proud, and would not seek it; satisfied, and did not desire it; filled with cares, and had no time or disposition to attend to it. All the consolation which they had reason to expect they had received. Alas! how poor and worthless is such consolation, compared with that which the gospel would give!
Woe unto you that are full! – Not hungry. Satisfied with their wealth, and not feeling their need of anything better than earthly wealth can give. Many, alas! are thus full. They profess to be satisfied. They desire nothing but wealth, and a sufficiency to satisfy the wants of the body. They have no anxiety for the riches that shall endure forever.
Ye shall hunger – Your property shall be taken away, or you shall see that it is of little value; and then you shall see the need of something better. You shall feel your want and wretchedness, and shall hunger for something to satisfy the desires of a dying, sinful soul.
That laugh now – Are happy, or thoughtless, or joyful, or filled with levity.
Shall mourn and weep – The time is coming when you shall sorrow deeply. In sickness, in calamity, in the prospect of death, in the fear of eternity, your laughter shall be turned into sorrow. There is a place where you cannot laugh, and there you will see the folly of having passed the proper time of preparing for such scenes in levity and folly. Alas! how many thus spend their youth! and how many weep when it is too late! God gives them over, and laughs at their calamity, and mocks when their fear comes, Pro 1:26. To be happy in such scenes, it is necessary to be sober, humble, pious in early life. Then we need not weep in the day of calamity; then there will be no terror in death; then there will be nothing to fear in the grave.
Luk 6:26
When all men shall speak well of you – When they shall praise or applaud you. The people of the world will not praise or applaud my doctrine; they are opposed to it, and therefore, if they speak well of you and of your teachings, it is proof that you do not teach the true doctrine. If you do not do this, then there will be woe upon you. If men teach false doctrines for true; if they declare that God has spoken that which he has not spoken, and if they oppose what he has delivered, then heavy punishments will await them.
For so did their fathers – The fathers or ancestors of this people; the ancient Jews.
To the false prophets – Men who pretended to be of God – who delivered their own doctrines as the truth of God, and who accommodated themselves to the desires of the people. Of this number were the prophets of Baal, the false prophets who appeared in the time of Jeremiah, etc.
Luk 6:27, Luk 6:28
See Mat 5:44-45.
Luk 6:29
See Mat 5:39-40.
Luk 6:30
See Mat 5:42.
Luk 6:31
See Mat 7:12.
Luk 6:32-36
See Mat 5:46-48.
Luk 6:37-42
See Mat 7:1-9.
Luk 6:38
Good measure – They shall give you good measure, or full measure.
Pressed down – As figs or grapes might be, and thus many more might be put into the measure.
Shaken together – To make it more compact, and thus to give more.
Running over – So full that the measure would overflow.
Shall men give – This is said to be the reward of giving to the poor and needy; and the meaning is that the man who is liberal will find others liberal to him in dealing with them, and when he is also in circumstances of want. A man who is himself kind to the poor – who has that character established – will find many who are ready to help him abundantly when he is in want. He that is parsimonious, close, niggardly, will find few or none who will aid him.
Into your bosom – That is, to you. The word bosom here has reference to a custom among Oriental nations of making the bosom or front part of their garments large, so that articles could be carried in them, answering the purpose of our pockets. Compare Exo 4:6-7; Pro 6:27; Rth 3:15.
Luk 6:39
A parable – A proverb or similitude.
Can the blind lead the blind? – See the notes at Mat 15:14.
Luk 6:40
The disciple is not … – The learner is not above his teacher, does not know more, and must expect to fare no better. This seems to have been spoken to show them that they were not to expect that their disciples would go beyond them in attainments; that if they were blind, their followers would be also; and that therefore it was important for them to understand fully the doctrines of the gospel, and not to be blind leaders of the blind.
Every one that is perfect – The word rendered is perfect means sometimes to repair or mend, and is thus applied to mending nets, Mat 4:21; Mar 1:19. Hence, it means to repair or amend in a moral sense, or to make whole or complete. Here it means, evidently, thoroughly instructed or informed. The Christian should be like his Master – holy, harmless, and undefiled, and separate from sinners. He should copy his example, and grow into the likeness of his Redeemer. Nor can any other be a Christian.
Luk 6:41, Luk 6:42
See the notes at Mat 7:3-5.
Luk 6:43, Luk 6:44
See the notes at Mat 7:16-18.
Luk 6:45
This verse is not found in the sermon on the mount as recorded by Matthew, but is recorded by him in Mat 12:35. See the notes at that passage.
Luk 6:46-49
See the notes at Mat 7:21-27.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Luk 6:20
Blessed be ye poor: for yours Is the kingdom of God
Blessedness, rather than happiness, the want of man
It is not merely happiness, whatever our shallow moralists may say, that is the aim and end of our being.
Happiness implies merely the undisturbed enjoyment of the man. It may belong to the child, or to the selfish votary of the world. It may be spoken of the misers gold, or of the successful prizes of ambition, or o! the gilded baubles of social folly. There is no moral meaning in it. But it is blessedness that alone can satisfy the mind and heart, which are living for another end than self; blessedness, which has no hap in it, no chance, no merely outward success. (E. A. Washburn, D. D.)
The spirit of gospel morality
The whole spirit of the gospel of Christ is in these beatitudes. It is at once a religion and a morality. It teaches us the essence of all Christian truth, which is in that real love of God, that is manifest in love of men, and holiness. Yet it is a Divine, a perfect morality. No other faith ever revealed itself in such personal teaching, in such living beauty, not of word, but of character. The Divine humanity of Christ and His religion stands forth here in this code, human yet more than man. If I were to put into language the morality of mankind, I should write the very opposite catalogue of beatitudes: Blessed are the rich. Blessed they who do not mourn. Blessed are the high-minded. Blessed they who hunger and thirst after the selfish gain. Blessed they who need no mercy. Blessed the cunning and cold of heart. Blessed they who win the battle of life. Blessed they who are prudent enough to escape persecution. It is this very excellence which always makes it appear to the mass of selfish men an unreal thing. Take any of those rules, and try for an hour to follow them out in practice, and the end would be that the Christian would be the laughing-stock of the crowd. And what is the inference? Why, the Author and Founder of this kingdom was probably one of the pure-hearted ideal enthusiasts of His time: His religion succeeded doubtless awhile, while it was the faith of a few poor devotees. But in proportion as it entered into the world, it lost of necessity this moral severity; and the Christianity of the Church and the world is little more than a civilized heathenism. We may admire much in the New Testament that is pure and beautiful. But we cannot call its morality a basis in any sense of human conduct, a Divine or authoritative standard for mankind. Such is the argument. And there is much that is plausible in it. It falls in with doubts that sometimes naturally rise in us as we read the gospel. It needs careful thought. For, if it be really so, it is plain that the gospel is no longer a standard of action, and cannot be Divine. Now, I would endeavour so to meet it as to set at rest such doubts, and to convince you that your religion is no gospel of dreamers, but a real, a practical morality for the man and the State.
1. I shall begin by granting freely everything that is fairly said of the Divine, absolute, ideal purity of Christs morality. Nay, I shall claim it as its noblest character. He sets before us the highest ideal of personal conduct. And I maintain that there is no domain, where the mind and will of man are employed, which does not recognize and demand such an ideal. It is so in science. It is only as the man, who holds up before him always the noblest standard of knowledge, a perfection beyond what any has reached, who never acknowledges a limit to his growth–it is he who reaches a stature above the crowd. It is so in art. A Thorwaldsen works in the clay model, conscious that in his mind there is an ideal which guides his fingers as he slowly sees the clay take shape. It is so in social order. And is it not true, is it not far truer, of the moral law of life? There must be, not for the monk in his cell, not for the dreamy recluse, but for the man in his daily sphere, an ideal above the common standard of the world in which he lives. If I shoot my arrow at the mark, I aim above it; and why? Because the necessary power of gravitation will carry it to a degree below the straight line; only the higher aim can guide it aright. If I will reach the bank, I steer above it, because the tide draws the boat downward, and my course is made of the two forces. But this law of physics is as much verified in morals. There are in the atmosphere of the world, in our own weakness, and the weight of selfish passion around us, forces that always drag down the will, the affections, below even the mark of attainable goodness. If there be no nobler aim than the common law of society, the outward fear of justice, the rule of a selfish prudence, it will make us but an inferior character. And thus the religion of Christ gives us the ideal and perfect standard. It plants it in the motive. It claims the pure desire of an unselfish heart. It proves that its truth is Divine, because it does not compromise with our false passions, with our earthly appetites, with our worldly dissimulations.
2. This ideal morality is not unreal, but more real, from this very character. It has entered into every human calling. It has inspired every class of mankind. It has taught the lowliest labourer honest thrift. It has taught, too, the highest humility. It has purified the vices of trade. It has nourished domestic love. It has no less presided over the councils of State than over the private heart. It alone has inspired the enthusiasm of humanity. Even in its extravagances, the gospel of Jesus Christ has been the source of all that is heroic, beautiful, pure, Divine, in mankind. Yet it is no less real. If its tides thus reach by such high water-marks the superhuman power it may at times attain, it is no less in its ordinary flow we are to reckon the breadth of its channel.
3. And thus I reach its noblest witness, in the life of society. Am I told by the sceptic that it is this powerless ideal, this gospel of the anchorite, this lofty yet fruitless morality of a faded age? Bear witness for me, this miracle, grander than all of the New Testament, of Christendom itself. (E. A.Washburn, D. D. )
The upward tendency of gospel morality
We are often told that the tendency of religious teaching is to make men indifferent to social improvement; to urge the poor to submit to false distinctions; to flatter the rich into the idea that they can keep their wealth, if they are charitable in alms. This is not the gospel. There is not a sentiment more contradictory to it. Not a cause of justice, of wise reform, not a true channel of social good it does not enforce; not a false barrier of caste it does not frown upon. It tells the wealthy that he is Gods steward; it tells the poor he is to labour in every honest calling, yet to remember that his aim is the wealth of a pure conscience and a holy life. It makes all men one in the spirit of unselfish equality. It is our disposition, not our position, which makes the real difference between man and man in the standard of the gospel morality. It is the Christian principle of social union. Who has the Christian intellect? It is he who pursues knowledge in the desire, not of personal reputation, but of a truth that shall make the world wiser and happier for his toil; and in that poverty of spirit, whether it be a Kepler studying the stars, or a Raphael painting his Madonna, or a Hooker expounding the laws of his Church, it is a sacred calling. Who is the great man in Christs definition? He who, if God hath made him a ruler in the State, rules in His fear, and loves justice and mercy more than his ambition. It is so in every calling. We may pursue our trade or profession for the noble end of a Christian life, or for money-getting and its rivalries. It is here we want our religion. (E. A.Washburn, D. D. )
Relation of this discourse to the Sermon on the Mount
Men have doubted whether the discourse in Mat_5:1-48; Mat_6:1-34; Mat_7:1-29, is to be regarded as an ampler account of that which begins with this verse. Many passages occur in both. The general scope and purport is the same. Yet, as St. Matthew says expressly that Jesus spake sitting, on the mountain, and St. Luke that He spake standing, and in the plain, it seems not very unnatural to suppose that the one (that given by St. Matthew) was a discourse delivered, as it were, to the inner circle of His disciples, apart from the crowd of outside hearers; the other (that preserved by St. Luke), a briefer and more popular rehearsal of the chief topics of the former, addressed, immediately afterwards, on descending from the hill-top, to the promiscuous multitude. And the formation of the hill which tradition has marked as the Mount of the Beatitudes lends itself naturally to this supposition. For modern travellers have marked, upon its eastern summit, a little circular plain exactly suited for the gathering of a smaller and more select audience; and again, on the lower ridge, between that eastern and another western horn of the same mountain, a larger space, flattened also to a plain, corresponding, it would seem, with singular exactness to the scene described by St. Luke, and to the presence of that larger concourse to which the second and briefer discourse is thus conceived to have been addressed. (Dean Vaughan.)
A description of a poor-spirited man
But now, I say, suppose God hath given grace, yet still there is a great deal of poverty.
1. As, in the first place, That grace thou hast, it hath need of continual supply. There is no Christian can live upon the grace he hath without new supply. God will not trust thee with the stock of grace; it is not in thy hand, but in the hand of Christ: and this is the condition of the strongest godly man in the world; he must go daily and continually to Christ to fetch new supply, or he cannot subsist. And this is the poor condition that we are in-this spiritual poverty even of the saints.
2. The poverty of the saints consists in this: the graces that they have are but small. Thy grace is like a little spark wrapped up in a heap of embers, so that the maid is raking a good while before she can see it. Surely thou art but poor, then.
3. Even those that are godly, they are very poor, for they are always needy. We use to say of a man or woman that is always in want, and always complaining, Surely they are poor people.
4. Their services are very poor services that they do perform.
5. Again, poor are the very saints, the godly, for little temptations doth overcome them; at least, unsettle them and put them out of frame.
6. Poor they are, further, for they have but little ability to help others. (J. Burroughs.)
Poverty of spirit helpful to prayer
Men that are men of estates, and rich men, when they come to a door for business, if so be that they cannot have presently what they desire, away they will go; they will not stand waiting. Why? Because they are rich, and so proud in a suitable way to their riches. But now, one that is poor, and come for an alms, is content to wait, especially if he knows that there is no other door for him to go to at that time; if, indeed, he thinks he may have it at some other door, he will not wait, but if he comes for an alms, and he must have it here or nowhere, he is content then to wait. So those that are truly poor in spirit, they arc content to wait at Gods gates, knowing that there is no other door that they can have their alms only at the gates of God. (J. Burroughs.)
The reason why God regards poverty of spirit
1. The great reason why the Lord hath such regard unto such, it is because this disposition doth best serve the great design that God hath of glorifying Himself in the world, namely, the lifting up of His free grace. God would have His glory from the children of men. But what glory? The lifting up of free grace, that is the glory that God would have above all other. God would have the glory of His power, the glory of His wisdom, the glory of His bounty, of His patience; aye, but that is not the glory that God doth look at most; but that He might magnify His free grace in His Son, that is the glory that God doth most delight in. Now, of all dispositions in the world, this disposition of poverty of spirit is that that serves Gods end and Gods design best; and therefore no marvel though God cloth so much accept of it.
2. Such a disposition makes the soul to be conformable even unto Jesus Christ. Now, when Christ shall see a spirit that hath a conformity to His, Christ looks upon it and saith, Here is one that is conformable to My Spirit. I was willing to be poor; and so is such a one. I was willing to empty Myself, and to be anything for the furtherance of the glory of My Father; and so do I see here such a poor creature that is willing to empty itself of anything that it hath, and is willing to give up itself for the glory of My Father and Me. Oh, blessed are these poor! (J. Burroughs.)
Promises to the poor in spirit
1. The first is this, that God loves to honour those that are willing to debase themselves.
2. That blessedness doth not consist in any worldly thing– Blessed are the poor. There in nothing in this world can make them blessed; it is the kingdom of heaven that must make them blessed. If you would be happy, you must look beyond the world.
3. In that it is said in the present tense, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. From whence the note is this, that the saints of God live not only upon comforts that they shall have hereafter, upon the assurance of what they shall have, but upon present comforts. They have enough for the present to uphold their hearts, in all their poor and mean condition in which they are in respect of the world.
4. That heaven is now to the saints. There is comfort indeed! There is certainly no man or woman upon the earth shall ever go to heaven but such as hath heaven come down to them. First: To open to you what is the meaning of this; what doth Christ mean by the kingdom of heaven? And then, secondly, to apply the kingdom of heaven to such as are poor in spirit.
I. THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. There is the kingdom of Gods power whereby He rules over the world; and then there is the kingdom that He hath given to His Son the Mediator. It is the second kingdom that is here meant. When God had made this world, He Himself reigned over it, and was the King of it. But the world that He made was spoiled with sin, and so God could not have that glory from the world that He made it for. Therefore, the Lord He was pleased to erect a new world, another spiritual, heavenly world, to glorify Himself in in another manner, more spiritual and heavenly than in the former world; and He makes His Son to be the King of that spiritual world–that new world which the Scripture speaks of when it saith, All old things are done away, and all things are become new–which new world is begun in the work of grace in the hearts of the saints, and so carried on till it comes to eternal glory. Jesus Christ, He is the King of that world. Why is it called the kingdom of heaven?
1. It is called the kingdom of heaven because Christ is from heaven, who is the King thereof.
2. In distinction and opposition from or unto the kingdoms of the world.
3. Because that Christ His seat is now at the present in heaven.
4. Because that the way of His government it is spiritual and heavenly, not in an outward way.
5. Because it will certainly bring both soul and body to heaven at last.
There is infinite blessedness in this kingdom of heaven.
1. For it is Christ the Mediator that gives the laws. But in this kingdom of heaven, that is a blessedness that thou hast a law from Him that loves thee more than His life; He was willing to lay down His life for thee that gives thee thy law.
2. The second thing in the blessedness of this kingdom of heaven is this, that Jesus Christ He now rules in the hearts of His saints, by His word and Spirit, a great deal more fully than He did in the times of the law, or in any way can be conceived.
3. All transactions between God and them are in this kingdom, and not to go out of this kingdom. So now, wert thou in the kingdom of Gods power, as He is Creator of heaven and earth, and so rules the world, certainly any offence of thine would be eternal death to thee; and it is so with all those men and women that are, I say, only under the kingdom of Gods power–that is, they are Gods creatures, and God is their Creator, and so they have to deal with God as under the kingdom of His power; if they offend as creatures, God in that kingdom deals in a way of exact justice, so as to punish with death upon every offence. But now a believer brought into another kingdom, the kingdom of the Messiah, there he comes to have other privileges; so that when a believer offends he doth not go to answer in that court of His–to wit, the kingdom of His power–but he is to answer before the court of Jesus Christ, and Christ is to be the judge, and Christ He is to deal with them in that administration of His that He hath received from the loather, and so comes a believer to stand with comfort before God, notwithstanding all his offences and weaknesses, for the transaction is between God and Him within this kingdom, and not without it.
4. And then, further, from hence thou hast protection. Though thou beest poor and mean in thyself, thou hast Jesus Christ the Son of God that undertakes to protect thee, to deliver thee from evil, and to supply thee in all thy wants; that is the work of a king.
5. In this kingdom Christ undertakes to subdue all the enemies that are against thy spiritual and eternal good.
6. He, as a king, gives ordinances and gifts and administrations. All the ordinances, gifts, and administrations of the Church, they are given by Jesus Christ as the King of it, and thou that art poor in spirit, thou has right to them.
7. All the world is brought into subjection to this kingdom.
8. For this will bring thee at length to reign with Christ. (J. Burroughs.)
Comfort to the poor in spirit
1. Consider He that is the King of this kingdom of heaven, He was poor Himself; your King was poor.
2. Consider this, Christs poverty it was to sanctify your poverty.
3. This kingdom of heaven, it is so ordered out for the most part, that the poor in the world are the subjects of this kingdom.
4. The Lord hath so ordered things that the great transactions of this kingdom of heaven–that hath been opened unto you–hath been carried on by those that are mean and poor, not by the great ones of the world.
5. Hence follows, therefore, in the fifth place, that poverty it is no hindrance to the highest degree in this kingdom of heaven. Indeed, poverty it is a hindrance to degrees in the honours of a worldly kingdom.
6. Even those that are outwardly poor, if godly, they have right to all things in this world so far as may be good for them. It is said of Abraham Rom 4:13) that he was the heir of the world.
7. In this kingdom are spiritual riches that may countervail to the full, and are infinitely good beyond all outward riches.
8. And then from all these follows, that hence the great temptations that those that are poor people are troubled withal may from the consideration of the blessing of the kingdom be taken away.
What are they?
1. As, first, I am afraid that God goes out against me, and doth not bless me in anything that I go about; and so they are afraid, and under great bondage.
2. The second is, I am in a poor condition, and therefore despised.
3. And then a third temptation is, they are useless in the world. Nay, this text will answer this temptation, Thine is the kingdom. (J. Burroughs.)
Our Lords first text
A fitting text for Christs first sermon, for He came to this earth to bless. His life was a life of blessing; His one thought how He might bless others, make others happy. He died to bless, and His arms outstretched on the cross, His hands wide open, told how He yearned to bless to the last. He rose to bless, and with words of blessing He greeted those who mourned Him as dead. And when He ascended, He was still true to the work of His life, for the last His disciples saw of Him as He disappeared, were His hands outstretched in blessing. And still He lives to bless; on high He ever liveth to make intercession for souls; here on earth He draws nigh to bless in every Sacrament, in every act of worship, in each meditation, in each sermon, in each hour of prayer, always present by His Spirit to bless.
I. HAPPINESS WAS THE END FOR WHICH MAN WAS CREATED. Gods intention for man was a life of beatitude. From God there came to him nothing but blessing. That the curse took the place of the blessing, misery of happiness, was not Gods work, but mans, in abusing the power of freewill. But God would not leave man in his self-wrought misery. And so Jesus came to take away the curse of sin, and to bless mankind.
II. THIS BLESSEDNESS CAN ONLY BE OURS ON CERTAIN CONDITIONS,
1. It is a blessedness to be found in God alone. To reach it, we must climb. Above the city of Edinburgh there is a great rock, overhanging it like a crouching lion. It is a dim, misty, foggy day, such as sometimes envelopes even the modern Athens of the North. We leave the busy streets, go out of the town, and find ourselves on the path which leads up the side of Arthurs seat. We have hardly taken a few steps ere we feel the mist is thinner, and we breathe more easily. Still we climb on, for the top is far above us; we can see it through the fog above us standing out sharp and clear against the sky. Still we climb, and the air becomes at every step more keen and bracing, and our lungs drink it in more freely, until at last we stand on the summit in the brightness of Gods sunshine, while at our feet lies the city buried in the mist. Cannot you read the parable? We are always seeking for happiness; we cannot help it. It is a craving of our being as irresistible as that of hunger or thirst. It will not be crushed out or destroyed. And there are times when we think we have attained to it, and we laugh and sing as we stand in the sunshine. But it is short-lived. The mist creeps over us again, we shiver as we feel its cold dampness, and we murmur and complain in our disappointment. What is wrong? Ah! we have forgotten to climb. We have thought to find what we want on earth, apart from God, and we have failed, as thousands of souls have failed before us.
2. Jesus tells us this blessedness may be ours now. He speaks of the beatitudes in the present tense. Some people will tell us that the innocent joys of earth, the pure affections of home, the pleasures of the intellect, the beauties of nature or art, are only as the fading tints of the sunset, or the falling golden autumn leaves. Ah! but they forget that there is a Power which will fix these fleeting colours, permanize these passing joys. Use them as God intends, as guide-posts to Himself.
3. But Jesus tells us this blessedness is hereafter too. If He speaks in the present tense, He speaks still more in the future. Yes, it must be so, for true blessedness is in God, in God known and realized; and here we see through a glass darkly, here we know only in part; it is yonder that in a fuller knowledge of God we shall find a fuller blessedness.
4. Blessedness can never be selfish. No one can be happy save as he seeks to share his happiness with others.
5. There are degrees of blessedness. It is a mountain which we have to climb. (C. J. Ridgeway, M. A.)
True happiness
Beatitude is the perfect being of every creature. It is that condition in which there remains nothing to be desired, nothing to be obtained.
I. MAN WAS MADE EXPRESSLY FOR THIS PERFECT BEATITUDE. It is because he was created for it, that his whole life is spent in the pursuit of it. The human soul must strain after happiness, it cannot help doing so, for happiness is its necessary object. It seeks it with the energy with which the stone detached from the mountain rolls to its foot, drawn by gravitation. Not only so, but the sinner himself, in all his errors, seeks happiness. He is mistaken in the place where he seeks, but it is happiness which he seeks; and when he find out that he has not obtained that which he desired, he falls back into disgust, and gropes for it elsewhere. The traveller in the desert rushes forward when he sees the mirage, thinking it water, and plunges among sand-hills; he is mistaken in looking for water there, but it is a true thirst which has impelled him towards the spot.
II. EVERYTHING THAT IS GOOD AND BEAUTIFUL, IN THIS WORLD IS GOOD AND BEAUTIFUL BECAUSE IT DERIVES ITS GOOD AND BEAUTY FROM GOD. Riches, pleasure, gaiety, &c., arc not evil in themselves, but only when sought as final ends, without thought of God. When they are sought as sources of happiness, and not as reflections of the perfections which are in God, then they are evil. The creatures which God made arc good, but if we content ourselves with loving and devoting ourselves to the creatures, we are falling away from the Creator. A great bishop and doctor of the Church (Bellarmine) wrote a very lovely book, called The Ascent of the Mind by the Ladder of the Creature to God. The creatures of God are guide-posts to God, not goals to which we are to run, and at which we are to lie down to rest.
III. PERFECT HAPPINESS OR BEATITUDE IS ONLY TO BE FOUND IN GOD. All secondary good things are imperfect because they are created, and for the same reason they are not imperishable. The soul must have that which is perfect and enduring. What is perfect and enduring is in God alone. (S. Baring-Gould, M. A.)
Christs standard and the worlds
How thoroughly Christs conception of blessedness contradicts the popular estimate of happiness. This Preacher seems studiously to reverse the worlds judgment. He frames His words so as to fly in the face of public opinion and the consent of men. This startling contradiction between Christ and the world rests on a radical difference in their way of looking at human life. They do not mean quite the same thing with their beatitudes. It is of condition the world is thinking; Christ of character. When society claps hands to the cry, Oh, Felix! Oh, lucky fellow! Oh, rare success! it is the fortunate circumstances of a mans lot of which society is thinking. It is the blessedness of having a great deal of money, of being always comfortable, of being environed with what may minister to pleasure, and able always to command what one desires–it is this blessedness of condition which society crowns with its beatitudes, and to which men pay the tribute of enjoying it. Alas for this blessedness, which is outside the man; the blessedness of circumstance, and accident, and transient condition; the blessedness which Times scythe mows down like grass to be cast into the oven! Not condition does Jesus bless, but character. The happy man is the good man. Not what a man has, but what he is, is the ground of his blessedness. (J. Oswald Dykes, D. D.)
Gods grace is the source of blessedness
The ground of blessedness is not made by our Lord to rest in the possession of character itself, but in that promised grace of God of which character is the condition. Some of the qualities here (Mat 5:1-48.) called blessed might seem even to us to be their own reward. We can understand how it should be a blessed thing to be merciful, or pure, or pacific, though no promise were attached to these states of heart at all. With others it is not so. It is not in itself a good thing to be poor, or to mourn, or to hunger; but for us it becomes good, because otherwise we cannot be enriched, or comforted, or filled. Here the blessing is plainly not in the state of heart, but in that appropriate Divine gift which meets and answers such a state of heart. In every ease, therefore, there is a deeper Divine reason for the blessedness, which Christs eye sees, where mans sees none. The sum of all the blessings which are here dropped along the course of a Christians life, or rather, that comprehensive blessing which opens out as a man needs it into many forms: which becomes to the mourner comfort, to the meek inheritance, food to the hungry, and mercy to the merciful; which gives to the pure-hearted the vision of God, and adoption to the peace-makers: this inclusive formula of beatitude is the kingdom of heaven. (J. Oswald Dykes, D. D. )
The distinctively Christian character of the beatitudes
The beatitudes may be truly regarded as an exposition of morality purely Christian; and in attempting to make some examination of them, we are to consider ourselves as being under the full light of Christian truth and grace, not dealing with abstract or general morality, but with that which belongs to Gods saints in the Church of Christ, and is only possible to them–and to them possible only by the help of that Holy Spirit of whose blessed influence the saints arc permitted to drink in the Church. (Bishop Moberly.)
Passive virtues first
Mark how Jesus puts passive virtues in the foremost place. We can easily understand why He does this.
1. They are the foundations on which alone the superstructure of the active virtues can be built.
2. They are out of sight, and therefore are easily overlooked, their importance forgotten.
3. They were little thought of in the days when Jesus lived on this earth. (C. J.Ridgeway, M. A.)
St. Lukes version of the Beatitudes
In Lukes version of the Beatitudes they seem to refer to literal poverty, hunger, and sorrow. If the question be asked which of the two forms is the most original, our judgment inclines to that of Luke. Speaking generally, the more pregnant, kernel-like form of any saying of Jesus is always the more likely to have been that actually used by Him. Then the very breadth of the announcements in Luke is in favour of their being the authentic utterances of Jesus. It is intrinsically credible that He had something in His doctrine of happiness for the many, for the million; some such words as Luke puts into His mouth. The poor in spirit, the mourners for sin, the hungerers for righteousness, are a very select band; only a few of them were likely to be found in any crowd that heard Jesus preach. But the poor, the hungry, the sad, are always a large company; probably they embraced nine-tenths of the audience to which the Sermon on the Mount was spoken. Had He nothing to say to them; to catch their ears, and to awaken hopes in their heavy-laden hearts? Who can believe it that remembers that in His message to John Jesus Himself described His gospel as one specially addressed to the poor? We may, therefore, confidently assume that the Preacher on the Mount began His discourse by uttering words of good cheer to those present, to whom the epithets poor, hungry, sad, were applicable, saying, in effect, to such, Blessed are ye whom the world counts wretched. It was a strange, startling laying, which might need much exposition to evince its truth and reasonableness, but it was good to begin with; good to fix attention, provoke thought, and awaken hope. Proceeding now to consider the import of these surprising declarations, we understand–
1. That our Lord did not mean to pronounce the poor, hungry, and weeping blessed, simply in virtue of their poverty, hunger, and tears.
2. The connection between these classes and the kingdom of heaven and its blessings is not quite so immediate. Yet Christ was not mocking His hearers with idle words. He spoke gravely, sincerely, having weighty truths in His mind, every one of which much concerned the children of want and sorrow to know. One of these, the most immediately obvious, was that the classes addressed were in His heart, that He cared for them, sympathized with them, desired their well-being; in a word, that He was the poor mans Friend. This at least is implied in the opening sentence of the sermon, Blessed are ye poor. The mere fact that this was the opening sentence was most significant.
3. But Jesus meant to say more than this to the poor and sorrowful; more than, I feel for you; or, The bliss of the kingdom is possible for you. He meant to say this further; Just because ye are poor, and hungry, and sad, the kingdom of heaven is nearer to you than to others. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.)
Christs paradoxical teaching
He who taught in parables taught also in paradoxes. His thoughts are not our thoughts. It is as though He had said, Happy are the unhappy, honourable the dishonoured, great the little, and rich the poor. Well, we must follow Him. We must learn His language, we must judge His judgment, if we would ever rejoice in His salvation. (Dean Vaughan.)
The title to the kingdom
Surely this first opening of His mouth in systematic teaching was at once a gospel. The more we are poor, the more we are rich! O blessed and life-giving announcement to the sorrowful and self-despairing! Your sense of poverty is the very title-deed of your kingdom. (Dean Vaughan.)
The possession of the kingdom
The kingdom is theirs. Theirs already, by a right all their own. In this life they possess it. For they, alone of all men, live their citizenship. They know that without their King they are beggars; without their franchise they are outlaws; without their home above, they are houseless and shelterless and comfortless exiles. Whatever others can do, they cannot do without their kingdom. They declare plainly, at each step of lifes journey, that they are seeking a country. And therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He hath prepared for them a city. And as they get nearer to its golden gates, and have nothing between it and them but that narrow stream of death which a Saviour once crossed for them, it may well be that the ownership of which the text speaks becomes at last scarcely more a faith than a sight; they can catch the very sounds of the heavenly song, and discern the bright forms of those who were once faithful unto death, and now follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. (Dean Vaughan.)
The kingdom for the poor
The kingdom of God comes down to meet the sinner as low as is at all possible; asks the very least; takes us up just where sin and the law left us, stripped and wounded; and at the outset, when a man is at his poorest, it enriches him with its royal riches. Are you only poor? There is no question yet about what some human teachers are ready enough to put foremost, express or vehement mourning for sin. The seed of that, indeed, is in poverty of spirit. But anxious souls often impede their own coming to Christ, by exacting of themselves a certain keenness of feeling, so much heaviness of heart, or so many tears. Be content. Mourning will come soon enough in the order of Jesus. It is not our poverty by itself, but Gods grace to us in our poverty, which makes sorrow flow. Jesus asks not for tears before He will bless; He asks only poverty. If you are so poor in grace that you cannot mourn, cannot hope or hunger as you would, can hardly pray, can only stand in dumb, desolate spiritual want before God, then you are poor enough. Poor enough to bring nothing but empty hands to God, and an empty heart; poor enough to take the heavenly kingdom as a gift from the most rich and bountiful Lord of it; poor enough to have a simple accepting faith when He says, It is yours! (J. O.Dykes, D. D.)
Poverty runs through every act of spiritual citizenship
Poverty of spirit runs through every act of citizenship; it is the secret of its beginning, continuance, and final fruition. It is the secret of entrance into the kingdom, for it is the very essence of baptism. We bring the infant to be baptized because it is nothing, has nothing, can do nothing, and therefore we ask God, of His great mercy, to make the child an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. It is the secret of perseverance, for poverty of spirit is the only fitness for the right use of every means of grace. In confirmation, he who comes urges this as his plea, I am weak, strengthen me by Thy Spirit, O my Father. In holy communion the communicants pray, We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under Thy table. In prayer our very posture reminds us that we are suppliants at the throne of grace. In every effort after holiness the Masters words are ever sounding in our ears, Without Me ye can do nothing. In every work of love we can only hope it will be accepted with the words, She hath done what she could. In every almsgiving we must say with David, All things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee. And in final blessedness the attitude of the redeemed tells us that poverty of spirit belongs to the subjects of the heavenly kingdom, for see, they fall on their faces and cast their crowns at the feet of Him who sitteth upon the throne; and this is the song they sing, Thou art worthy, etc. (Rev 4:11). (C. J. Ridgeway, M. A.)
How poverty of spirit may be attained
We cannot attain humility by directly striving to become so; it must be caught by guile, not taken by storm. It can be ours only by the power of faith. What is faith? It is the eye of spiritual sight by means of which we see God. This is what we need, is it not? We make a false estimate of life; we miscalculate ourselves and what we are; we weigh with false scales what we have; we measure with an imperfect standard what we do; we go on our way deceived as to the true value of all around us by the mists of the valley through which we are journeying; we neglect to climb, to try to get into the clearer atmosphere where God is; nay, we forget God, we leave Him out of our lives, we neglect to give Him His rightful claim; even in our acts of worship He is sometimes absent from our thoughts. And so it must be with us to the end of life, unless by Gods help we attain to the spirit of recollectedness of Gods presence, in the power of which David sang, I have set God always before me; for He is on my right hand, therefore I shall not fall. Remember, this faith is ours already. It is Gods gift to each one of us in our baptism. But it needs to be exercised, developed, trained by use; left alone it will grow weak until it dies. (C. J. Ridgeway, M. A.)
Poverty favourable to piety in early times
The word poor admits of different degrees of extent. Being here opposed to the word rich in Luk 6:24, it probably includes vaguely all who are not usually called rich. It will naturally be asked, How can such persons be declared blessed, or happy, or fortunate? Can any happiness arise from mere indigence? No, certainly, if we mean by happiness present feelings of pleasure. But might there not be circumstances attending indigence which might lead to beneficial consequences, or future happiness? That this is the meaning of our Saviour is evident from what is added: For the kingdom of God is theirs. What, then, are we to understand by this? All that we can conclude is, merely that there were certain circumstances in the condition of the poor that would dispose them to receive the invitation of Christ more willingly than the rich. A rich man would not be inclined to make those sacrifices, and to expose himself to those sufferings to which all Christians, during the first ages, were liable. On the other hand, it was comparatively easy for a poor man to become a Christian; for he could lose little in this world, and would gain much in the world to come. (J. Thomson, D. D.)
Our Lords love of poverty
Let us see how Jesus by His example and word teaches the love of poverty, and wherein that poverty consists which He loves so tenderly.
I. His EXAMPLE. No one of us has chosen the circumstances of his birth. One is born in a poor hut, another in a magnificent palace. Our Saviour, being God as well as man, could have surrounded His human nature with a splendour surpassing human powers of conception. He who so clothes the lilies of the field that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed as one of them, could have clad His human body in a beauty far transcending that of all the lilies and flowers upon earth. He who created the precious stones and the glittering gold in the veins of the earth, and who gives the sun and the stars their splendour, could have built for Himself a palace, compared with which all palaces of men were mere hovels. But more than the beauty of flowers, more than the gorgeous glitter of diamonds and gold, more than the magnificence of palaces, more than the splendour of the sun, He loved poverty. He would be born as the bride of poverty, and the brother of the poor in spirit. In poverty came the Expected of nations into the world; in poverty He lived all His lifetime; in poverty He died on the cross. His whole life teaches us His love of poverty.
II. His WORD. As Jesus commenced His earthly life with poverty, so His first doctrine preached in His Sermon on the Mount was, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, thus intimating that, unless we be poor m spirit, we are not even able to understand His doctrine. He also pointed out to His disciples in the strongest terms the danger of worldly wealth.
III. THE NATURE OF CHRISTIAN POVERTY. Now the question arises, Wherein does the poverty, without which we cannot be saved, properly consist?
We distinguish four classes of men.
1. The first class comprises those who hart both riches and the love of them. These men are, in most cases, avaricious also. Men of this description are the farthest from Jesus Christ.
2. The second class comprises those who are enamoured with worldly goods, which, nevertheless, they do not possess; those who live in want, but vehemently, and with disquietude, long for the riches of which they are destitute. These men are in a worse condition than those who belong to the former class, for they have only the torment of an ungratified desire.
3. The third class comprises those who, although endowed with worldly wealth, preserve, nevertheless, poverty of spirit; who abound in temporal goods, but make good use of them, and are free from a lasting, vehement, and disquieting attachment to their possessions.
4. The fourth class comprises those who to temporal poverty unite poverty in spirit. Oh! that the poor would recognize how priceless a treasure is hidden in their poverty, if they be content with their condition, and joyfully embrace poverty for the sake of Christ. The world having neither joys nor consolations for those who are poor, doubly unhappy are they who forfeit the blessing belonging to poverty, by discontent and injustice. Christ repudiates them for their wickedness; the world for their poverty. (Bishop Ketteler.)
Music chiefly the inheritance of the poor
It is a curious fact that nearly all the great music of the world has been produced in humble life, and has been developed amid the environments of poverty and in the stern struggle for existence. The aristocracy has contributed very little to music, and that little can be spared without detriment. The enduring music has been the child of poverty, the outcome of sorrow, the apotheosis of suffering. Sebastian Bach was the son of a hireling musician. Beethovens father was a dissipated singer. Cherubini came from the lowest and poorest ranks of life. Gluck was a foresters son. Lulli, in his childhood, was a page, and slept in palace kitchens. Haydns father was a wheelwright, and his mother, previous to marriage, was a cook in the kitchen of Count Harrach. Mozarts father was a musician in humble circumstances, and his grandfather a bookbinder. Handel was the son of a barber and surgeon. Meluel was the son of a cook. Rossinis father was a miserable strolling horn-player. Schubert was the son of a poor schoolmaster. Cimarosas father was a mason, and his mother a washerwoman. Schumann was a booksellers son, and Verdi the son of a Lombardian peasant. Webers father was a strolling actor and musician. Among all the prominent composers, but three were born in affluence–Auber, Meyerbeer, and Mendelssohn.
Joy the inheritance of the poor
The sunniest hearts I have ever found in my pastoral rounds have often been lodged in houses so poverty-stricken and obscure that even the tax-collector never found them. They were people who had very little of this world, but a great deal of the next. They took short views of this life; but long ones of the life to come. Living pretty much from hand to mouth, they learn to trust God a great deal more than their prosperous brethren, who secretly trust–their own bank-accounts and government bonds. The happiest heart I encounter in Brooklyn belongs to an aged cripple, who lives on charity in a fourth storey. She is old and poor, and without relatives, and lost even the power of speech twenty years ago l By dint of hard effort she can make a few words intelligible. But I never saw that withered face distorted by a frown; and a few Sabbaths since, when she was carried in to the communion-table, I looked down from the pulpit into that old saints countenance, and it shone like the face of an angel. She lives every day on the sunny side of Providence, and feeds hungrily on the promises. Jesus knows where she lives. He ofttimes resorts thither. She is one of His hidden ones. That old disciple will not have far to go when the summons comes from her Fathers house. She lives near the gates now, and catches the odours and the music of that marriage supper for which she has her wedding garment on. Would to God that some of the sourspirited, morose, and melancholy Christians of our acquaintance could drop in to that old womans garret occasionally, and borrow a vial of her sunshine! (Dr. Cuyler.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 20. Blessed be ye poor] See the sermon on the mount paraphrased and explained, Matt. 5, 11, 7. Mt 5:1,ffMt 11:1ff, Mt 7:1ff.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
There are many that think that what Luke hath in these verses, and so to the end of this chapter, is but a shorter epitome of what Matthew hath in his 5th, 6th, and 7th chapters, and that both Matthew and Luke mean the same sermon preached at the same time. The things which favour this opinion are,
1. That sermon is said to be preached upon a mountain; this, when he came down and stood upon the plain, by which some understand only a plainer and more level part of the mountain.
2. That very many passages in the remaining part of this chapter are plainly the same with those we find in one of these three chapters in Matthew.
I can hardly be of that mind:
1. Because of the phrase here used,
he came down, and stood in the plain: it seemeth to me hard to interpret that either of the top of the mountain, (which might be a plain), for how then could he be said to come down, or of a plainer place of the mountain.
2. The multitude described there are said to have come
from Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond Jordan. These are said to have come from Judea, Jerusalem, and the seacoasts of Tyre and Sidon. But:
3. Principally from the great difference in the relations of Matthew and Luke.
a) Many large discourses are not touched by Luke, viz. Christs whole discourse in giving a true interpretation of the law, and his discourses, Mat 6:1-34, about alms, prayer, fasting.
b) Secondly, Luke here putteth in three verses together wherein there are woes denounced, of which Matthew saith nothing.
Now though it be usual with the evangelists to relate the same discourses and miracles with some different circumstances, yet not with such considerable differences and variations. Matthew records nine blessednesses pronounced by Christ; Luke but four, and those with considerable variation from Matthew. As for those things which incline some to think it the same sermon, they do not seem to me conclusive. For what they say as to the place, it rather proves the contrary. Matthew saith it was when he had gone up into a mountain, and sat down; Luke saith, he was come down, and stood in the plain. Nor is it more considerable, that most of the passages in this chapter are to be found in the 5th, 6th, or 7th chapter of Matthew; for as they are not here exactly repeated according as Matthew recites them, so what should hinder but that our Saviour at another time, and to another auditory, might preach the same things which concern all men? Leaving therefore all to their own judgments, I see no reason to think that this discourse was but a shorter copy of the same discourse, referring to the same time and company. This being premised, let us now come to consider the words themselves, comparing them with the words recited by Matthew.
Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. Matthew saith, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It is true, neither riches nor poverty bless or curse any man, and none that are poor are blessed if they be proud and high minded, nor any rich man cursed but he that places his portion or consolation in riches; yet Christ here, by the antithesis, seems more particularly to direct his discourse to relieve his disciples discouraged by their poor and low estate in the world, by telling them that, whatever the world thought, they, being his disciples, believing in him, and following him, were in a better condition than those that were rich, and had their consolation in this life.
Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. Matthew saith, Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. The sense is much the same: You that are in a sad, afflicted state (being my disciples) are blessed; for there will come a time when God shall wipe tears from your eyes.
Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Matthew saith, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. It is true, hungering and thirsting are no blessings, but neither are they curses to a truly righteous soul, or a soul that truly seeketh after and studieth righteousness.
Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of mans sake. Matthew saith,
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. It is true the general sense is the same, sufferers for the name of Christ are pronounced blessed; but the words are very different, and here are some species of persecution mentioned that Matthew mentions not particularly.
1. Separating the disciples.
2. Casting out their names as evil.
The separating here mentioned may indeed be understood of imprisonment, or banishment, for persons under those circumstances are separated from the company of their relations and countrymen; but it may also be understood of ecclesiastical censures; and thus it agreeth both with our Saviours prophecy, Joh 16:2, They shall put you out of the synagogues, and with Joh 9:22, where we read of a decree they made, that if any man did confess that Jesus was the Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. There are some who think that the Jews exercised no such power till the time of Ezra, when their governor was but a substitute under a pagan prince, who did not give their conquered subjects a power to put any to death, but left them to exercise any lighter punishments. I cannot subscribe to the judgment of those learned men that think so. For as it is not reasonable, that God left the church of the Jews without that power that nature clothes every society with, to purge out of itself such as are not fit members for it; so it will not enter into my thoughts, that all were to be put to death, of whom God said so often, he, or they, shall be cut off from his, or their, people, as in case of uncircumcision, and not receiving the passover in its time. So as I do not think that the latter Jews derived this practice from a human constitution, but from a Divine law. Now we are told that the Jews had three degrees of this separation: some they merely separated from their communion; others they anathematized, that is, cursed; others they so separated, that they prayed against them, that God would make them examples of his vengeance; and some think (but I judge it but a guess) that these were those sinners unto death, for whom John would not have Christians pray, 1Jo 5:16. Now it is certain that the Jews exercised not the lowest degree only, but the highest, against Christians, and also made it their business by letters, and word of mouth, to reproach them all over the world, Act 28:22. Now Christ pronounces them, under these circumstances, blessed, if they suffered these things for his names sake. This casting out of their names as evil, doth not only signify the blotting out their names out of the rolls of the church, but the defaming of them in the manner before mentioned, which was like to be a sore temptation to the disciples; against which he further arms them, saying,
Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. See Poole on “Mat 5:12“.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20, 21. In the Sermon on theMount the benediction is pronounced upon the “poor in spirit“and those who “hunger and thirst after righteousness“(Mat 5:3; Mat 5:6).Here it is simply on the “poor” and the “hungry now.”In this form of the discourse, then, our Lord seems to have had inview “the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs ofthe kingdom which God hath promised to them that love Him,” asthese very beatitudes are paraphrased by James (Jas2:5).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples,…. Either the whole company of them, or rather the twelve apostles, whom he saw coming to him, and fixing his eyes on them, he sat,
and said; what follows, with many other things recorded by Matthew:
blessed be ye poor; not only in the things of this world, having left all for Christ, but poor in Spirit, as in Mt 5:3,
[See comments on Mt 5:3]:
for yours is the kingdom of God; or heaven, so in Mt 5:3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Blessings and Woes. |
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20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. 22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. 23 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. 24 But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. 25 Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. 26 Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
Here begins a practical discourse of Christ, which is continued to the end of the chapter, most of which is found in the sermon upon the mount, Matt. v. and vii.. Some think that this was preached at some other time and place, and there are other instances of Christ’s preaching the same things, or to the same purport, at different times; but it is probable that this is only the evangelist’s abridgment of that sermon, and perhaps that in Matthew too is but an abridgment; the beginning and the conclusion are much the same; and the story of the cure of the centurion’s servant follows presently upon it, both there and here, but it is not material. In these verses, we have,
I. Blessings pronounced upon suffering saints, as happy people, though the world pities them (v. 20): He lifted up his eyes upon his disciples, not only the twelve, but the whole company of them (v. 17), and directed his discourse to them; for, when he had healed the sick in the plain, he went up again to the mountain, to preach. There he sat, as one having authority; thither they come to him (Matt. v. 1), and to them he directed his discourse, to them he applied it, and taught them to apply it to themselves. When he had laid it down for a truth, Blessed are the poor in spirit, he added, Blessed are ye poor. All believers, that take the precepts of the gospel to themselves, and live by them may take the promises of the gospel to themselves and live upon them. And the application, as it is here, seems especially designed to encourage the disciples, with reference to the hardships and difficulties they were likely to meet with, in following Christ.
1. “You are poor, you have left all to follow me, are content to live upon alms with me, are never to expect any worldly preferment in my service. You must work hard, and fare hard, as poor people do; but you are blessed in your poverty, it shall be no prejudice at all to your happiness; nay, you are blessed for it, all your losses shall be abundantly made up to you, for yours is the kingdom of God, all the comforts and graces of his kingdom here and all the glories and joys of his kingdom hereafter; yours it shall be, nay, yours it is.” Christ’s poor are rich in faith, Jam. ii. 5.
2. “You hunger now (v. 21), you are not fed to the full as others are, you often rise hungry, your commons are so short; or you are so intent upon your work that you have not time to eat bread, you are glad of a few ears of corn for a meal’s meat; thus you hunger now in this world, but in the other world you shall be filled, shall hunger no more, nor thirst any more.“
3. “You weep now, are often in tears, tears of repentance, tears of sympathy; you are of them that mourn in Zion. But blessed are you; your present sorrows are no prejudices to your future joy, but preparatories for it: You shall laugh. You have triumphs in reserve; you are but sowing in tears, and shall shortly reap in joy,” Psa 126:5; Psa 126:6. They that now sorrow after a godly sort are treasuring up comforts for themselves, or, rather, God is treasuring up comforts for them; and the day is coming when their mouth shall be filled with laughing and their lips with rejoicing, Job viii. 21.
4. “You now undergo the world’s ill will. You must expect all the base treatment that a spiteful world can give you for Christ’s sake, because you serve him and his interests; you must expect that wicked men will hate you, because your doctrine and life convict and condemn them; and those that have church-power in their hands will separate you, will force you to separate yourselves, and then excommunicate you for so doing, and lay you under the most ignominious censures. They will pronounce anathemas against you, as scandalous and incorrigible offenders. They will do this with all possible gravity and solemnity, and pomp and pageantry of appeals to Heaven, to make the world believe, and almost you yourselves too, that it is ratified in heaven. Thus will they endeavour to make you odious to others and a terror to yourselves.” This is supposed to be the proper notion of aphorisosin hymas—they shall cast you out of their synagogues. “And they that have not this power will not fail to show their malice, to the utmost of their power; for they will reproach you, will charge you with the blackest crimes, which you are perfectly innocent of, will fasten upon you the blackest characters, which you do not deserve; they will cast out your name as evil, your name as Christians, as apostles; they will do all they can to render these names odious.” This is the application of the eighth beatitude, Matt. v. 10-12.
“Such usage as this seems hard; but blessed are you when you are so used. It is so far from depriving you of your happiness that it will greatly add to it. It is an honour to you, as it is to a brave hero to be employed in the wars, in the service of his prince; and therefore rejoice you in that day, and leap for joy, v. 23. Do not only bear it, but triumph in it. For,” (1.) “You are hereby highly dignified in the kingdom of grace, for you are treated as the prophets were before you, and therefore not only need not be ashamed of it, but may justly rejoice in it, for it will be an evidence for you that you walk in the same spirit, and in the same steps, are engaged in the same cause, and employed in the same service, with them.” (2.) “You will for this be abundantly recompensed in the kingdom of glory; not only your services for Christ, but your sufferings will come into the account: Your reward is great in heaven. Venture upon your sufferings, in a full belief that the glory of heaven will abundantly countervail all these hardships; so that, though you may be losers for Christ, you shall not be losers by him in the end.”
II. Woes denounced against prospering sinners as miserable people, though the world envies them. These we had not in Matthew. It should seem, the best exposition of these woes, compared with the foregoing blessings, is the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Lazarus had the blessedness of those that are poor, and hunger, and weep, now, for in Abraham’s bosom all the promises made to them who did so were made good to him; but the rich man had the woes that follow here, as he had the character of those on whom these woes are entailed.
1. Here is a woe to them that are rich, that is, that trust in riches, that have abundance of this world’s wealth, and, instead of serving God with it, serve their lusts with it; woe to them, for they have received their consolation, that which they placed their happiness in, and were willing to take up with for a portion, v. 24. They in their life-time received their good things, which, in their account, were the best things, and all the good things they are ever likely to receive from God. “You that are rich are in temptation to set your hearts upon a smiling world, and to say, Soul, take thine ease in the embraces of it, This is my rest for ever, here will I dwell; and then woe unto you.” (1.) It is the folly of carnal worldlings that they make the things of this world their consolation, which were intended only for their convenience. They please themselves with them, pride themselves in them, and make them their heaven upon earth; and to them the consolations of God are small, and of no account. (2.) It is their misery that they are put off with them as their consolation. Let them know it, to their terror, when they are parted from these things, there is an end of all their comfort, a final end of it, and nothing remains to them but everlasting misery and torment.
2. Here is a woe to them that are full (v. 25), that are fed to the full, and have more than heart could wish (Ps. lxxiii. 7), that have their bellies filled with the hid treasures of this world (Ps. xvii. 14), that, when they have abundance of these, are full, and think they have enough, they need no more, they desire no more, Rev. iii. 17. Now ye are full, now ye are rich, 1 Cor. iv. 8. They are full of themselves, without God and Christ. Woe to such, for they shall hunger, they shall shortly be stripped and emptied of all the things they are so proud of; and, when they shall have left behind them in the world all those things which are their fulness, they shall carry away with them such appetites and desires as the world they remove to will afford them no gratifications of; for all the delights of sense, which they are now so full of, will in hell be denied, and in heaven superseded.
3. Here is a woe to them that laugh now, that have always a disposition to be merry, and always something to make merry with; that know no other joy than that which is carnal and sensual, and know no other use of this world’s good than purely to indulge that carnal sensual joy that banishes sorrow, even godly sorrow, from their minds, and are always entertaining themselves with the laughter of the fool. Woe unto such, for it is but now, for a little time, that they laugh; they shall mourn and weep shortly, shall mourn and weep eternally, in a world where there is nothing but weeping and wailing, endless, easeless, and remediless sorrow.
4. Here is a woe to them whom all men speak well of, that is, who make it their great and only care to gain the praise and applause of men, who value themselves upon that more than upon the favour of God and his acceptance (v. 26): “Woe unto you; that is, it would be a bad sign that you were not faithful to your trust, and to the souls of men, if you preached so as that nobody would be disgusted; for your business is to tell people of their faults, and, if you do that as you ought, you will get that ill will which never speaks well. The false prophets indeed, that flattered your father in their wicked ways, that prophesied smooth things to them, were caressed and spoken well of; and, if you be in like manner cried up, you will be justly suspected to deal deceitfully as they did.” We should desire to have the approbation of those that are wise and good, and not be indifferent to what people say of us; but, as we should despise the reproaches, so we should also despise the praises, of the fools in Israel.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
And he lifted up his eyes ( ). First aorist active participle from . Note also Luke’s favourite use of in beginning a paragraph. Vivid detail alone in Luke. Jesus looked the vast audience full in the face. Mt 5:2 mentions that “he opened his mouth and taught them” (began to teach them, inchoative imperfect, ). He spoke out so that the great crowd could hear. Some preachers do not open their mouths and do not look up at the people, but down at the manuscript and drawl along while the people lose interest and even go to sleep or slip out.
Ye poor ( ).
The poor , but “yours” () justifies the translation “ye.” Luke’s report is direct address in all the four beatitudes and four woes given by him. It is useless to speculate why Luke gives only four of the eight beatitudes in Matthew or why Matthew does not give the four woes in Luke. One can only say that neither professes to give a complete report of the sermon. There is no evidence to show that either saw the report of the other. They may have used a common source like Q (the Logia of Jesus) or they may have had separate sources. Luke’s first beatitude corresponds with Matthew’s first, but he does not have “in spirit” after “poor.” Does Luke represent Jesus as saying that poverty itself is a blessing? It can be made so. Or does Luke represent Jesus as meaning what is in Matthew, poverty of spirit?
The kingdom of God ( ). Mt 5:3 has “the kingdom of heaven” which occurs alone in Matthew though he also has the one here in Luke with no practical difference. The rabbis usually said “the kingdom of heaven.” They used it of the political Messianic kingdom when Judaism of the Pharisaic sort would triumph over the world. The idea of Jesus is in the sharpest contrast to that conception here and always. See on Mt 3:2 for discussion of the meaning of the word “kingdom.” It is the favourite word of Jesus for the rule of God in the heart here and now. It is both present and future and will reach a glorious consummation. Some of the sayings of Christ have apocalyptic and eschatological figures, but the heart of the matter is here in the spiritual reality of the reign of God in the hearts of those who serve him. The kingdom parables expand and enlarge upon various phases of this inward life and growth.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Lifted up his eyes. Peculiar to Luke. Compare he opened his mouth (Mt 5:1). Both indicate a solemn and impressive opening of a discourse.
Blessed. See on Mt 5:3.
Ye poor. See on Mt 5:3. Luke adopts the style of direct address; Matthew of abstract statement.
Kingdom of God [ ] . Matthew has kingdom of heaven, or of the heavens [ ] , a phrase used by him only, and most frequently employed by Christ himself to describe the kingdom; though Matthew also uses, less frequently, kingdom of God. The two are substantially equivalent terms, though the pre – eminent title was kingdom of God, since it was expected to be fully realized in the Messianic era, when God should take upon himself the kingdom by a visible representative. Compare Isa 40:9, “Behold your God.” The phrase kingdom of Heaven was common in the Rabbinical writings, and had a double signification : the historical kingdom and the spiritual and moral kingdom. They very often understood by it divine worship; adoration of God; the sum of religious duties; but also the Messianic kingdom.
The kingdom of God is, essentially, the absolute dominion of God in the universe, both in a physical and a spiritual sense. It is “an organic commonwealth which has the principle of its existence in the will of God” (Tholuck). It was foreshadowed in the Jewish theocracy. The idea of the kingdom advanced toward clearer defination from Jacob ‘s prophecy of the Prince out of Judah (Gen 49:10), though David ‘s prophecy of the everlasting kingdom and the king of righteousness and peace (Psalms 22,
Luk 6:72through Isaiah, until, in Daniel, its eternity and superiority over the kingdoms of the world are brought strongly out. For this kingdom Israel looked with longing, expecting its realization in the Messiah; and while the common idea of the people was narrow, sectarian, Jewish, and political, yet “there was among the people a certain consciousness that the principle itself was of universal application” (Tholuck). In Daniel this conception is distinctly expressed (vii. 14 – 27; Luk 4:25; Luk 2:44). In this sense it was apprehended by John the Baptist.
The ideal kingdom is to be realized in the absolute rule of the eternal Son, Jesus Christ, by whom all things are made and consist (Joh 1:3; Col 1:16 – 20), whose life of perfect obedience to God and whose sacrificial offering of love upon the cross reveal to men their true relation to God, and whose spirit works to bring them into this relation. The ultimate idea of the kingdom is that of “a redeemed humanity, with its divinely revealed destiny manifesting itself in a religious communion, or the Church; a social communion, or the state; and an aesthetic communion, expressing itself in forms of knowledge and art.”
This kingdom is both present (Mt 11:12; Mt 12:28; Mt 16:19; Luk 11:20; Luk 16:16; Luk 17:21; see, also, the parables of the Sower, the Tares, the Leaven, and the Drag – net; and compare the expression “theirs, or yours, is the kingdom,” Mt 5:3; Luk 6:20) and future (Dan 7:27; Mt 13:43; Mt 19:28; Mt 25:34; Mt 26:29; Mr 9:47; 2Pe 1:11; 1Co 6:9; Revelation 20 sq.). As a present kingdom it is incomplete and in process of development. It is expanding in society like the grain of mustard seed (Mt 13:31, 32); working toward the pervaion of society like the leaven in the lump (Mt 13:33). God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, and the Gospel of Christ is the great instrument in that process (2Co 5:19, 20). The kingdom develops from within outward under the power of its essential divine energy and law of growth, which insures its progress and final triumph against all obstacles.
Similarly, its work in reconciling and subjection the world to God begins at the fountain head of man’s life, by implanting in his heart its own divine potency, and thus giving a divine impulse and direction to the whole man, rather than by moulding him from without by a moral code. The law is written in his heart. In like manner the State and the Church are shaped, not by external pressure, like the Roman empire and the Romish hierarchy, but by the evolution of holy character in men. The kingdom of God in its present development is not identical with the Church. The Church is identified with the kingdom to the dgree in which it is under the power of the spirit of Christ. “As the Old Testament kingdom of God was perfected and competed when it ceased to be external, and became internal by being enthroned in the heart, so, on the other hand, the perfection of the New Testament kingdom will consist in its complete incarnation and externalization; that is, when it shall attain an outward manifestation, adequately expressing, exactly corresponding to its internal principle” (Tholuck). The consummation is described in Revelation 21, 22.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
THE BEATITUDES EXPLAINED V. 20-46
1) “And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples,” (kai autos eparas tous ophthalomus autou eis tous mathetas autou elegen) “And he, while lifting his eyes on his disciples, said;” His church disciples (the kingdom of heaven), whom He had called unto Himself for this address, known as The Sermon on the Mount, Mat 5:1-2, inclusive of Mat 5:1 to Mat 7:29. Luke’s account is more abbreviated than that of Matthew.
2)“Blessed be ye poor” (makario hoi ptochoi) “Blessed are the poor ones,” Mat 5:3, or the poor ones are (exist as) spiritually prosperous ones, among you all, the church disciple body or company whom He later asserted that He chose, as a fruit bearing agency, that companied with and witnessed for Him “from the beginning,” Joh 15:16; Joh 15:26-27; Act 1:20-21.
3) “For yours is the kingdom of God.” (hoti hemetera estin basileia tou theou) “Because yours is (exists as) the kingdom of God,” your company, fellowship, or new covenant House of God, already existing, called out and established, Mar 13:34-35; 1Ti 3:15; Heb 3:15; Heb 3:1-6. Matthew uses the term “kingdom of heaven,” restrictedly, exclusively, and definitively, here to refer to this body of disciples, as the new covenant church that Jesus established, taught, commissioned, and purchased with His own blood, Mat 16:18; Mat 28:18-20; Act 20:28; Eph 5:25.
Luke and the other two Gospel writers used the broad, more general term, “Kingdom of God,” here which includes more than the church, which Matthew definitively calls “The Kingdom of Heaven,” more than thirty times. It is true that “all things are yours,” what God possesses belongs to His church people, in an eventual heir setting, 1Co 3:21-23. This does not mean that all things of God belong to “all the saved,” as Protestantism holds.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES
Luk. 6:20-49.Though various opinions have been held on the subject, the balance of probabilities seems in favour of the supposition that the discourse commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount, recorded by St. Matthew, is given here in a shorter form. It is probable that St. Luke, in placing it after the choice of the twelve apostles, follows chronological order more exactly than St. Matthew, who places it before that event. A strong argument in favour of the identity of the two discourses is to be found in the fact that both evangelists mention the healing of the centurions servant immediately after the delivery of the sermon (Mat. 8:5; Luk. 7:1). It is true that the scene seems to be differently described in the two narratives: St. Matthew speaks of Christ going up into a mountain (or rather, the mountain, i.e. the mountainous region above the Lake of Gennesaret), and St. Luke of His coming down and standing on a level place (R.V.). But there is nothing to forbid us to suppose that Jesus came down from one of the higher peaks where He had been engaged in prayer, and took up His stand where He could best be seen and heardthe place He chose being still on the mountain-side.
Luk. 6:20. Blessed be ye poor.In St. Luke the beatitudes and woes are addressed to the persons, and not uttered concerning them. St. Matthew adds in spirit: there is every reason to suppose that St. Luke refers to literal poverty, it being among those afflicted with it that Christ found most numerous adherents. Of course spiritual qualities of humility and meekness are presupposed as springing from and promoted by poverty. The poor are spoken of frequently in the Psalms in the sense of humble and trustful servants of God. A great deal has been made of the supposed Ebionitism in St. Lukes Gospel as indicated here and in such passages as Luk. 1:53; Luk. 12:15-34; Luk. 16:9-25. But any such tendency is highly improbable: it is utterly inconsistent with the Pauline spirit which may be recognised in the Gospel, and is by no means necessarily implied in the passages referred to.
Luk. 6:22. Separate you.I.e. excommunication or expulsion from the synagogue. Thus early is the separation between Judaism and Christianity foretold. Your name.Either your collective name as Christians (cf. 1Pe. 4:14-16), or your individual name (Alford).
Luk. 6:23. In the like manner, etc.Elijah and his contemporaries (1Ki. 19:10); Hanani imprisoned by Asa (2Ch. 16:10); Micaiah imprisoned (1Ki. 22:27); Zechariah stoned by Joash (2Ch. 24:20-21); Urijah slain by Jehoiakim (Jer. 26:23); Jeremiah imprisoned, smitten, and put in the stocks (Jeremiah 37; Jeremiah 38); Isaiah (according to tradition) sawn asunder, etc. (Farrar).
Luk. 6:24-26.This section is peculiar to St. Luke. Notice that these four woes are in all respects the antitheses of the four preceding beatitudes.
Luk. 6:24. Consolation.Cf. Luk. 16:25. This is a warning addressed to the disciples themselves.
Luk. 6:27.Even in the Old Testament checks had been put upon the spirit of enmity. See Exo. 23:4; Pro. 25:21. We find the teaching of this passage very beautifully reproduced in Rom. 12:17; Rom. 12:19-21.
Luk. 6:28. Pray for them, etc.St. Luke records two great examples of obedience to this preceptin the case of Christ (Luk. 23:34), and of the proto-martyr Stephen (Act. 7:60).
Luk. 6:29. Him that smiteth thee, etc.That we are to act according to the spirit and not merely according to the letter of this rule is evident from our Lords own procedure in circumstances of the kind (Joh. 18:22-23). Cloke coat.Cloak is the loose outer dress, the coat the inner and more indispensable article of dress. St. Lukes order is more logical than St. Matthews.
Luk. 6:32. What thank have ye?What claim to recompense from God?
Luk. 6:35. Hoping for nothing again.R. V. never despairing, and with the marginal note, Some ancient authorities read despairing of no man. The rendering of the A.V. is, however, as good as we can get. Notice that the precepts love, do good, lend hoping for nothing again, correspond to Luk. 6:32-34 respectively.
Luk. 6:36.The best MSS. omit therefore: it is omitted in R.V.
Luk. 6:37. Judge not.I.e. in a harsh, censorious spirit. Cf. with the teaching of the whole verse, Mat. 18:21-35.
Luk. 6:38. Good measure.The figure is evidently taken from measuring corn. Bosom.The loose folds above the girdle served as a pocket.
Luk. 6:39. Ditch.R.V. pit.
Luk. 6:40. Every one that is perfect.Rather, every one when he is perfected (R.V.), i.e. no disciple on passing through the full course of training rises above the teacher from whom he has learned. The figure was evidently one frequently used by Jesus, and is employed to illustrate different aspects of truth. Cf. Mat. 10:25; Joh. 13:16; Joh. 15:20. The general idea of Luk. 6:39-40, is: The blind cannot lead the blind better than he can guide himself: the scholar will not be better than his teacher: the judgment which one sinful man passes on another can never raise the standard of moral excellence in the world (Speakers Commentary).
Luk. 6:41.Notice the two different words behold and perceiveR.V. behold and consider. As it were, he sees at a glance the defect in another, but the most careful observation does not reveal to him his own defects. Mote.A dry twig or stalk, as distinguished from a beam of wood.
Luk. 6:48. Founded upon a rock.A better reading is well builded (R.V.). The reading followed by the A.V. may have been taken from the parallel passage in Mat. 7:25. The point of the figure is often missed: it is not that rock is a good foundation, and earth or sand (Mat. 7:26) a bad (for sand may be a good foundation), but that the one man took pains to get a good foundation, while the other did not, or built at haphazard.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Luk. 6:20-49
The Sermon on the Mount as given in St. Matthews Gospel may be taken as setting forth
(1) the character of the citizens of the kingdom of heaven (Luk. 5:3-16);
(2) the new law that is given to them (Luk. 5:17-39), and the new life which they live, with its duties, aims, dangers, and responsibilities (6, 7). A like general scheme underlies the sermon as reported by St. Luke. In the fuller report of Christs words as given in the first Gospel, the tone is more polemical than in St. Lukeas Christ contrasts the spirituality of the righteousness which He commends to His disciples with the external and artificial righteousness of scribes and Pharisees. (For a full analysis of the Sermon on the Mount in St. Matthews Gospel, see Westcott, Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, p. 386).
I. The dispositions of those who are inclined to enter the kingdom of heaven, and of those who shut themselves out of it.Four beatitudes are announced to the former, four woes uttered against the latter (Luk. 6:20-26).
1. Beatitudes. Those that are in poverty, and live hard, laborious lives, and are crushed down by affliction, if they are under the influence of the spirit of religion, are likely to abound in that humility and meekness which qualify men to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven. The rich and prosperous are apt to be proud and haughty, and harsh in temper. Doubtless the mass of those now listening to Christ belonged to the former class. The beatitudes do not belong to them in virtue of their earthly poverty and misfortunes, but in virtue of their piety. For these were not simply poor men and women, but poor men and women seeking blessings from the Saviour, and thereby confessing their own insufficiency and their reliance upon Him. (So that the gloss in St. Matthews report of the first beatitude, poor in spirit, is not in conflict with the words here.) The evil circumstances of their lives become naturally under Gods blessing a discipline to prepare them for receiving an infinite reward. Their blessedness is partly in the present (Luk. 6:20)they possess the kingdom of heaven, they are enrolled as citizens of it, and have a right to all its privileges; and partly in the future (Luk. 6:21; Luk. 6:23)their present misery will be exchanged for happy outward conditions, their griefs will be exchanged for unending joys, the only misfortunes they will know will be persecution for a time of a kind like that endured by Gods true prophets in all ages, to be followed by a great reward in heaven. In view of what is in store for them they may well be pronounced blessed, in spite of all in their present lot that seems sordid and unhappy.
2. Woes. These correspond exactly to the foregoing beatitudes: over against the poor are set the rich, over against the hungry are the full, over against those that weep are those that laugh, over against those that are hated by the world are those that are loved by the world. The words for ye have received your consolation show us what we are to understand by the rich: they are those who find all their satisfaction in the present life. It is not mere riches that are cursedjust as in the preceding section it was not mere poverty that was blessed. Men like Joseph of Arimatha and Nicodemus, who were rich, were not disqualified for being disciples of Jesus. But as a matter of fact the wealthy and those of high rank, as a class, set themselves against Jesus, and therefore shut themselves out of the kingdom of heaven. The woes now uttered were amply fulfilled in the sufferings that accompanied the overthrow of Jerusalem and the fall of the Jewish state a generation later, and have no doubt reference also to a reversal of lot in a future state (cf. Luk. 16:25). A similar passage is found in Jas. 5:1 ff.
II. A proclamation of the new law by which the society Christ founds is to be governed, and of the spirit by which it is animated (Luk. 6:27-45).The new law or principle by which Christ would have the society He founds to be directed and animated is that of charity or love, and He sets it forth in concrete form (Luk. 6:27-30), and then as an abstract rule.
1. Practical manifestations of charity (Luk. 6:27-30). It is to be more than merely not rendering evil for evil: it is to be a rendering good for evil (cf. Rom. 12:21), or an overcoming evil by good. To every fresh exhibition of malice, a stronger and more intense exhibition of love is to be opposed. Do good, bless, pray for, are ascending degrees of love in its outward manifestationsjust as the words hate you, curse you, despitefully use you, mark increasing degrees of maliciousness. It is to be the source of beneficent actions, and under its influence the Christian ceases, if need be, to insist upon his rights (Luk. 6:29-30). Both to do good unceasingly and to bear wrong unmurmuringly are commended to him.
2. The golden rule (Luk. 6:31). As ye would that men, etc. In its negative form, Do not to others what you would have others abstain from doing to you, the rule has been found in more than one system of morality outside the Christian; but in none does it have the prominent place that Christ gives itin none is it commended to men by an example comparable with His. Further,
3. Christ lays stress upon the disinterestedness of this virtue as compared with ordinary affection (Luk. 6:32-35 a). Ordinary love is quenched by want of sympathy, and naturally seeks a return of kindred feeling. But there is no stain of selfishness or alloy of worldly-wise calculation in the love which Christ commanded and exemplified.
4. He describes the great example of this disinterested love in the Divine love which is shown even to the unthankful and the evil (Luk. 6:35 b, 36). The reward won by manifesting this love is not some external recompense, but it consists in the love becoming purer and more intense, and in the possessor of it sharing the blessedness of Him who is love itself.
5. The effects of this love as manifested towards men: it leads to the formation of merciful judgments concerning the sinful (Luk. 6:37); to generosity and helpfulness towards all, which God will bountifully reward (Luk. 6:38); to ability to guide the erring and correct the faulty,actions which the proud, unloving Pharisees were incapable of performing (Luk. 6:39-42). It is only from a nature that is itself good that these good results can proceed. A proud man cannot teach humility, a selfish man cannot teach charity, any more than a thorn can yield figs or a bramble bush grapes (Luk. 6:43-44). If we are to teach others holiness, we must be holy ourselves: it was the holiness of Jesus that gave Him pre-eminence as a teacher, and His disciples must be like Him if they would continue His work (Luk. 6:45).
III. The necessity for sincerity and thoroughness in discipleship, and the disasters incurred by the opposite faults (Luk. 6:46-49).To hear and not to do the sayings of Christ is to give them intellectual acceptance, but not to allow them to penetrate and govern the whole beingconscience, will, feelings, and conductin short, all that constitutes ones true personality. Our spiritual life is an erection we set up; and if it be not well built, it will fall before the assault of temptation or trial, and will not stand the final test by which the Divine Judge will bring to light the value of our work (cf. 1Co. 3:12-15).
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk. 6:20-49
Luk. 6:20. The Qualifications for the Kingdom of Heavenpoverty, hunger, etc.,we do not possess of ourselves, but Christ imparts them to us by awakening in our hearts, which have grown weary under the pressure of worldly things, the longing for spiritual food. This longing shall in very truth be satisfied. One of the traditional sayings of Christ preserved by Clement is, Will, and thou shalt be able.
Spiritual Poverty.Spiritual poverty, a heart that feels its need, is the first thing that makes us fit for the kingdom of God. He who does not have this first qualification cannot have those that follow. There are many, Augustine says, who would rather give all their goods to the poor than themselves become poor in the sight of God. The source of true humility is found only in Him who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor.
Blessed be ye poor.This is indeed an admirably sweet, friendly beginning of His doctrine and preaching. For He does not proceed like Moses with command, threatening and terrifying, but in the friendliest possible way with pure, enticing, alluring, and amiable promises.Luther.
The Poor inherit the Kingdom.St. James seems to give a paraphrase of this beatitude when he speaks of the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love Him (Luk. 2:5). As a simple matter of fact, the poor seem to have been the class that was most forward to receive the Saviour, and in which He found the most devoted of His disciples (cf. also 1Co. 1:26-29).
Luk. 6:21. Ye that hunger now.An anticipation of this beatitude is to be found in the song of Mary: He hath filled the hungry with good things (Luk. 1:53). Cf. also Psa. 107:9 : For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
Ye that weep now.In the eye of Heaven blessedness begins at the point which, in human estimation, is reckoned the extreme of misery.
Luk. 6:22. Shall hate you.In the manifestation of hatred towards the followers of Jesus a climax is observable.
1. The feeling of dislike.
2. A breaking off of intercourse. 3, Malicious slanders.
4. Excommunication. Cf. Joh. 9:22; Joh. 9:34; Joh. 12:42; Joh. 16:2.
Your name.I.e. the name of Christian. St. Peter alludes to these words in 1Pe. 4:14; 1Pe. 4:16, and St. James in Luk. 2:7, as in Luk. 6:5 of the same chapter he has alluded to Luk. 6:20 of this. Malefic or execrable superstition was the favourite description of Christianity among the Pagans, and Christians were charged with incendiarism, cannibalism, and every infamy (Farrar).
Luk. 6:23. Rejoice ye in that day.A very striking fulfilment of this command, and a statement of the ground on which the joy of the apostles was based, are given in Act. 5:41 : Rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. In several other passages in the New Testament glorying in tribulation is commended as a Christian duty, and various beneficial results are described as flowing from patient submission to suffering for the sake of Christ. See Heb. 11:26; Rom. 5:3; Jas. 1:2-3; Col. 1:24.
Reward in heaven.An indirect hint that they were not to expect too great a reward for their faithfulness in the present life.
Did their fathers, etc.If the empress, said Chrysostom, causes me to be sawn asunder, then let me be sawn asunder, for that was the fate of the prophet Isaiah; if she casts me into the sea, I will think of Jonah; if she casts me into the furnace of fire, I think of the three holy children; if she throws me to the wild beasts, I will think of Daniel in the lions den; if she cuts off my head, I have still St. John as my companion; if she causes me to be stoned, what else happened to Stephen?
The prophets.It is especially noticeable how the Saviour at once places His newly chosen apostles in the same rank with the prophets of the Old Testament, and in the demand that they should be ready for His names sake to suffer shame shows the sublimest self-consciousness. It scarcely needs pointing out how completely the idea that they were to suffer in such society, surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses, was adapted to strengthen the courage and the spiritual might of the apostles.Lange.
Luk. 6:24. Woe unto you.In this passage, as in Mat. 24:19, the words perhaps imply commiseration rather than anger: Alas! for you. In Mat. 23:13-16 the same phrase is used in denunciation of evil-doers.
Rich.Not all the rich, but those who receive their consolation in the worldthat is, who are so completely occupied with their worldly possessions that they forget the life to come. The meaning isriches are so far from making a man happy that they often become the means of his destruction. In any other point of view the rich are not excluded from the kingdom of heaven, provided they do not become snares for themselves, or fix their hope on the earth, so as to shut against them the kingdom of heaven. This is finely illustrated by Augustine, who, in order to show that riches are not in themselves a hindrance to the children of God, reminds his readers that poor Lazarus was received into the bosom of rich Abraham.Calvin.
Received your consolation.For ye, who trust in your riches, and accounting them sufficient for your happiness, neglect the spiritual treasures which I offer you, may be assured that you have received all your enjoyment in this world, and have no ground for expecting any in the world to come. Cf. chap. Luk. 16:25.
Luk. 6:25. Full.Those who possess all that the heart can desire, and do not hunger and thirst after righteousness. The danger in which they stand is that of losing all that they possess at present, and thus of being destitute at once of both earthly and heavenly goods. See again an illustration in the fate of the rich man in the parable, who had been accustomed to fare sumptuously every day, and who found himself both excluded from the heavenly banquet and stripped of those luxuries in which he had placed all his delight.
Laugh.Senseless, frivolous, ungodly mirth is rebuked here as in Ecc. 2:2; Ecc. 7:6; Pro. 14:13. Yet, on the other hand, the Christian is described as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing (2Co. 6:10), and receives exhortations to maintain this spirit of holy gladness (cf. Php. 4:4).
Luk. 6:26. Speak well of you.Cf. Jas. 4:4 : Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Joh. 15:19 : If ye were of the world, the world would love his own.
False prophets.Universal praise from the world is a stigma for the Saviours disciples, since it brings them into the suspicion
(1) of unfaithfulness;
(2) of characterlessness;
(3) of the lust of pleasing. False prophets can ever reckon upon loud applause (Van Oosterzee). Cf. Mic. 2:11 : If a man walking in wind and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink: he shall even be the prophet of this people (R.V.).
Luk. 6:27. Love your enemies.The word here used generally denotes complacency in the character of the one loved, as distinguished from personal affection; but the sense in which it is here employed is that of maintaining kindly feelings and conduct towards another in spite of his enmity. The connection between this precept and the foregoing words is well brought out by Meyer: Yet although I utter against those these woes, yet I enjoin on you not hatred but love towards your enemies. It is therefore no accidental antithesis.
Do good, etc.A climax is noticeable in the precepts which describe the manner in which love to enemies is to be displayed.
1. In deedsdo good.
2. In wordsbless.
3. In prayers for their Welfarepray for them.
A New Departure.Although it cannot be denied that love to enemies is in a certain sense required even by Jewish and heathen moralists, it must yet be remembered that the thought of requiting acts of enmity with devout intercession could only arise in the heart of Him who has Himself prayed for the evil-doers.Lange.
Luk. 6:27-38. Christs Law of Love.A seemingly easy but profoundly difficult section. We must keep in mind
I. That the address is given to Christs own followers.It can neither be understood nor practised by any others. The contrast is between true disciples and sinners who will do nothing but what will bring an immediate reward from men.
II. It is to be obeyed in the spirit, and not in the letter.Christ gives us here some examples of how the true spirit of Christianity is seen. Had He intended these examples to be practised by His followers in literal obedience on all occasions, He would not have been content with merely giving instances. He would have gone over the whole range of possible circumstances, and shown us how to act in every case. But this is impossible, and contrary to the very spirit and essence of Christianity.Hastings.
The Law of Love proclaimed.
I. The extent of love (Luk. 6:27-30).
II. The golden rule of love (Luk. 6:31).
III. The Christians standard of love (Luk. 6:32-36).
IV. Loves reward (Luk. 6:37-38).W. Taylor.
Luk. 6:28. Pray for them.Many imagine what is here commanded to be impossible. But Christ never commands impossibilities; but He prescribes such kind of perfection as was attained by David in the case of Saul, and by Abraham and by Stephen the martyr in praying for his murderers, and by St. Paul in wishing to be accursed for his persecutors (Rom. 9:3).Jerome.
Luk. 6:29. Turn to him, the other also.
I. Do not return blow for blow.
II. Bear the blow in silence.
III. Lovingly lay thyself open to receive another blow.
Public Rights.This precept does not require or permit any one to surrender public rights, which are not his own cloke or coat, much less Christian principles and Christian truth, for which we are to contend earnestly (Jud. 1:3), and of which we are not to divest ourselves; or to allow any one to strip us, for then we should be naked indeed; nor allow any one, as far as in us lies, to strip others, and to rob Christ.Wordsworth.
Luk. 6:30. Give to every manThe promise is made to us by Christ that He will give us whatever we ask for (Joh. 14:14). Yet it is not always literally fulfilled. We do not receive what would be hurtful for us, even if we ask for it; and are often constrained to confess thankfully that our disappointment is better than our wish. So in his humble sphere should the Christian giver act. To give everything to every onethe sword to the madman, the alms to the impostor, the criminal request to the temptresswould be to act as the enemy of others and of ourselves. Ours should be a higher and deeper charity, flowing from those inner springs of love which are the sources of outward actions sometimes widely divergent, whence may arise both the timely concession and the timely refusal (Alford).
Ask them not again.We must remember that we ought not to quibble about words, as if a good man were not permitted to recover what is his own, when God gives him the lawful means. We are only enjoined to exercise patience, that we may not be unduly distressed by the loss of our property, but calmly wait till the Lord Himself shall call the robbers to account.Calvin.
Asketh of thee ask them not again.It is to be noted that in this verse two Greek words are translated ask: the first of them means to ask as a favour, the second to demand as a right.
Luk. 6:31. The Golden Rule.
I. We must consider how we should like other people to treat us, were they in our circumstances and we in theirs.
II. It is not what others really do to us, but what we wish them to do, that should be our rule.
III. That which we wish others to do to us must be lawful and reasonable.
The excellence of the rule is evident from its reasonableness, and its intelligibility, and from the fact that it is readily applicable to all persons in all circumstances. The Saviour gathers up His detailed instructions into a little bundle which every man can put into his bosom and easily carry about with him (Luther). We all love ourselves, and therefore we can all know the love our neighbour requires from us. The natural man loves himself, and that love blinds him to the wants of his neighbours: the Christian loves himself, but that love enlightens him as to what is due to his neighbour.
Luk. 6:32-34. For if ye love them etc.Our Lord means to say that in all these things nothing has been done for the love of God, and therefore no thanks are due. The worlds view of returning love for love is well put by Hesiod: Those who love will be loved in return, and those who visit will be visited in return; he who gives will receive gifts, and he who does not give, will receive nothing. One gives willingly to the giver; but no one to be sure gives to him who refuses to give. In the same way Socrates teaches that it is allowable to cherish a grudge at the good fortune of your enemy, but that envy only consists in grudging the good fortune of a friend. Plato speaks of it as impossible to love an enemy. Such is the wisdom of the heathen.
Luk. 6:35-36. Children of the Highest.Our Father in heaven more than any one else meets with the ingratitude of men, and it should not depress His children on earth to have to experience it also. The great reward which the Lord of love promises to the children of God consists chiefly in this, that they taste the blessedness of being able to love. To give is more blessed than to receive. It is sweet to be loved from the heart, but it is much sweeter and inexpressibly blessed to love with the whole heart. One is more blessed in the love which one feels than in the love which one inspires.
Luk. 6:36; Luk. 6:38. The Christians Duty as Man to Man.
I. The pattern of mercy, of justice, of forbearance and forgiveness, of generosity, which we ought to take.This is the example of Almighty God. Be ye therefore merciful, because the Highest is kind, etc.
II. The rule of Gods government and judgment in matters between man and man.With the same measure, etc. Words well known and familiar, but some of the most awful words in the Bible. For
(1) we feel they must be true, but
(2) we cannot see or guess how they will be carried out.Church.
Luk. 6:37. Judge not.
1. We can only go by appearances.
2. We can never be sure of the motive which has prompted the action in question.
3. We cannot fully estimate the circumstances in which the man was placed whose conduct we arraign.
4. We are only too liable to be influenced by our prejudices, and by considerations of self-interest, and are to a corresponding extent disqualified to act as judges.
Luk. 6:39-40. Blind Leaders of Blind. Note:
I. The presumption of the leaders.
II. The delusion of those who trust themselves to their guidance.
III. The inevitable fate which be falls both.
Luk. 6:40 explains why the fate is inevitable: the disciple, even when perfected, when he has learned his whole lesson, can know no more than his teacher, and the very care with which he follows will ensure his falling into the mistakes his master makes.
Luk. 6:41-42. The Literal and the Figurative Beam.In the physical region a beam in the eye does not sharpen its sight: in morals the case is different. Those who are corrupt in mind are very quick in detecting corruption in others, even in cases where innocence would discover nothing amiss. The man with a beam in his eye has two faults:
1. He does not know the beam to be there.
2. He assumes airs of moral superiority, and carries himself as a judge instead of a brother.
Correcting the Faults of Others.
I. It is a delicate operation to correct the faults of other men.It may be likened to the feat of taking a chip of wood out of an inflamed eye. A clumsy operator may easily make things worse. The case supposed is one of visible and undeniable fault. Still it is a delicate task to judge of it: it is a difficult operation to correct or remove it.
II. Self-ignorance and self-conceit incapacitate one for performing this operation.Most accurate and pungent moral strictures often proceed from men who are quite aware that their own lives will not bear close inspection. Christ strongly disapproves of such conduct.
III. An honest Christian reserves his strictest judgment for himself.Fraser.
Luk. 6:42. Let me pull out the mote.A subtle form of harsh judgment of others is that which assumes the appearance of solicitude for their improvement. Our Lord teaches that all honest desire to help in the reformation of our neighbour must be preceded by earnest efforts at amending our own conduct. If we have grave faults of our own undetected and unconquered, we are incapable either of judging or helping our brethren. Such efforts will be hypocritical, for they pretend to come from genuine zeal for righteousness and care for anothers good, whereas their real root is simply censorious exaggeration of a neighbours faults; they imply that the person affected with such a tender care for anothers eyes has his own in good condition. A blind guide is bad enough, but a blind oculist is a still more ridiculous anomaly. Note that the result of clearing our own vision is beautifully put, not as being ability to see the faults of our fellows, but ability to cure them. It is only the experience of the pain of casting out a darling evil, and the consciousness of Gods pitying mercy as given to us, that make the eye keen enough, and the hand steady and gentle enough, to pull out the mote.Maclaren.
Luk. 6:43-45. Good and Bad Fruit.Christ here speaks of the inner naturethe heartof man and of its outward manifestations, and asserts that in all cases the inner is the maker of the outward. A good heart will infallibly reveal itself in holiness of word and deed: in like manner an evil heart will disclose itself, in spite of all hypocritical attempts to conceal the true state of matters. We have here therefore
I. A law which is bound up with the nature of things, and which we cannot control; and
II. A test of character of the most stringent yet most reasonable kind.
Luk. 6:46. Why call ye Me, Lord? etc.Acknowledgment of Christs authority is to be accompanied by obedience to His commandments.
Four Classes of Men may be described by their Relation to Christ.
I. There are those who neither call Him Lord, nor do the things which He says.
II. There are those who call Him Lord, but do not the things which He says.
III. There are those who do not call Him Lord, but do the things which He says.
IV. There are those who both call Him Lord and do the things which He says.
Luk. 6:47-49. The Wise and the Foolish Hearers.The point of the contrast between the two men in the parable is not, as often supposed, in the selection made of a foundation on which to build. The contrast is that between two men, one of whom makes the foundation a matter of deliberate consideration, while the other never takes a moments thought about a foundation, but proceeds to build at haphazard, on the surface, just where he happens to be. St. Luke brings this out clearly by saying that the latter built without a foundation. The one builder is characterised by considerateness and thoroughness, the other by inconsiderateness and superficiality. Two points of difference between the two builders are clearly hinted at:
I. The wise builder has a prudent regard to the future.He anticipates the coming of storms, and he aims at being well provided against them. The foolish builder, on the contrary, thinks only of the present. If all is well to-day, he recks not of to-morrow, and of the storms it may bring.
II. The wise builder does not look merely to appearances.The question with him is not, What will look well? but, What will stand, being founded on the rock? The foolish builder; on the other hand, cares for appearances only. His house looks as well as anothers, so far as what is above ground is concerned; and as for what is below ground, that, in his esteem, goes for nothing.
The man who has regard to appearances only never considers the future: he acts from impulse, imitation, and fashion, and the use of religion as a stay in temptation and trouble is not in all his thoughts. With the genuine disciple religion is an affair of reason and conscienceof reason looking well before and after, and of conscience realising seriously moral responsibility. The spurious, too, look only to what is seen, the outward act; the genuine look to what is not seen, the hidden foundation of inward disposition, the heart-motive, out of which flow the issues of life. The outward acts of both may be the same, but the motive of the one is love of goodness, that of the other is vanity. While we can on paper discriminate between these two classes, it is a difficult and delicate task to discern and judge between them in real life. We can only judge by appearances, and are apt to think better of the pretender than of the genuine man, for the former makes appearances his study. False disciples often gain golden opinions, when true disciples, with their faults all on the surface, are of little account.
The elements decide as to the merits of the two builders. By these are meant times of severe trial, the judgment days which overtake men even in this world occasionally, and in which many fair edifices of religious profession go down. The forms in which the trial may come are very diverse. There are trials by outward calamities, by religious doubt, by sinful desirestrials in business, by commercial crises and the liketrials by tribulations, such as overtake professors of religion in evil times. The thing to be laid to heart is that trial, in one form or another, is to be expected. It will come, and may come suddenly.Bruce.
The Wise Builder and the Foolish.An admonition for all who read Christs words as much as for those who originally heard them. The peroration of His sermon employs a double illustration, which must have told with graphic power on an audience accustomed to the sudden tempests and sweeping floods of the climate of Juda.
I. The two builders.To the first is likened the obedient hearer of the words of Christ. Those who follow Him are believers, as He is their Saviourdisciples, as He is their Teacher. To the second is likened the disobedient hearer of the words of Christ. He listens, and seems to honour and approve, yet does not keep or do the word. How frequent are such builders in every Church!
II. The day of trial.In fair weather the two houses are equally safe. The day of storm reveals the difference. In the Day of Judgment all hollow discipleship will be exposed. How great the fall! How piteous the ruin!Fraser.
The Two Houses, and their Fates.These words apply to all the subjects of the kingdom, and not to teachers only. Obedience is the only safety. We are all builders. The houses we build are our characters. The underground work is the main thing in estimating stability. No house is stronger than its foundation. Real building on Christ is practical obedience to His commandments. Only such a life is firm whatever storm comes. There are lives which look like true Christian lives, and are not. One little not expresses the awful contrariety in the experience of two builders whose houses it may be stood side by side for years. So the sermon ends, burning these two pictures into our imagination.Maclaren.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Butlers Comments
SECTION 3
Moral (Luk. 6:20-26)
20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:
Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied.
Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh.
22 Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man! 23Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
24 But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation.
25 Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger.
Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
26 Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
Luk. 6:20-23 Weal: Weal means blessing. Jesus pronounced certain blessings on citizens of His messianic kingdom. But before we deal with the beatitudes of this sermon we must briefly look at reasons for assuming this is the same sermon recorded in Matthew, chapters 5, 6 and 7, called The Sermon on the Mount. The student will immediately recognize there are both similarities and differences in the two records. Note the following:
a.
They begin and end the same way following the same general order in the rest of the sermon.
b.
It is altogether feasible that they are chronologically in the same time slot (see comments above on Luk. 6:17-19).
c.
Matthew, writing for Jews, would naturally stress certain elements of the Mosaic law in relation to the nature of the messianic kingdom, but such matters would be of little interest to Lukes gentile patron, Theophilus, so he omits this.
d.
It is possible that Matthew, gifted at recording data, and an eyewitness to the Sermon, made a verbatim account while Luke, depending on eyewitnesses years after the fact (see Introduction) got only a summarization.
e.
While Matthew says Jesus went up on a mountain and indicates the Sermon was delivered there, Luke says He came down to a level place and preached it. The level place of Luke could be some plateau or natural amphitheater part of the way down the mountain.
f.
If it be urged that Matthew places the Sermon earlier in time, we reply it is evident that Matthew is not so much concerned with chronology as with topical arrangement. He has probably done so with this Sermon, placing it in an early part of his document as an example of Jesus matchless preaching and as the keynote sermon of His messianic ministry, Luke has the chronological arrangement.
The four beatitudes summarize what a citizen of the kingdom of Christ is. They deal with character and being, because Christianity is fundamentally being before it is doing. What a man is must precede what he does in order to please God. That which motivates and controls a man determines whether what a man does is acceptable to God or not. Fasting, praying and giving alms to the poor are good in the eyes of God only if they are motivated from godly purpose.
a.
Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Both Jew and Gentile considered wealth as a sign of Gods approval. Jesus and the apostles taught differently. Poverty within itself is no virtue just as wealth is not necessarily a vice. But poverty may prove to be a blessing in that it may strip a man of self-reliance and make him totally dependent upon God. Matthew says, poor in spirit, but Matthew and Luke are ultimately picturing the same kind of moral character.
b.
Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Those who are poor, of both this worlds goods and of spirit, will be satisfied if they rely on God. Matthew puts it, hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Those simply hungering for more material things will never be satisfied! Hunger or poverty without faith may lead to stealing (cf. Pro. 30:9). But any kind of hunger that creates a need for God will be satisfied, if not here, in heaven.
c.
Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. The same focus applies here too, since there is a sorrow that leads unto death (2Co. 7:10). Those who are poor, hungry and in sorrow, if they believe and do not faint, shall have power to laugh (rejoice) even in the midst of oppressive circumstances because of their hope that in heaven circumstances will be different! Hope for a better life in perfect circumstances after this life is over is the unique heritage of the Christian. It has a motivating power for godliness in this life (1Jn. 3:1-3).
d.
Blessed are you when men hate you . . . on account of the Son of man! The poor are usually oppressed simply because they are poor and powerless. But Jesus offers oppression for His sake as a blessing! There is not much blessedness in being oppressed for any other reason. The Greek word aphorisosin is translated exclude and is from two Greek words, apo, meaning from and horizo, meaning to determine (the latter word in English is horizon) thus the compound word means, to mark off by boundaries. Poor followers of Christ may be cut off from social fellowship, civil rights and privileges others may enjoy. It is possible that affluent Christians might even be guilty of this toward poor Chrisitans (cf. 1Ti. 6:17-19; Jas. 2:1-7). The poor are also slandered (cast out your name as evil). The Greek word ekballo (cast out) was often used by Greek writers for hissing an actor off the stage. But where is the blessedness in being hated for the sake of Christ? Peter, the apostle, who suffered much for Christs sake, tells us in his first epistle:
(1)
If any man suffer as a Christian, it proves he has ceased from sinning, so as to live, by the will of God, 1Pe. 4:1-11.
(2)
If any man suffer as a Christian he is blessed because he knows that God is not doing something strange, that if we share Christs sufferings we will share His glory and that the spirit of glory and the power of God rests upon him because Christ was glorified by suffering for the will of the Father, 1Pe. 4:12-19.
(3)
If any man suffer as a Christian he is safe because it proves he has trusted his soul to a faithful Creator, who cares for him, 1Pe. 4:19 to 1Pe. 5:11.
Therefore, Jesus said, if you are persecuted for My sake, leap for joy. Luke uses the Greek word skirtesate for leap and Matthew uses agalliasthe for exceeding glad and both of these words describe the joyous leaping of a Greek athlete upon winning a victory.
It should be quite clear that we are dealing with principles and practices of living to which only a converted person might surrender. To accede that these ways are profitable and joyous would involve a revolution of ones values! They take the accepted standards of the world and turn them upside down and inside out! Barclay observes, The people whom Jesus called happy the world would call wretched; the people Jesus called wretched the world would call happy. Just imagine anyone saying, Happy are the poor, and, Woe to the rich! To talk like that is to put an end to the worlds values altogether.
Luk. 6:24-26 Woe: There is another side; what of those who reject citizenship in the Messiahs kingdom and its godly morality? What is their future? What shall be their reward?
a.
Woe to you that are rich. The Greek word apechete is translated received. It was used constantly in the first century as a technical expression in drawing up a receipt. Jesus means to say that those who devote all their energies and talents to earning this worlds riches, may get them, but that is all the consolation (Gr. paraklesin, comfort) they shall have. Their wealth will be all the help, comfort and encouragement they shall get. When a man of the world gets the riches of the world he has pursued, God marks his account, paid in full. If that is all they have, their future prospect is woe because this worlds riches are transferrable to the next world only if used for the glory of God and the help of others in this world (cf. Luk. 16:1-9).
b.
Woe to you that are full now. Woe to those who are satisfied with the fulness of this present world. This world will perish but they will not. If they have only the perishable to satisfy them, they will hunger in the next. If it is not truth, goodness, purity, peace, love and God that satisfies them here, they will hunger in the next world.
c.
Woe to you that laugh now. Applebury says, The laughter of the wicked will become the cries of the lost. Although the New Testament does not prohibit Christian fun and laughter, neither does it condone frivolity and foolishnessmuch less the sick and foul humor of the centuries at which most of mankind has laughed. The wealthy and powerful who devote themselves to enjoyment of this world and give not the slightest consideration or compassion to the poor and oppressed are not fit for Christs kingdom. They may laugh now, but when His kingdom is consummated and time is changed into eternity, they will have nothing but woe.
d.
Woe to you, when all men speak well of you. Of course, Christians are to strive for a good reputation among their contemporaries, (Rom. 12:17; 1Ti. 3:2, etc.). What Jesus is talking about here is false flattery. True prophets of old were slandered because they told the truth while false prophets were flattered and praised by those who sought their favor. The Christian will get no flattery or testimonials from those who hate Christ and seek to ruin His church unless the Christian agrees to compromise his integrity and faithfulness.
The New Testament plainly states that the joy of heaven will more than compensate for the trouble of this earth. In fact, it says Christians will receive a glory beyond all comparison (2Co. 4:16-18). The question is: who will believe that promise and so live in this earth as to prepare himself for the next?
Appleburys Comments
The Beatitudes and the Woes
Scripture
Luk. 6:20-26 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed are ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. 22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of mans sake. 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy: for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for in the same manner did their fathers unto the prophets. 24 But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. 25 Woe unto you, ye that are full now! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you, ye that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. 26 Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for in the same manner did their fathers to the false prophets.
Comments
he lifted up his eyes.A speaker normally looks at his audience, but Luke seems to suggest something more when he says that Jesus lifted up His eyes on the disciples. He saw them as men who needed the lesson He was about to give. There were blessings for some but woes for others. All of them must have been aware of the importance of what He was about to say as He swept the audience with His eyes.
Blessed.Only from the context can the rich meaning of the word be grasped. See it in Psa. 1:1 Blessed is the manand there follows the description of the fortunate man who meditates on the Word of God day and night. Jesus spoke of those who were so fortunate as to cause others to long for the same blessed state. Happy seems very limited as a word to carry all that is implied by the word Jesus used.
ye poor.What did the poor of His audience think when He congratulated them and called them fortunate? Usually the poor are to be pitied. Poor in spirit seems to refer to humble people. But Jesus said, according to Luke, blessed are ye poor. It is possible that He intended to speak to those who were literally poor. It was a common thing for the poor to be mistreated by the rich. See Jas. 2:6. Jesus came to preach good tidings to the poor (Luk. 4:18). It can mean the poor in spirit and also the poor in material goods. The principles of the gospel if applied would banish poverty from this world. See Pauls word to the poverty stricken Macedonians in 2Co. 8:1-9.
ye that hunger now.In the fourth beatitude as Matthew reports it, Jesus spoke of those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Are we to read this concept into Lukes account? Is it possible that Jesus was speaking to those who were actually feeling the pangs of hunger? We do know that He was aware of the physical needs of His people also, for He fed them on loaves and fishes. But more than that, He provided for their spiritual sustenance by giving them the Bread of Life. See James word about those who lack daily food (Jas. 2:15). So often those who lack daily food also lack the food that satisfies the soul.
for yours is the kingdom of God.The poor are to be comforted in that they may have a rich blessing for their souls in this life. But in addition to that, the kingdom of Godheaven itselfbelongs to them. There will be no poverty there, even though the poor ye have with you always in this world.
Wherever the Word of Christ has been fully accepted, the hungry are filled both literally and figuratively. The answer to the needs of the world is not the doctrine of materialism but the gospel of Christ. The gospel in the hearts of men will cause them to share the produce of the world with the needy and also the Bread of Life that will abolish spiritual poverty. See 2Co. 9:10-15.
that weep now: for ye shall laugh.According to Matthew, Jesus said, they that mourn shall be comforted. Is this a reference to the grief of this life or to those whose godly sorrow leads to repentance? Luke seems to place emphasis on the issue of the present first and the future last. Those who weep now shall laugh in heaven, for there will be no tears there.
when men shall hate you.Peter and John gave an example of the proper attitude for Christians under persecution. They preferred the approval of God rather than men, See Act. 4:19-21.
your reward is great in heaven.It is possible that all these rewards are heavenly. Jesus said, In this world ye have tribulations: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (Joh. 16:33). See also Php. 3:20-21; 2Pe. 3:11-13; Rev. 214-5.
But woe unto you that are rich.Not the possession, but the misuse of riches is condemned. The one who worships gold rather than God justly comes under this condemnation. See Jas. 1:9-11 for the correct view that puts the riches of heaven above the temporary riches of this life.
ye have received your consolation.Some men prayed to be seen of men, and when men saw them and spoke of them as religious people, they were paid in full. When one makes riches his goal, he must settle for the consolation that riches bring, but he should remember what the Lord said about the time when riches fail. See Luk. 12:20-21; Luk. 16:11.
full now.The emphasis is on now. Some people are perfectly satisfied with physical food and have no thought for the food of the soul. Many who ate the loaves and fishes merely wanted more of the same and were not interested in the Bread of Life. Ye shall hunger seems to look to the time when those who have contented themselves with material riches will realize that they should have given some attention to the spiritual life.
that laugh now.The laughter of the wicked will become the cries of the lost. James says, Clean your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts ye doubleminded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into heaviness (Jas. 4:8-9).
Neither Jesus nor James prohibit Christian joy and laughter. There is no record of Jesus having laughed, but He did join in the festive occasions of the people. If He did laugh, it certainly was not at some filthy joke. Much of what passes for humor today illustrates what Jesus was talking about. The jesting which Paul forbids is of the same sorta well turned phrase that suggests evil and causes some to laugh at the filth of the world. Christian people ought not to be guilty of such a thing.
when all men speak well of you.We are not to assume that a good reputation was not to be desired, for Gods people are to take thought for things honorable in the sight of all men (Rom. 12:17). But Jesus was speaking of those who flattered the false prophets in order to be in their favor. The fathers of the Jews had been guilty of this very thing. But Jesus was not influenced by the flattery of men. For example, He wasnt moved by their efforts to make Him their king. Those who prefer the approval of Christ to that of men will find that they may have to pay dearly for their loyalty to the Lord (2Ti. 3:12).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(20) Blessed be ye poor . . .See Notes on Mat. 5:1. The conclusion there arrived atthat the two discourses differ so widely, both in their substance and in their position in the Gospel narrative, that it is a less violent hypothesis to infer that they were spoken at different times than to assume that the two Evangelists inserted or omitted, as they thought fit, in reporting the same discoursewill be taken here as the basis of interpretation. It was quite after our Lords method of teaching that He should thus reproduce, with more or less variation, what He had taught before. The English, Blessed be ye poor, is ambiguous, as leaving it uncertain whether the words are the declaration of a fact or the utterance of a prayer. Better, Blessed are ye poor. We note at once the absence of the qualifying words of St. Matthews poor in spirit. Assume the identity of the two discourses, and then we have to think of St. Luke or his informant as omitting words, and those singularly important words, which our Lord had spoken; and this, it is obvious, presents a far greater difficulty than the thought that our Lord varied the aspects of the truths which He presented, now affirming the blessedness of the poor in spirit, now that of those who were literally poor, as having less to hinder them from the attainment of the higher poverty. See Notes on Mat. 5:3. It seems to have been St. Lukes special aim to collect as much as he could of our Lords teaching as to the danger of riches. (See Introduction.)
Note the substitution of the kingdom of God for the kingdom of heaven in St. Matthew.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
36. SERMON ON THE MOUNT, Luk 6:20-49 .
Mat 5:1
We assume without doubt, what Dr. Nast has at length well proved, that Luke here furnishes the same Sermon on the Mount with Matthew, being a briefer report and less nearly verbatim. The slight difference in arrangement of some of the parts is doubtless owing to the variation in the particular original oral tradition, which Luke may have for the first time reduced to writing, or have received in authentic written form.
In order to harmonize the arrangement of Luke’s report of the Sermon with that of Matthew we must read the verses in the following order: Luk 6:20-26, Luk 6:29-30; Luk 6:27-28; Luk 6:32-42. Luk 6:34-35 in Luke are additional matter.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
20. Blessed be ye poor From the fact that Luke in an abbreviated form furnishes a blessing upon the poor, (omitting the phrase in spirit as given by Matthew,) and a woe in Luk 6:24 upon the rich, it has been maintained by some that Luke, if not our Lord himself, belonged to a sect or class of men who held to the intrinsic sin of riches and merit of poverty. A body of heretics, under the name of Ebionites, arose very early in the Christian Church, formed of primitive Jews, who held our Lord to be a mere man, maintained the Jewish ritual, and asserted the great merit of absolute poverty. This sect developed itself early in the second century. Writers like Renan assert that Luke’s Gospel possesses, in passages like this, a strong Ebionitish tinge. But it is well known that Luke was associated intimately with St. Paul, who was the great champion against this very sort of Jewish ultraism, and whose doctrines were the opposite of Ebionitism. If, as we suppose, Luke received a share of the matter of the Peraean gospel from James the Lord’s brother, (see our notice of Luke, p. 2,) resident pastor or bishop of Jerusalem, it is very likely that the passages that seem to bear hard upon the pride of wealth were furnished by him. For, though no Ebionite, James was strongly Judaic and severely ascetic in his tendencies, as his Epistle shows. In the second place, to say that rich men are wicked, especially in a given age, and to say that wealth in itself is a sin, are very different things. It is the tendency indeed of wealth upon the depraved heart of man to produce an oppressive spirit. And there are times when, as a class, the rich are so utterly oppressors that the very term rich acquires a sameness of meaning with the term oppressive; and in such ages piety and rectitude may be so exclusively with the poor that the virtuous may be naturally designated by the term poor. Yet in the days of an Abraham or a Solomon, piety may dwell in the tents of the rich and in the palaces of the noble, while vice and degradation may prevail among the rustics and the rabble. Thus the rich may be in spirit poor, that is, virtuous; and the poor may be rich in feeling, that is, riotous and oppressive. In the days of Herod and of Jesus, though there were noble exceptions, such as Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and probably some in Herod’s household, to be rich and to be wicked were about the same thing. That this fact should appear in the very language of the Gospels is no indication of Ebionite tendencies.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said,
“Blessed are you poor, for yours is the Kingly Rule of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
Blessed are you, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.”
While at first sight, if taken out of context, it might seem that Jesus is saying here that poverty, hunger and misery are to be welcomed as such, that is not what He means at all. It is to take it out of context. Rather He is indicating that He sees Himself as talking to those before Him who are actually experiencing the things He mentions. He sees before Him men and women who are poor, who know what hunger means, and many who are weeping as they listen to His message of hope. And He is assuring them that there is a blessing available for them because in their condition they have come to seek Him. For such things can be a blessing when in reasonable proportions they encourage people to seek God, and are so now in their case, because those who are now before Him are here precisely because of these things. Thus these things are proving a blessing to them. If we allow God to fashion us by such things, He says, we will be truly blessed, and we will then find greater reward in Him.
Furthermore those who do follow Him will find that such a situation continues, and should be glad of it. They will continue to be ‘poor’ because they will be using their possessions as He commands (see what follows), being rich towards God (Luk 12:21) and laying up treasure in Heaven (Luk 12:33-34; Mat 6:19-20). But along with it they will have the joy of already enjoying their consolation (contrast Luk 6:24), by having their present part in the Kingly Rule of God. They will both enjoy Heaven now, and Heaven later. They will continue to be hungry because in following Him they will face shortages and privation (Luk 9:58), but they will receive full provision in return (Mar 10:30), and finally a heavenly inheritance. They will continue to weep because life has its share of sorrows, and they will continue to be aware of their sins, and they may even weep because of persecution, but they will find comfort in their sorrow because their eyes are on Him, and they will in the end have everlasting joy and laughter. By not becoming part of the rat race of those who are always on the lookout to benefit themselves at others expense, they will enjoy greater benefits than such people can ever know. They will experience being under His Kingly Rule. Their hearts will be overflowing with good things. They will have a deeper peace and joy than the world can ever appreciate (Php 4:7; 1Pe 1:8), and then in the end they will enjoy blessing, and fullness and laughter to the full when they are with God for ever. That future compensation is also in mind very much comes out in comparison with the woes, for with the woes all the resultants are seen as in the future apart from the first. The point in it all is that the godly will enjoy in the future, what the ungodly will lose.
He is here thus very much describing the situation in which the godly people who have come to hear Him find themselves because they are not rapacious and greedy. In the Old Testament ‘the poor’ regularly means those who are humble and godly (Psalm 40:18; Psa 72:2-4). And it is to them that the Good News is being proclaimed (Luk 4:18; Isa 57:15; Isa 61:1-2; Isa 66:2). They are in contrast to the wealthy who manipulate, and cheat, and use violence in order to ‘better themselves’. For His disciples are not self-seeking but dependent on God and on what He gives them (compare Luk 12:31; Mat 6:31-32), and are satisfied with that, and humbly worship God. Such are blessed, says Jesus, for theirs even now is the Kingly Rule of God. They are in submission to Him and walk in His ways. They accept His Kingly Rule now. They seek first the Kingly Rule of God and His righteousness (Luk 12:31; Mat 6:33). They look on their possessions as His (Luk 16:11). They partake at His table. They eat the Bread of Life (Joh 6:35). They drink the water of life (Joh 4:10-14; Joh 7:37). They find their solace in Him (Mat 5:4). Thus they will continue to enjoy His Kingly Rule now, and will also finally enjoy His everlasting Kingdom. Theirs are the true riches both now and in the future (Luk 16:11). They are truly blessed.
They are blessed (makarioi – enjoy true wellbeing from God) even though, as a result of their godly lives, they sometimes go hungry as they are now, and that because they accept what comes from the hand of God, and do not seek food at any price. They strive to make a living and to wrest from their lands what they can, sharing the burden of life with others, but refusing to follow the paths of greed and violence and dishonesty as ways of accumulating wealth. They are genuine and honest. So one day they will be filled, for in that day the Messiah will have brought in His rule and will bless such people and satisfy them with good things. Above all their hunger of soul will be satisfied.
His hearers might at present weep because of their sins, and because life is hard, food is scarce, and times are difficult, or because of the opposition and persecution that they will face because they follow Him, but the fact that they have come to hear Him indicates their hunger after God. Thus they can be sure that one day, when the Messiah has finished His work, they will laugh and rejoice, and will even now find comfort in Him.
But while Jesus was undoubtedly using the descriptions literally (poor, hungry, weeping), there was also underlying them the thought of their spiritual significance, (a fact which Matthew brings out more emphatically). God’s people will often be physically poor, may go physically hungry, will experience physical distress, but they will also be spiritually humble and lowly, they will be spiritually hungry after God and His word His words here are based on Psa 107:9, compare Luk 1:53), they will spiritually weep over their sins. And that too is what they have demonstrated by being here. Thus the descriptions cover all aspects of their lives.
“Blessed are you, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.” And above all they will be blessed when they suffer for His name’s sake (compare Isa 66:5), when men hate them and keep apart from them, and reproach them, and cast them out as evil (Isa 66:5), because they are followers of Jesus as the Son of Man (even possibly excluding them from the synagogue). For He is here as God’s representative, and because the world will not like His message, He and those who respond to Him will suffer. But when they do suffer they will be suffering both for His sake and for God’s sake. Note the implication of the close relationship between Himself and God in these words. No Rabbi would have spoken of men’s relationships to himself like this. He would rightly have considered it to be blasphemy. By it Jesus is claiming and demonstrating His uniqueness.
‘For the sake of the Son of Man.’ In Daniel 7 the Son of Man as representing the people of God is a persecuted figure (Luk 6:25 with 14, 18) and it is only the intervention of the One Who represents them (Luk 7:13), coming from the midst of that persecution, which finally delivers them from it. And while the persecution was there shown to be by external forces, such enemies were always supported by an enemy within who hoped to profit from the situation. It was a similar situation to that in which they found themselves. Thus reference to the Son of man includes the thought of persecution from without and within (compare Luk 9:44; Luk 9:58; Luk 17:25). Let them recognise that He has come as the persecuted Son of Man in order to take up His Kingly Rule. And if they will persecute Him they will persecute them (Joh 15:20). Those who become one with the Son of Man must expect persecution, for so the Scriptures have made clear.
Jesus was aware from the beginning that persecution awaited both Him and them. His mother had been warned of the sword that would pierce her heart (Luk 2:35). John the Baptiser was in prison, unlikely ever to come out (Luk 3:20). He had nearly been put to death by His own townsfolk (Luk 4:28-29). He knew that as the Bridegroom He would one day be ‘taken away’ (Luk 5:35). The belligerence of the Pharisees was on the increase, and they were already plotting Him harm (Luk 6:11). Their continued dogging of His movements were a constant warning (Luk 5:17-21; Luk 5:30; Luk 5:33; Luk 6:2; Luk 6:7). And He only had to consider what had happened to the prophets and had been warned about in Isa 66:5, which speaks of ‘your brethren who hate you and cast you out for My name’s sake’, in order to realise what He must expect. And He was fully aware of the severity of the punishments of the synagogues who would beat those whom they saw as obstinate, and even exclude them. So He emphasises it also here. He wants them to be aware of what they are facing. Let them not doubt that as they ‘build their houses’ on the foundation of His words the storms will come. But if they hear His words and do them they need have no fear. Their houses will stand firm. Thus it is no surprise that He later warned His disciples of what their fate might be (Luk 12:11-12).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Blessings and Woes On Israel (6:20-26).
‘And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said,
a Blessed are you poor, for yours is the Kingly Rule of God (Luk 6:20).
b Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be filled (Luk 6:21 a).
c Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh (Luk 6:21 b).
d Blessed are you, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake (Luk 6:22).
e Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy (Luk 6:23 a).
f For behold, your reward is great in heaven (Luk 6:23 b).
e For in the same manner did their fathers to the prophets (Luk 6:23 c).
a But woe to you who are rich! for you have received your consolation (Luk 6:24).
b Woe to you, you who are full now! for you will hunger (Luk 6:25 a).
c Woe to you, you who laugh now! for you will mourn and weep (Luk 6:25 b).
d Woe to you, when all men speak well of you! for in the same manner did their fathers to the false prophets (Luk 6:26).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Opening Blessings and Woes (6:20-26).
Perhaps before we look at the detail of the narrative we should set the scene, for here interpretation, at least to begin with, depends on context. We need to ask why He spoke as He did. The answer is probably not hard to find.
Jesus had been on the mountain top with his disciples and had chosen His Apostles. Now He has come down with them to a level plain half way down the mountain where large crowds have gathered. As we have seen in Luk 6:17 the crowds had gathered from many places. There before Him He saw large numbers of ordinary people, people whom, as He had reason to know, were struggling to feed their households, and faced many problems in their lives. They were poor, they knew what it meant at times to go hungry, they knew what it meant to weep at the vicissitudes of life. And many He had healed, and many wept for that reason too, some with joy and some with a deep sense of sin in His presence. They had come to see and hear the great Prophet because they were seeking God.
But gathered there also would be the sightseers and the curious. News of His activities would unquestionably draw such people, especially from among the wealthy. There would thus almost certainly be a group of such, standing apart from the main crowds, and watching with sceptical interest or unseemly hilarity. Some had come to see this new phenomenon for themselves. Others had come because their wives had pressed them into it. and still others had come to criticise and to try to counter His teaching. But they did not want anyone to think that they were part of the rabble. So as they stood there they would be quite obvious to Jesus.
Thus as we consider this beautifully balanced opening passage from Luk 6:20-26 comparison with Mat 5:3-11 clearly reveals that while in the Beatitudes in Matthew Jesus is describing the inner heart of individuals and their attitude towards life, here in Luke His emphasis is on the people to whom He is speaking, and the outward daily circumstances of their lives about which, externally, little could be done. But it was their very need which partly resulted from those that had brought them here, together with the consciousness that it gave them of their dependence on God. This together with their desire to have the thirst of their souls satisfied.
What Jesus has in mind here therefore in His words is how these ‘poor’ who are before Him (‘you’) are reacting to their poverty by seeking spiritual blessing from Him, how these who are hungry in front of His very eyes (‘you’) are responding to their hunger by looking to the living bread for sustenance, how these who are weeping (‘you’) even in front of Him are leaving behind their sorrow by coming to the Consoler and finding comfort and strength. And He makes clear, very clear, to them that God has a purpose to bless them. And that they are truly blessed because they are listening to Him in order to do what He says. They are building on a sound foundation (see Luk 6:47-48).
On the other hand He also wants them to recognise that in hearing Him and responding to Him they are putting themselves in danger of being ‘persecuted for the Son of Man’s sake’. He wants them to know that the storms will necessarily come, for he knows that we must ‘through much tribulation enter under the Kingly Rule of God’ (Act 14:22).
In contrast are those who stand off from Jesus because they are wealthy, materially well satisfied, and kept amused by the pleasures of the world, and somewhat supercilious or filled with levity. They do not seek Him for what He is, but out of curiosity and amusement, a position which in the end can only confirm their spiritual bankruptcy. He can see who they are, even as they sit or stand before Him. They follow certain of the Scribes, many of whom are ‘false prophets’, and will therefore suffer their just end, for they are building on no foundation.
Thus the whole impact of Luke is different from Matthew’s. To make them extracts from the same sermon is to miss their genius. Luke’s message is complete in itself, and so is Matthew’s. And both have different emphases.
It will be noted that the four blessings parallel the four woes, with a central comment separating them. The words are addressed to ‘His disciples’ in the widest sense. The term ‘disciple’ signifies any who have come genuinely seeking to learn. That should be noted. What is said, is said to them as disciples. It thus applies to them as such, and indicates that the intention was not specifically evangelistic. He is building up those who have already to some extent responded, while keeping in mind that not all there have responded.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jesus Proclaims The New Law of the Kingly Rule of God (6:20-49).
Like Matthew 5-7 this ‘sermon’ or ‘address’ is carefully put together and patterned, but, in spite of similarities, we would be mistaken if we thought that it was simply made up of extracts from the same address (even though that is the view of many). The emphasis in both addresses is very different. Jesus preached over a number of years and we can be quite sure that we have been given the substance of most of His teaching in the addresses recorded, for it is very unlikely that huge amounts of what He said would have been forgotten or thought of as not worth recording. Thus in view of the material that we have we must assume that He taught the same thing to the crowds many times, varying His approach and possibly using different patterns, but regularly with similar material, until it had burned its way into their hearts. Unlike us they loved repetition. Moreover it was necessary in order that it might be remembered. We have one example in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. We have another different one here (the difference lies in the emphasis and the make up).
These people did not have Gospels or a New Testament and as He wanted to ensure that they remembered His words, it is clear that He regularly put them in memorable forms, and constantly repeated much of His material word for word, although in different contexts, patterning it in order to aid the memory. We would therefore expect to find that there were a number of addresses which were similar but not the same, and should recognise that they represented the basic teaching of His Law.
It is apparent from the different and failing attempts to connect this with a Q document, once we take into account the similarities and differences between Matthew and Luke, that the situation is far more complicated than many suggest. It is equally possible that those similarities and differences arose from the fact that Jesus preached similar things word for word for memory purposes in many different addresses, while at others He varied His approach, and that some of these were written down in Greek (some of which would also be available to Matthew) and were consulted by Luke (as he mentions in Luk 1:1) in order to assist in clarifying finer points of Aramaic when he himself was translating Jesus’ address contained here from Aramaic into Greek. This would explain both similarities and differences between Matthew and Luke, and also the introduction of Lucan terminology, without the necessity of assuming that Luke, or anyone else, actually changed Jesus’ words.
The usual theory suggests that Luke simply dropped large amounts of what he found, or had no access to it. Now while that is explicable for some of what Matthew contained, which was especially applicable to Jews, it does not explain other parts which would have been very relevant to Luke’s readers, and which on the usual theories would have been available to him (on this theory, for example, he completely and deliberately changes the emphasis of the beatitudes). Luke was concerned to give us more of Jesus’ teaching, not less, and it is difficult to believe that the early church were so lacking in interest in Jesus’ teaching that they only kept a record of one sermon, and would have mildly put up with it being changed.
Besides a glance at the ‘sermon’ below reveals that it is compact and unified. The pattern reveals the genius of Jesus, not that of Luke. And Luke wisely chose not to play around with it but to present it as it was.
The idea that Jesus’ words were played around with in the way that some scholars suggest is obviously (to put it politely) untrue. Had they been so they would not have retained their uniqueness. A message which is a conglomeration of different people’s ideas would not have become the kind of message that has impressed men of all ages. We only have to look at later Christian writings to appreciate that. Give the early church twenty years to play around with Jesus’ words and they would have been totally unrecognisable as being anything out of the ordinary. Yet we are asked to believe that the early church produced any number of sayings of Jesus which revealed the same genius as that of the Master. Such a suggestion can only be seen as fantastic. For anyone who considers His words as given below will recognise that they are far from being ordinary. They reveal the mind of genius. Furthermore we also have to take into account that we have here every indication of a complete, if abbreviated, address.
His words here begin with four blessings and four comparative woes, and end with a story of who would be blessed (those who built on rock) and who would receive woe (those who built on earth). In between are varied patterns of four, and six divided into two sections, the first of which is to do with loving and giving, and the second is to do with contrasting those who are genuine those who are fakes.
Luke has further divided the message into three subsections by the use of dividers, the second of which is part of the message. These are as follows:
1). ‘And He lifted up His eyes on His disciples and said’ (Luk 6:20-26). This is then followed by a prophetic declaration of blessings and woes.
2). ‘But I say to you who hear’ (Luk 6:27-38). This is then followed by a dissertation on loving the unlovely, and revealing that love in practical and genuine ways.
3). ‘And He spoke also a proverb to them’ (Luk 6:39-49). This is then followed by a passage distinguishing between what is genuine and what is not, and ends with the contrast between the one who builds with a sound foundation, and the one who builds on shaky foundations, both of whom will be tested, both by the events of life and finally by God’s judgment.
The whole can be analysed as follows:
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
2). THE FOUNDING OF THE NEW ISRAEL UNDER THE KINGLY RULE OF GOD (6:20-8:18)
In this second part of the section Luk 5:1 to Luk 9:50, Jesus now reveals Himself as the founder of the new Israel under the Kingly Rule of God:
a He proclaims the new Law of the Kingly Rule of God (Luk 6:20-49).
b He sends out His power to the Gentiles, to those who are seen as unclean, but who have believed. They too are to benefit from His Kingly Rule (Luk 7:1-10).
c He raises the dead, a foretaste of the resurrection, revealing Him as ‘the Lord’. The Kingly Rule of God is here (Luk 7:11-17).
d John’s disciples come to ‘the Lord’ enquiring on behalf of John, and He points to His signs and wonders as evidence that He is the promised One. The King is present to heal and proclaim the Good News of the Kingly Rule of God (Luk 7:18-23).
c He exalts, yet also sets in his rightful place, John the Baptiser as the greatest of the prophets and points beyond him to the new Kingly Rule of God, emphasising again that the Kingly Rule of God is here (Luk 7:24-35).
b He is greeted by the transformed prostitute, who has believed, a picture of restored Israel (Eze 16:59-63) and of the fact that the Kingly Rule of God is available to all Who seek Him and hear Him.
a He proclaims the parables of the Kingly Rule of God (Luk 8:1-18).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jesus Teaches the Multitudes (Luke’s Version of The Sermon on the Mount) In Luk 6:20-49 we have Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount, which version has popularly been referred to as “The Sermon on the Plain.” While the Sermon on the Mount is delivered by Jesus Christ in the office of a teacher, the Sermon on the Plain is actually a message He delivered under the anointing of the prophet.
It becomes easy to see within this passage in Luke how Jesus deals with the development of the believer into maturity. He opens by explaining true righteousness before God and contrasts it with the hypocrisy of the affluent upper class, such as the Pharisees, scribes and Jewish leaders (Luk 6:20-26). He then explains the heart of the Law as it teaches mankind to walk in love with others (Luk 6:27-36). He deals with divine service for those who offer themselves as servants of the Lord to give to others and help unconditionally without judging them (Luk 6:37-42). He teaches on a lifestyle of persevering in the faith using an illustration of a tree and its fruit (Luk 6:43-45). He closes His discourse by exhorting His hearers to establish themselves in a life of obedience to God’s Word using an illustration of building a solid foundation for a house. We are to lay a good foundation in our lives by doing the Word of God so that we can persevere during the storms of life and receive our eternal rewards (Luk 6:46-49).
Outline – I outline this message in the following way:
Justification (Beatitudes & Woes) Luk 6:20-26
Indoctrination (The Love Walk) Luk 6:27-36
Divine Service (Helping Others) Luk 6:37-42
Perseverance (Good Fruit) Luk 6:43-45
Glorification (Building on a Rock) Luk 6:46-49
Similarities with Mat 5:1 to Mat 7:29 Just as Jesus Christ visited the synagogues of Galilee and probably delivered the same speech out of Isa 61:1-2, do did He probably deliver similar messages to the multitudes in the Sermon on the Mount (Luk 6:20-49) and the Sermon on the Plain (Luk 5:1 to Luk 7:29). In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus chose the twelve apostles prior to the Sermon on the Plain, while this event is yet to take place in Matthew’s Gospel. This helps to explain what many scholars otherwise see as conflicting accounts of the same events.
Luk 6:20-23 Justification: The Beatitudes in Luke ( Mat 5:1-12 ) In Luk 6:20-23 Jesus blesses the lowly. This passage is parallel to the Beatitudes in Mat 5:1-12. The poor could refer to those who lack financially in this world (Luk 6:20). The hungry could refer to those who lack physical sustenance in this world (Luk 6:21). Those who weep could refer to the ones whose mental needs are lacking, since our emotions are in the soulish realm (Luk 6:21). All of these people described in the Beatitudes shall be rich spiritually and be filled with joy. In other words, God’s blessings do not come from earthly means, but descend from Heaven above.
Luk 6:23 “for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets” Comments The phrase “their fathers” would refer to the evil men who also persecuted the prophets of God in the Old Testament. Jesus was using this language in the same sense that He did when telling the Pharisees and Jewish leaders that they were of their father the devil because they did his works.
Joh 8:44, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
Luk 6:26 Comments – We see in the books of Kings, Chronicles and Jeremiah how the false prophets always prophesied good things to the wicked kings in order to find their favor. However, the prophets of God were not afraid to speak the truth about sin and were therefore hated.
Luk 6:24-26 Comments – Woes to the Rich of this World After Jesus gives blessings to those who are lowly, He gives woes to those who are high minded and rich. The phrase “those who are rich” (Luk 6:24) is a reference to this world’s material blessings. The phrase “those who are full” (Luk 6:25) is a reference to someone who has his physical needs filled with this world’s blessings. The phrase “those who laugh” (Luk 6:25) refers to someone whose mind is focused upon the pleasures of this world, but who is lacking spiritually. We find a description of this person in Luk 12:19, when the rich man says to himself, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” Thus, Jesus addresses the whole person in these three woes. We could compare this passage to what Jesus told the church of the Laodiceans in Rev 3:14-22 when they said to themselves that they were rich and had need of nothing, when in fact, they were wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.
Rev 3:17, “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:”
In addition, there is reason to assume these woes refer to eternal damnation, so that in Hell there will be no comfort, but intense and eternal discomfort; and in Hell there will be intense, everlasting hunger and a sense of lack; and in Hell there will be unending weeping and wailing.
Luk 6:27-36 Indoctrination: Love Your Enemies ( Mat 5:38-48 ; Mat 7:12 a) In Luk 6:27-36 Jesus tells us to love our enemies (Luk 6:27). He then gives a lengthy list of ways in which we can love our enemies. (Luk 6:28-35). He then closes by summarizing this list and telling us to be merciful even as our Heavenly Father is merciful (Luk 6:36).
Luk 6:29 Comments – Creflo Dollar, teaching on the Law of God’s Love, give this testimony. He had about one million U. S. dollars in the bank to pay for television airtime. When he found out that his accountant had allowed the bills to accumulate unpaid while he embezzled the money for personal use, Dollar was angry. He said that he had never experienced anger like that before in his life. When he went to pray about the situation, the Lord replied, “I want you to forgive him and take him and give him counsel and instruction. Remember that I told you, “If he takes away thy cloke, give him your coat also.” Dollar replied, “Yes, God, but this is not a coat. It’s a million dollars.” The Lord replied, “It takes the same amount of faith to give away a coat as it does a million dollars.” Dollar replied, “Yes, but I do have the right to take him to court and sue him and put him in jail.” The Lord said, “Yes, you do have the right, but you will be establishing your own righteousness and not mine. I do not want you to sue him. You call up these television stations and tell them what has happened and I will take care of the rest.” Dollar began to call these stations. One after the other forgave him of his outstanding debt. He said that he was forgiven of a million dollars of bills that day. Then, one of his “sons in the faith” came by to see him. Although Dollar was not in the mood to seen anyone this day because he was still dealing with this situation, the young man was insistent. Finally, the young minister was allowed to come in to the office. As this man handed Dollar an envelope, this young man said that the Lord had instructed him to give this ministry one million dollars. [194] What a testimony for us to follow as we walk in the Law of Love.
[194] Creflo Dollar, Changing Your World (College Park, Georgia: Creflo Dollar Ministries), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.
Luk 6:30 “and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again” – Illustration:
Heb 10:34
Luk 6:35 “hoping for nothing again” Comments – We are to expect nothing in return “from men”; for our trust is in God in whom we expect our reward. We give knowing that God will reward us in the way that He sees best to do so.
Luk 6:36 Comments – F. F. Bruce gives the reading of the Pseudo-Jonathan Targum in Lev 22:28 as, “And whether it be cow or ewe, ye shall not kill it and her young both in one day.” After this verse is added the words, “As our Father is merciful in heaven, so be ye merciful on earth.” Therefore, the Jews saw mercy as the basis of this divine statute in the book of Leviticus. F. F. Bruce notes the possibility that Luke may have borrowed this wording in Luk 6:36 when writing his Gospel. After all, the Targum was often read along with the Hebrew Scriptures in the synagogues, thus making this phrase well-known. [195]
[195] F. F. Bruce, The Books and the Parchments (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1963), 138.
Luk 6:37-42 Divine Service: Helping Others ( Mat 7:1-5 ) In Luk 6:37-42 Jesus deals with the subject of judging others and helping others.
Luk 6:37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:
Luk 6:38 Luk 6:38
Joh 12:24 teaches us that the seed produces the harvest. We could paraphrase Joh 12:24 to read, “But if it die, it fulfills its destiny.” For the destiny of every seed is to reproduce after itself, which is the reason it was created. None of us will reap a harvest unless we sow a seed. When we have a need, 2Co 9:10 teaches that God gives seed to the sower. This is His divine principle of meeting our needs. We read in Gen 1:29 that God gave Adam dominion over the plant kingdom, a kingdom that operated by the principles of seed-faith and harvest. The harvest of any need we have is in sowing of the seed.
Joh 12:24, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
2Co 9:10, “Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;)”
Gen 1:29, “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”
Luk 6:38 “and it shall be given unto you” – Comments – This is a promise from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Luk 6:38 “good measure” Comments Webster says the English word “good” can mean, “ adequate; sufficient .”
Illustration – The word “good” or “adequate” is in contrast to buying a package containing a candy bar and finding small candy bar inside a large package, or is it like buying box of corn flakes and finding the contents settled down to the middle of a box, thus feeling cheated.
Luk 6:38 “and shaken together” Comments The Greek word (G4531) means, “caused to move to and fro” ( BDAG).
Luk 6:38 “and running over” – Comments When God blesses us, He over flows us with blessing. See Mal 3:8-12.
Mal 3:10, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”
Luk 6:38 “shall men give into your bosom” Comments BDAG translates the Greek word (G2859) (bosom) in Luk 6:38 to mean, “a fold in the garment.” The KJV reads “bosom.” The NASB, NIV, and RSV read “lap.” The bosom means that God will seek you and lay it right in your lap. God has ordained that men will do the giving. He will move upon men to give to those who are givers on this earth.
Luk 6:38 “For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” Comments The verb “ye mete” means, “to give out, deal out, apportion.” BDAG translates the Greek word as “measure in return.” Thus, our giving will result in the same measure being returned back to us. Therefore, it is biblical to give expecting something in return.
Luk 6:38 teaches us that God does not give to us according to our measure of prayer, but rather, according to our measure of giving. Paul the apostle writes, “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” (2Co 9:6)
Luk 6:38 Comments Luk 6:38 is a summary of the entire proceeding passage. If you do not have the virtues listed in verse 37 and proceeding, you will never be a “giver.” When Jesus concludes this thought in Luk 6:38 He says, “For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” The entire context of Luk 6:27-36 deals with the theme of giving to others, knowing that our Heavenly Father will be the one to reward us. We are to love when hated, bless when cursed, pray for those who abuse us, withhold retaliation when persecuted, give when stolen from, and give when asked. In other words, we are to be merciful like our heavenly Father. We can do this when we believe that God is our source and not man, which is emphasized in this passage.
Illustration (1) – Luk 6:38 illustrates the principles on sowing and reaping. The Lord spoke to Paul Crouch and said, “Did I give my best, My Son on the Cross, expecting nothing in return?” [196] In other words, when we give our best, we are to expect something in return. For God’s Word promises this in Luk 6:38.
[196] Paul Crouch, “Behind the Scenes,” on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.
Illustration (2) – On Sunday morning, 11 February 1996, Bob Seymour from Canada, told the story to illustrate this text. Years ago, when he was dealing with a particular church member who was being very critical the church, he asked the staff to guess her annual giving. The staff guessed that she gave from US$ 3000 to 7000 annually because she was a professional worker. Her actual giving in six months was only US$ 25. [197]
[197] Bob Seymour, “Sermon,” Calvary Cathedral International, Fort Worth, Texas, 11 February 1996.
Luk 6:43-45 Perseverance: A Tree is Known by its Fruit ( Mat 7:17-20 ; Mat 12:34 b-35 ) In Luk 6:43-45 Jesus uses the analogy of the fruit of a tree to illustrate our works, whether they are good or bad.
Luk 6:46-49 Glorification: Two Foundations ( Mat 7:24-27 ) In Luk 6:46-49 Jesus uses an analogy of a house on a foundation to illustrate how a person builds stability in his life for the storms ahead. If this foundation is not laid, a person will be moved in troubled times.
Luk 6:49 Comments Note the parallel teaching in Pro 24:10, “If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The beginning of the sermon:
v. 20. And He lifted up His eyes on His disciples and said, Blessed be ye poor; for yours is the kingdom of God.
v. 21. Blessed are ye that hunger now; for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now; for ye shall laugh.
v. 22. Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.
v. 23. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy; for, behold, your reward is great in heaven; for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. This discourse is commonly considered as an extract of the Sermon on the Mount, but it is not essential to regard it as such. The Lord may well have spoken on the same subject and in much the same words upon different occasions. The words were addressed chiefly to His disciples, but the other people were also within reach of His voice and had an opportunity to take with them the golden truths which the Lord here uttered. Blessed the poor: Not so much those that are poor in the goods of this world, although the truly poor are usually found among these, but those that are poor in spirit, that in themselves and in the whole world neither have nor find what can truly delight their souls. This poverty has a glorious promise: For yours is the kingdom of God. They will receive the true riches of the grace of God in Christ Jesus. Blessed that now hunger: Not spoken of physical hunger, but of that greater desire for the food from on high, the hungering and thirsting after righteousness. They will be filled: The bounteous riches of the beauty of God’s table are theirs. Blessed those that weep now: Such as feel deeply the distress of sins and their consequences and live in constant sorrow because of them. For they shall laugh: The joy of the Redeemer will be theirs, filling them with a happiness beyond all human comprehension. Blessed are ye if the people hate you; if they show this hatred by withdrawing from you, by ostracizing you as people afflicted with a malignant disease; if they vituperate you and cast your name out from them and their society on account of the Savior. Note: So thoroughly has the amalgamation of the world with the Church been done, so far has it progressed, that such isolation is rare in our days, more’s the shame! People that call themselves Christians will rather confine their Christianity and its profession and practice to a few hours on Sunday than to bear the reproach of the Lord, for the sake of the Savior. The spirit of martyrdom seems to have left the Church entirely. Denials of Christ are practiced daily, confessions for the sake of the Christian principle are rare. Rejoice in that day and leap: That is a reason for being happy, that the world refuses to recognize the Christians as belonging to them, that they accuse them of narrowness and bigotry, that it withdraws from them; that is an evidence of Christian profession. For, behold, your reward will be great in heaven. Just because it is a reward of mercy, it will be all the more acceptable. When Christians suffer such persecutions, they are but following in the footsteps of the early martyrs, those that preferred death to the denial of the Lord and the Christian doctrines and practices.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Luk 6:20-21 . ] And He , on His part, as contrasted with this multitude of people seeking His word and His healing power. Comp. Luk 5:1 ; Luk 5:16 .
. ] in the wider sense, quite as in Mat 5:2 ; for see Luk 6:13 ; Luk 6:17 . As in Matthew, so here also the discourse is delivered first of all for the circle of the disciples, but in presence of the people, and, moreover, for the people (Luk 7:1 ). The lifting up of His eyes on the disciples is the solemn opening movement, to which in Matthew corresponds the opening of His mouth.
. . .] Luke has only four beatitudes, and omits (just as Matthew does in the case of ) all indication, not merely that , but also that and should be taken ethically, so that according to Luke Jesus has in view the poor and suffering earthly position of His disciples and followers, and promises to them compensation for it in the Messiah’s kingdom. The fourfold woe , then, in Luk 6:24 ff. has to do with those who are rich and prosperous on earth (analogous to the teaching in the narrative of the rich man and Lazarus); comp. Luk 1:53 . Certainly Luke has the later form of the tradition, which of necessity took its rise in consequence of the affliction of the persecuted Christians as contrasted with the rich, satisfied, laughing, belauded ; comp. the analogous passages in the Epistle of Jas 2:5 ; Jas 5:1 ff; Jas 4:9 . This also is especially true of the denunciations of woe, which were still unknown to the first evangelist. Comp. Weiss in the Jahrb. f. d. Theol . 1864, p. 58 f. (in opposition to Holtzmann). That they were omitted in Matthew from motives of forbearance (Schenkel) is an arbitrary assumption, quite opposed to the spirit of the apostolic church; just as much as the notion that the poverty, etc., pronounced blessed in Matthew, should be interpreted spiritually. The late date of Luke’s composition, and the greater originality in general which is to be attributed to the discourse in Matthew, taken as it is from the Logia , [104] which formed the basis in an especial manner of this latter Gospel, make the reverse view less probable, that (so also Ewald, p. 211; comp. Wittichen in the Jahrb. f. d. Theol . 1862, p. 323) the general expressions, as Luke has them, became more specific at a later date, as may be seen in Matthew, by reason of possible and partly of actually occurring misunderstanding. Moreover, the difference in itself is not to be got rid of (Tholuck says that the outer misery awakens the inner; Olshausen, that . , must in Luke be supplied !); probably, however, it is to be conceded that Jesus assumes as existing the ethical condition of the promise in the case of His afflicted people (according to Luke’s representation) as in His believing and future members of the kingdom; hence the variation is no contradiction . The Ebionitic spirit is foreign to the Pauline Luke (in opposition to Strauss, I. p. 603 f.; Schwegler, and others).
] “Applicatio solatii individualis; congruit attollens , nam radii oculorum indigitant,” Bengel.
. and . ] corresponding representations of the Messianic blessedness.
[104] For the Logia , not a primitive Mark (Holtzmann), was the original source of the discourse. The form of it given by Luke is derived by Weizscker, p. 148, from the collection of discourses of the great intercalation (see on Luk 9:51 ), from which the evangelist transplanted it into the earlier period of the foundation of the church. But for the hypothesis of such a disruption of the great whole of the source of this intercalation,Luk 9:51Luk 9:51 ff., there is no trace of proof elsewhere. Moreover, Weizscker aptly shows the secondary character of this discourse in Luke, both in itself and in comparison with Matthew.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1495
TRUE HAPPINESS STATED
Luk 6:20-26. And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of mans sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
MEN who dislike the doctrines of the Gospel are no less averse to its precepts. They may both approve and practice heathen morality; but the morality of Jesus will appear to them unamiable and precise. The words before us will fully establish this assertion [Note: It should be observed that this passage has no direct reference to the deeper mysteries of our religion: it is altogether of a practical nature: and the terms are so full, that they scarcely need any elucidation, while they are at the same time so plain as to be almost incapable of perversion.]: they lead us to consider,
I.
The false notions which the world entertains of happiness
Many have been the speculations of philosophers on this subject; but there are general views in which the world at large are agreed
[They think that wealth must of necessity conduce much to our happiness: they think that a freedom from care and trouble will greatly augment it: they think that an easy access to pleasurable amusements and carnal enjoyments will abundantly promote it; and, above all, that universal respect and honour will complete it.]
These views, however, are very erroneous
[We deny not but that these sources of enjoyment afford a present gratification: nor do we say that wealth, or ease, or pleasure, or reputation, may not be very innocently enjoined: but it is a great mistake to think that happiness consists in these things; or that, if possessed in ever so great abundance, they would compensate for the want of spiritual blessings. There are riches of far greater value than the wealth of this world; nor can any one possess those, who is very solicitous about this [Note: Mat 13:44.]. None can know his need of divine grace, and not pant after it [Note: Psa 42:1.]: in such indigent creatures, a Laodicean state is abominable [Note: Rev 3:16-17.]. Moreover, God calls men to mourn and weep for their sins [Note: Jam 4:9-10.]: is it desirable then to possess a light and vacant mind? Such too is the enmity of the world against God, that it is not possible to retain the friendship of both at the same time [Note: Jam 4:4.]. Should we then consider human estimation as of transcendent value? Surely these things may shew us how erroneous the worlds judgment is.]
Nor is there any delusion more fatal
[Our Lord could not be mistaken in his judgment; yet he denounces the heaviest woes against the rich, the full, the gay, and the respected, and distinctly assigns his reason for each denunciation. They who are occupied with carnal gratifications, make no provision for their eternal welfare. Hence, when bereft of the things of this life, they will be for ever destitute. Having had their portion now with the men of this world, they will participate in their lot hereafter. We may see these truths realized in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus [Note: No flagrant evil whatever is imputed to the Rich Man. He was not wholly destitute even of liberality, since Lazarus received his daily subsistence from his table. The reason of his condemnation was, that, while he abounded in wealth, ease, pleasure, and honour, he wept not for his sins, nor hungered after the blessings of grace and glory.].]
Having exposed error, we would establish truth, by shewing,
II.
The representations of happiness given us in the Scriptures
Poverty, dissatisfaction, sorrow, and contempt, are, it must be confessed, not pleasing in themselves; nor indeed does any blessing necessarily attach to them; but under certain circumstances they may be a desirable portion
[Poverty and sorrow often have been, and still are endured for Christs sake; nor is there any thing more common than for his servants to be reviled and despised for their fidelity to him. It should seem indeed that the world could not hate and execrate those whom God esteems and declares blessed; but the treatment which the prophets, and Christ, and his Apostles, met with, proves the contrary. If we then be treated like them, we have no reason to be dejected; yea rather, we may consider it as an honour conferred on us by God [Note: Php 1:29.].]
In a spiritual sense, poverty, hunger, &c. are great blessings
[No doubt there is a spiritual meaning also in our Lords words [Note: Compare Mat 5:3-4.]. And what so desirable as to feel our need of Christ? And what so desirable as to be hungering after his righteousness? And what so desirable as to be mourning for our corruptions? And what so desirable as to endure shame for his sake [Note: Act 5:41.]? They who experience most of this state, find most delight in it; they are most fortified against the incursions of worldly sorrow, and most abound in spiritual consolations.]
And all who now submit to the pressure of spiritual afflictions, shall be abundantly recompensed in the eternal world
[In heaven there is enough to repay all our labours. The riches of glory will compensate for all present losses; the fulness of joy in those blest abodes will satiate the hungry soul; the inconceivable delights will far outweigh our transient sorrows [Note: 2Co 4:17.]; and the honour which God will put upon us in the society of saints and angels, will make us forget our short-lived disgrace. Christ, the true and faithful witness, has repeatedly affirmed this: and he who declares such persons blessed, himself will make them so.]
Address
1.
The mistaken votaries of this world
[All profess to seek after happiness; but how many mistake the shadow for the substance. We may even appeal to you to declare who are truly blessed [Note: Comment on the text according to the worlds views; Woe to you poor, &c.: but no woes to you that are rich, &c.; ye are blessed: Who would endure such a comment?]. O that we would take eternity into our estimate of present things! O that we would cease from circulating our fatal errors, and acquiesce in the unerring declarations of God! We can easily see, that a man who should drink a palatable but poisonous draught, would be no object of envy. Let us be persuaded then that momentary delights can never constitute us blessed. He alone is happy, who is happy for eternity.
2.
The humble followers of Jesus
[Let not your hearts envy the prosperity of sinners [Note: Psa 37:1-2.]. Remember that you are the only blessed people upon earth. Your very griefs and sorrows are grounds of self-congratulation. The time is shortly coming, when mens apparent states will be reversed. Then will be fulfilled that glorious prophecy of Isaiah [Note: Isa 65:13-14.]Be content then to fill up the measure of Christs sufferings, and take for your comfort that delightful promise [Note: Psa 126:5-6.]]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
(20) And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor; for your’s is the kingdom of God. (21) Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. (22) Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. (23) Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. (24) But woe unto you that are rich? for ye have received your consolation. (25) Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. (26) Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets. (27) But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, (28) Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. (29) And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek, offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also. (30) Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. (31) And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. (32) For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye: for sinners also love those that love them. (33) And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. (34) And if ye lend to them of whom y e hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. (35) But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest; for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil (36) Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. (37) Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned; forgive, and ye shall be forgiven; (38) Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom: for with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again. (39) And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? (40) The disciple is not above his master: but everyone that is perfect shall be as his master. (41) And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? (42) Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye. (43) For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. (44) For every tree is known by his own fruit: for of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. (45) A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. (46) And why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? (47) Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: (48) He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. (49) But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth, against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.
This is the same sermon as Christ preached, and which is recorded in Matthew’s Gospel, (Mat 5 ; Mat 6 ; Mat 7 . And having very largely dwelt upon the principal parts of it in that place, I do not think it necessary to enlarge upon it here. I would beg the Reader just to remark, how Christ in this sermon specially and peculiarly addressed his disciples, when he pronounced those blessings with which he opened his discourse.
Perhaps in the 39th verse, here are certain proverbial expressions of Christ, which, as they were not in the sermon recorded by Matthew, were not spoken by our Lord at that time, but at another occasion, but introduced in this place by Luke. See Mat 15:14 , But our Lord’s discourse in this Chapter, being in itself very plain, and for the most part having been explained in the Commentary on Mat 5 . (Poor: Mat 5:1 ) I think it needless to enlarge.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
19 And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.
20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.
Ver. 20. Blessed be ye poor ] Here we have a repetition of that famous sermon on the mount,Mat 5:6-7Mat 5:6-7 . See Trapp on “ Mat 5:6 “ See Trapp on “ Mat 5:7 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
20 49. ] SERMON ON THE MOUNT (?). Peculiar (in this form) to Luke , answering to Matthew 5-7. On the whole question of the identity or diversity of the two discourses, see on Mat 5:1 . In Matthew I cannot doubt that we have the whole discourse much as it was spoken; the connexion is intimate throughout; the arrangement wonderfully consistent and admirable. Here, on the other hand, the discourse is only reported in fragments there is a wide gap between Luk 6:26-27 , and many omissions in other parts; besides which, sayings of our Lord, belonging apparently to other occasions, are inserted: see Luk 6:39-40 ; Luk 6:45 . At the same time we must remember, that such gnomic sayings would probably be frequently uttered by Him, and might very likely form part of this discourse originally. His teaching was not studious of novelty like that of men, but speaking with authority, as He did, He would doubtless utter again and again the same weighty sentences when occasion occurred. Hence may have arisen much of the difference of arrangement observable in the reports because sayings known to have been uttered together at one time, might be thrown together with sayings spoken at another, with some one common link perhaps connecting the two groups.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
20. . ] The discourse was spoken to the disciples generally, to the Twelve particularly, to the people prospectively; and its subject, both here and in Matt., is, the state and duties of a disciple of Christ .
] To suppose that Luke’s report of this discourse refers only to this world’s poverty, &c. and the blessings to anticipated outward prosperity in the Messiah’s Kingdom (De Wette, Meyer), is surely quite a misapprehension. Comparing these expressions with other passages in Luke himself, we must have concluded, even without Matthew’s report , that they bore a spiritual sense: see ch. Luk 16:11 , where he speaks of ‘ the true riches,’ and ch. Luk 12:21 , where we have . And who would apply such an interpretation to our Luk 6:21 ?
See on each of these beatitudes the corresponding notes in Matt.
. . . = . . Matt., but it does not thence follow that = , but the two are different ways of designating the same kingdom the one by its situation in heaven , where its is ( , Gal 4:26 ), the other by Him , whose it is.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Luk 6:20-49 . The Sermon (Matthew 5-7). That it is the same sermon as Mt. reports in chapters 5 7 may be regarded as beyond discussion. How, while the same, they came to be so different, is a question not quite easy to answer. There probably was addition to the original utterance in the case of Mt., and there was almost certainly selection involving omission in the case of Lk.’s version, either on his part or on the part of those who prepared the text he used. Retouching of expression in the parts common to both reports is, of course, also very conceivable. As it stands in Lk. the great utterance has much more the character of a popular discourse than the more lengthy, elaborate version of Mt. In Mt. it is didache , in Lk. kerygma a discourse delivered to a great congregation gathered for the purpose, with the Apostles and disciples in the front benches so to speak, a discourse exemplifying the “words of grace” (Luk 4:22 ) Jesus was wont to speak, the controversial antithesis (Mat 5:17-48 ) eliminated, and only the evangelic passages retained; a sermon serving at once as a model for “Apostles” and as a gospel for the million.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Luk 6:20-26 . First part of the discourse: Beatitudes and Woes (Mat 5:1-12 ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Luk 6:20 . . .: in Lk. the Preacher lifts up His eyes upon His audience ( . , who are themselves a crowd), in Mt. He opens His mouth; both expressions introducing a solemn set discourse. Lk.’s phrase suggests a benignant look, answering to the nature of the utterance. : Lk. has only four Beatitudes , of which the poor , the hungry , the weeping , the Persecuted are the objects; the sorrows not the activities of the children of the kingdom the theme. , , are to be taken literally as describing the social condition of those addressed. They are characteristics of those who are supposed to be children of the kingdom, not (as in Mt.) conditions of entrance. The description corresponds to the state of the early Church. It is as if Jesus were addressing a church meeting and saying: Blessed are ye, my brethren, though poor, etc., for in the Kingdom of God, and its blessings, present and prospective, ye have ample compensation. Note the use of the second person. In Mt. Jesus speaks didactically in the third person. Christ’s words are adapted to present circumstances, but it is not necessary to suppose that the adaptation proceeds from an ebionitic circle, ascetic in spirit and believing poverty to be in itself a passport to the kingdom, and riches the way to perdition.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Luke
LAWS OF THE KINGDOM
Luk 6:20 – Luk 6:31
Luke condenses and Matthew expands the Sermon on the Mount. The general outline is the same in both versions. The main body of both is a laying down the law for Christ’s disciples. Luke, however, characteristically omits what is prominent in Matthew, the polemic against Pharisaic righteousness, and the contrast between the moral teaching of Christ and that of the law. These were appropriate in a Gospel which set forth Jesus as the crown of earlier revelation, while Luke is true to the broad humanities of his Gospel, in setting forth rather the universal aspect of Christian duty, and gathering it all into the one precept of love.
The fragment which forms the present passage falls into two parts-the description of the subjects of the kingdom and their blessedness, contrasted with the character of the rebels; and the summing up of the law of the kingdom in the all-including commandment of love.
I. The subjects and blessedness of the kingdom, and the rebels.
Notice that in our passage the sayings are directly addressed to the disciples, while in Matthew they are cast into the form of general propositions. In that shape, the additions were needed to prevent misunderstanding of Christ, as if He were talking like a vulgar demagogue, flattering the poor, and inveighing against the rich. Matthew’s view of the force of the expressions is involved in Luke’s making them an address to the disciples., ‘Ye poor’ at once declares that our Lord is not thinking of the whole class of literally needy, but of such of these as He saw willing to learn of Him. No doubt, the bulk of them were poor men as regards the world’s goods, and knew the pinch of actual want, and had often had to weep. But their earthly poverty and misery had opened their hearts to receive Him, and that had transmuted the outward wants and sorrows into spiritual ones, as is evident from their being disciples; and these are the characteristics which He pronounces blessed. In this democratic and socialistic age, it is important to keep clearly in view the fact that Jesus was no flatterer of poor men as such, and did not think that circumstances had such power for good or evil, as that virtue and true blessedness were their prerogatives.
The foundation characteristic is poverty of spirit, the consciousness of one’s own weakness, the opposite of the delusion that we are ‘rich and increased with goods.’ All true subjection to the kingdom begins with that accurate, because lowly, estimate of ourselves. Humility is life, lofty mindedness is death. The heights are barren, rivers and fertility are down in the valleys.
Luke makes hunger the second characteristic, and weeping the third, while Matthew inverts that order. Either arrangement suggests important thoughts. Desire after the true riches naturally follows on consciousness of poverty, while, on the other hand, sorrow for one’s conscious lack of these may be regarded as preceding and producing longing. In fact, the three traits of character are contemporaneous, and imply each other. Outward condition comes into view, only in so far as it tends to the production of these spiritual characteristics, and has, in fact, produced them, as it had done, in some measure, in the disciples. The antithetical characteristics of the adversaries of the kingdom are, in like manner, mainly spiritual; and their riches, fullness, and laughter refer to circumstances only in so far as actual wealth, abundance, and mirth tend to hide from men their inward destitution, starvation, and misery.
But what paradoxes to praise all that flesh abhors, and to declare that it is better to be poor than rich, better to feel gnawing desire than to be satisfied, better to weep than to laugh! How little the so-called Christian world believes it! How dead against most men’s theory and practice Christ goes! These Beatitudes have a solemn warning for all, and if we really believed them, our lives would be revolutionised. The people who say, ‘Give me the Sermon on the Mount: I don’t care for your doctrines, but I can understand it ,’ have not felt the grip of these Beatitudes.
Note that the blessings and woes are based on the future issues of the two states of mind. These are not wholly in the future life, for Jesus says, ‘Yours is the kingdom.’ That kingdom is a state of obedience to God, complete in that future world, but begun here. True poverty secures entrance thither, since it leads to submission of will and trust. True hunger is sure of satisfaction, since it leads to waiting on God, who ‘will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him.’ Sorrow which is according to God, cannot but bring us near Him who ‘will wipe away tears from off all faces.’
On the other hand, they who in condition are prosperous and satisfied with earth, and in disposition are devoid of suspicion of their own emptiness, and draw their joys and sorrows from this world alone, cannot but have a grim awaking waiting for them. Here they will often feel that earth’s goods are no solid food, and that nameless yearnings and sadness break in on their mirth; and in the dim world beyond, they will start to find their hands empty and their souls starving.
The fourth of Luke’s Beatitudes contrasts the treatment received from men by the subjects and the enemies of the kingdom. Better to be Christ’s martyr than the world’s favourite! Alas, how few Christians wear the armour of that great saying! They would not set so much store by popularity, nor be so afraid of being on the unpopular side, if they did.
II. The second part of the passage contains the summary of the laws of the kingdom from the lips of the King.
But the command becomes more stringent as it advances. The sentiment is worth much, but it must bear fruit in act. So the practical manifestations of it follow. Deeds of kindness, words of blessing, and highest of all, and the best help to fulfilling the other two, prayer, are to be our meek answers to evil. Why should Christians always let their enemies settle the terms of intercourse? They are not to be mere reverberating surfaces, giving back echoes of angry voices. Let us take the initiative, and if men scowl, let us meet them with open hearts and smiles. ‘A soft answer turneth away wrath.’ ‘It takes two to make a quarrel.’ Frost and snow bind the earth in chains, but the silent sunshine conquers at last, and evil can be overcome with good.
Our Lord goes on to speak of another form of love-namely, patient endurance of wrong and unreasonableness. He puts that in terms so strong that many readers are fain to pare down their significance. Non-resistance is commanded in the most uncompromising fashion, and illustrated in the cases of assault, robbery, and pertinacious mendicancy. The world stands stiffly on its rights; the Christian is not to bristle up in defence of his, but rather to suffer wrong and loss. This is regarded by many as an impossible ideal. But it is to be observed that the principle involved is that love has no limits but itself. There may be resistance to wrong, and refusal of a request, if love prompts to these. If it is better for the other man that a Christian should not let him have his way or his wish, and if the Christian, in resisting or refusing, is honestly actuated by love, then he is fulfilling the precept when he says ‘No’ to some petition, or when he resists robbery. We must live near Jesus Christ to know when such limitations of the precept come in, and to make sure of our motives.
The world and the Church would be revolutionised if even approximate obedience were rendered to this commandment. Let us not forget that it is a commandment, and cannot be put aside without disloyalty.
Christ then crystallises His whole teaching on the subject of our conduct to others into the immortal words which make our wishes for ourselves the standard of our duty to others, and so give every man an infallible guide. We are all disposed to claim more from others than we give to them. What a paradise earth would be if the two measuring-lines which we apply to their conduct and to our own were exactly of the same length!
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Luk 6:20-26
20And turning His gaze toward His disciples, He began to say, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. 22Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. 23Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets. 24But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. 25Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. 26Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.”
Luk 6:20 “turning His gaze toward His disciples” Jesus addresses this sermon to His disciples, while in Matthew He addresses different groups in the large crowd.
“Blessed are you who are poor” Matthew relates these series of Beatitudes (cf. Mat 5:1-12) to the spiritual life, while Luke’s abbreviated form seems to relate to social conditions (i.e., poor, hungry, weeping, and hatred, cf. Luk 6:20-22).
This term (makarios) meant “happy” or “honored” (cf. Luk 6:20-22). The English word “happy” comes from the Old English “happenstance.” Believers’ God-given happiness is not based on physical circumstances but inner joy. There are no verbs in these statements. They are exclamatory in form like Aramaic or Hebrew (cf. Psa 1:1). This blessedness is both a current attitude toward God and life as well as an eschatological hope.
“kingdom of God” The phrase “Kingdom of Heaven” or “Kingdom of God” is used over 100 times in the Gospels. Matthew, writing for people with a Jewish background who were nervous about pronouncing God’s name because of Exo 20:7, usually used the phrase “the Kingdom of Heaven,” although in Mat 6:33; Mat 12:28; Mat 19:24; Mat 21:31; Mat 21:43, even he uses “Kingdom of God.” But the Gospels of Mark (cf. Mar 10:14) and Luke were written to Gentiles. The two phrases are synonymous (Frank Stagg, New Testament Theology, pp. 151-152).
M. R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, has a list of the places he believes the Kingdom is both present and future:
“1. present Mat 11:12; Mat 12:28; Mat 16:19; Luk 11:20; Luk 16:16; Luk 17:21 and the parables of: the Sower, the Tares, the Leaven, and the Dragnet
2. future Dan 7:27; Mat 13:43; 19:38; Mat 25:34; Mat 26:29; Mar 9:47; 1Co 6:9; 2Pe 1:11; Revelation 20″ (p. 161).
Luk 6:21 “blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied” Luke does not clearly state when this meeting of needs or change of circumstances will take place. Is it a future time, but in this life (“now” of Luke used twice in Luk 6:21, twice in Luk 6:25) or is it an eschatological setting (like the future eschatological setting of Matthew’s Beatitudes, cf. Mat 5:1-11)? The point is that those who trust Christ will be blessed and physically rewarded (the Matthew parallel focuses on a spiritual future). Salvation changes everything eventually. Most of the early church in Jerusalem was poor (that is one reason why Paul wanted to collect an offering for them from the Gentile churches). Luke is not promising that the gospel will immediately change one’s physical, financial, or cultural circumstances, but he does assert it will immediately change one’s attitude and hope!
Luk 6:22 There were and are repercussions for following Jesus in a fallen world (cf. Mat 5:10-11). This blessing is different from the rest in that there is a condition requiredpersecution (cf. Act 14:22; Rom 5:3-4; Rom 8:17; Php 1:29; 1Th 3:3; 2Ti 3:12; Jas 1:2-4; 1Pe 3:14; 1Pe 4:12-19; Rev 11:7; Rev 13:7). These pronounced blessings are both now and ultimately in an eschatological setting (in heaven, cf. Luk 6:23).
“Son of Man” See note at Luk 6:5.
Luk 6:23 “Be glad. . .leap” These are both aorist imperatives. Believers’ attitudes and actions in the midst of persecution, rejection, and torture are a powerful witness of their salvation and their persecutor’s judgment.
“For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets” Religious persecution is not new. Those who do it think they serve God (cf. Joh 16:2). The Jews have a track record of this kind of persecution (cf. Heb 11:36-40).
However, there is an implication that Jesus’ disciples are the new prophets. They were foretellers of God’s good news. God’s OT spokespersons were rejected and now the same thing has happened to Jesus and His followers.
Luk 6:24 “woe” The term ouai means “alas.” This was a prophetic formula used in the Septuagint for introducing a funeral dirge of judgment. These are the corollaries (exact opposite, antithetical parallelism) of the blessings. Luke is the only Gospel that records this cursing section (cf. Luk 6:24-26). This is surprising, especially if Matthew is intentionally making a comparison with Moses because this pattern reflects Deuteronomy 27-28 (cursings and blessings section).
“rich” The rich are singled out because of their illusions of self-sufficiency. The “woes” are a role-reversal with the “blessed.” God’s ways are not our ways (cf. Isa 55:8-9). What looks like prosperity may, in reality, be a curse!
NASB”you are receiving your comfort in full”
NKJV, NRSV”you have received your consolation”
TEV”you have your easy life”
NJB”you are having your consolation now”
This is a Present active indicative. Notice the “this life” orientation (cf. Mat 6:2; Mat 6:5; Mat 6:16) of this phrase (and of the next three woes as well).
Luk 6:25 “Woe to you who laugh now” This seems to refer to the superficial merriment related to earthly comfort. These woes are a contrast to Jesus’ blessings of believers (cf. Luk 6:23).
Luk 6:26 “when all men speak well of you” This verse contrasts Luk 6:23. The theological balance to this statement is found in 1Ti 3:7. We are not to seek the acclaim of the world at any cost, but we are to attempt to remove any handle for criticism so as to facilitate evangelism and ministry.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
And, &c. Not “Luke’s version” of “the Sermon on the Mount”, but a repetition in a different form of certain parts of it on a subsequent occasion. Why create a “discrepancy “by supposing that our Lord never repeated any part of His discourses? Compare Isa 28:9-13.
lifted up His eyes. Peculiar to Luke.
on = unto. Greek. eis. App-104.
Blessed, &c. = Happy. See note on Mat 5:3.
the kingdom of God. See App-114.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
20-49.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT (?). Peculiar (in this form) to Luke, answering to Matthew 5-7. On the whole question of the identity or diversity of the two discourses, see on Mat 5:1. In Matthew I cannot doubt that we have the whole discourse much as it was spoken; the connexion is intimate throughout; the arrangement wonderfully consistent and admirable. Here, on the other hand, the discourse is only reported in fragments-there is a wide gap between Luk 6:26-27, and many omissions in other parts; besides which, sayings of our Lord, belonging apparently to other occasions, are inserted: see Luk 6:39-40; Luk 6:45. At the same time we must remember, that such gnomic sayings would probably be frequently uttered by Him, and might very likely form part of this discourse originally. His teaching was not studious of novelty like that of men, but speaking with authority, as He did, He would doubtless utter again and again the same weighty sentences when occasion occurred. Hence may have arisen much of the difference of arrangement observable in the reports-because sayings known to have been uttered together at one time, might be thrown together with sayings spoken at another, with some one common link perhaps connecting the two groups.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Luk 6:20. , Himself) In antithesis to the people, whose attention was directed to His miracles rather than to His word (or to Himself, the Word).-, on) among.- , the poor) These briefly-enunciated sentiments constitute parables: the meaning of which is presented to us more fully in [Mat 5:3, etc. Internal and external things often go together: for which reason the one is denominated of the other; for instance, poverty or riches [i.e. the poor in spirit are simply called here the poor, by a denomination taken from external poverty. So of the rich]: Luk 6:24.-, yours peculiarly) Herein is His application of consolation individually. The expression ( ), having lifted up (His eyes), corresponds: for the glances of His eyes point out individuals [have a demonstrative power.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Luk 6:20-49
10. THE GREAT SERMON
Luk 6:20-49
20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples,-A parallel of this sermon is found in Mat 5:1 to Mat 7:28. This “sermon” is a synopsis of a continuous discourse, spoken at one time; it may have been repeated a number of times and Luke gives a record of the sermon which was repeated at some later time than the record given by Matthew. Many think that Luke’s account is in chronological order, while Matthew’s is not. Both accounts in Matthew and Luke represent a great multitude present, but that Jesus spoke directly to his disciples; both Matthew and Luke present the main topics in the same order throughout; both begin with “the beatitudes” and end with the illustration of the necessity of doing as well as hearing. Matthew records nine beatitudes, while Luke gives only four; yet Luke adds four “woes” upon different classes of men which Matthew does not record. Luke puts the discourse in the second person, “blessed are ye,” while Matthew has it in the third person.
Blessed are ye poor:-The poor as used here means those who are “poor in spirit,” and not the penniless. The humble in spirit and the contrite of heart are those who are poor in the spirit. The word here means the same as that used in Isa 66:1-3. The poor in this sense may lay just claims to “the kingdom of God.” “The kingdom of God” is the same as Matthew calls “the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew uses “kingdom of heaven” frequently, and Jesus used that phrase to describe the kingdom. “Kingdom of heaven” and “kingdom of God” are equivalent terms, though the preeminent title was “kingdom of God,” since it was expected to be fully realized in the Messianic era, when God should take upon himself the kingdom by a visible representative. “Kingdom of heaven” had a double meaning with the Jews-the historical kingdom and the spiritual kingdom.
21 Blessed are ye that hunger now:-Luke adds the word “now,” that is, in this life and at the present time. Those who earnestly and even painfully desire righteousness “shall be filled”; that is, they shall be satisfied. They shall find complete satisfaction in Christ, having his righteousness accounted to them and being satisfied and conformed to his image. (Prow. 21:21; Isa 41:17; Isa 60:21; 2Pe 3:13.)
Blessed are ye that weep now:-Again Luke gives the word “now,” its proper emphasis, and restricts the weeping. This is a stronger expression than Matthew uses-“they that mourn.” It signifies that deep anguish of spirit which manifests itself in groans and tears; it does not include all kinds of weeping, for the sorrow “of the world worketh death.” (2Co 7:10.) It includes those who weep over their sins. “Ye shall laugh”; not only shall they be comforted, as Matthew expresses it, but they shall rejoice with open joy. Their sins shall be forgiven; they shall be supported in trial and cheered with the blessings of God. Their joy shall be complete, both with respect to the present and the future state. (2Co 1:4; 2Co 4:17; Rev 21:4.)
22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you,-This expresses in strong terms the enemies of the disciples of Christ; they shall be hated. The disciples of Christ represent the kingdom of God on earth, and the world hates the kingdom of God. The disciples of Christ are hated, reproached, persecuted, and separated from their synagogues, their society, and outcasts among men. They are hated because they are the children of God; they are cast out as evil persons. All this is done “for the Son of man’s sake.” “Son of man” is a phrase frequently used in the Old Testament. It was applied to man in general (Num 23:19 , Job 25:6; Job 35:8; Psa 8:4), and is used eighty-nine times in Ezekiel. It had also a Messianic meaning in the Old Testament. (Dan 7:13.) Jesus most frequently used this phrase when speaking of himself; and there are but two instances in which it is applied to him by another, namely, by Stephen (Act 7:56) and by John (Rev 1:13; Rev 14:14). As “Son of man” Jesus asserts his authority over all flesh.
23 Rejoice in that day,-They are to rejoice in the day that they are persecuted, when they are reproached for the name of Christ. They were even to “leap for joy”; they should be so overjoyed that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ that they could not contain themselves without a physical demonstration of their job. Christians have reason to rejoice amid persecutions in view of a reward so great and glorious. (2Co 4:17.)
24-26 But woe unto you that are rich!-Luke here records four woes which Matthew does not record. These woes are not the expression of anger, but of lamentation and warning. “Woe unto you” or “alas for you!” Jesus is not uttering as a judge condemnation, but as the great Teacher and Prophet he declares the miserable condition of certain classes and warns them against it. The first woe is pronounced over those that are rich; this is the opposite of spiritual poverty; it includes those that make this world their possession and wealth and trust in riches. (Mar 10:24; Luk 12:21; Luk 18:24-25; 1Jn 2:15.) Worldly riches are deceitful in their influence, choking the word and rendering it unfruitful.
Woe unto you, ye that are full now!-This is the opposite of those who have spiritual hunger. This class has no cravings after spiritual food, but are satisfied with the worldly pleasures which only the earth can give. There is coming a time when they shall “hunger.” When they are brought to their senses and are bereft of all spiritual food, then they shall famish for need of that which only can make the soul happy in the world to come. This will be an endless hunger.
Woe unto you, ye that laugh now!-This woe is the opposite of weeping in verse 21. Those who engage in worldly pleasure, who indulge in frivolity, and dissipation, who live in gaiety and mirth in this world, shall in the world to come “mourn and weep.” The frivolity will be turned into sorrow when they discover their miserable end, and are cast out into outer darkness where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. (Prow. 1:25-28; Jas 4:9.)
Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you!-This was spoken to his disciples;they should not court the favor of men; neither should they seek to please men. The reason given here is that “in the same manner did their fathers to the false prophets.” This woe is opposite to the beatitudes in verses 22 and 23. “All men” is a term used to include the world. A Christian should strive to have “good testimony from them that are without” (1Ti 3:7), but when his words and conduct are such as to please and delight the ungodly, affording no reproof for their wicked practices, he should be alarmed. “Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God.” (Jas 4:4.) The fathers sought to please “the false prophets” by encouraging them in their wicked ways, and the false prophets sought to please the people by crying “peace, peace”! when there was no peace. (1Ki 22:6-14; Jer. 23 14; 28:10, 11; Eze 13:10-11.)
27, 28 But I say unto you that hear,-Jesus here puts in contrast his teachings with that of the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees. He had told his disciples that they would have enemies and would suffer persecution; he now instructs them how they should treat their enemies. He enforces the duty of love, its extent, and its standard. Luke here arranges his account of this sermon very different from that given by Matthew. Jesus enforced this by saying: “I say unto you”; he speaks not like their scribes. “Love your enemies.” This sublime moral precept takes rank at the head of all moral duties toward our fellow beings, for the obligation to love enemies carries with it the obligation to love all who are not enemies, but who are more or less friendly.
bless them that curse you,-They would be persecuted and spoken evil against, but they were not to retaliate, and speak evil of their enemies, but were to bless them; speak words of peace, kindness, and love to those who insulted and reviled them. They were to pray for them; that is, pray that their enemies might cease to be enemies and to become disciples of Jesus. Praying for their enemies is the opposite of cursing their enemies. Jesus set the example for them when he prayed on the cross: “Father, forgive them.” (Luk 23:34.) Stephen prayed the same prayer when he said: “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” (Act 7:60.)
29, 30 To him that smiteth thee on the one cheek-Jesus gives two examples to illustrate the treatment of enemies in addition to enjoining the principle of love. The first example is that of turning the other cheek when smitten on one. “Cheek” literally means “the jaw”; the blow intended is not a mere slap, but a heavy blow, an act of violence rather than contempt. It was regarded as an affront of the worst sort to be struck in the face; it was severely punished both by Jewish and Roman laws. It was a proverb to turn the other cheek when receiving injury. (Lam 3:30.) This sets forth a principle, and is not to be taken too literally. The other example is that if the cloak is taken from one then the coat should be given. This illustrates the same principle. From personal violence Jesus descends to the demanding of property by legal means. The “cloak” was the outer garment; it was worn loose around the body; the “coat” was the undergarment. We are here taught to suffer wrong rather than do wrong we are to do good for evil. We are not to retaliate; this course, if followed by the disciples of Christ, would win a victory over our enemies.
Give to every one that asketh thee;-This is to be interpreted by the principles of Christian love; Jesus is here opposing a retaliating and revengeful spirit; his disciples must not out of revenge withhold help from any who may need it. Christians should be ready and willing to help the needy at all times, even if they are enemies. (2Co 8:12; Gal 6:10.) If anyone should take “away thy goods ask them not again.” The disciples of Jesus are not to show a revengeful spirit, and should not do violence to anyone that despoils their goods; but they should be kind and liberal and strive to win back the offender to right conceptions of living. Christians should show a forbearing spirit at all times and never retaliate.
31 And as ye would that men should do to you,-This is called the “Golden Rule”; Jesus gives it as a test of love toward others. We should make the case of others our own, and as we would as honest and righteous people that others should do to us, we should do in like manner to them. This was a new requirement, but simply the application of the law to love our neighbor as ourselves. (Mat 7:12.) Many have quoted similar statements from heathen authors, but those gave the negative part of this command, while Christ gave the positive. Not only are we to avoid doing to others what we in their situation would dislike, but we are to do to them whatever we would in righteousness wish them to do to us. This principle of determining what we shall do to others by first determining what we would have others do to us would keep down many of the difficulties that arise in society. This excludes all selfishness and enforces right thinking about others as well as righteous conduct toward them. It is the rule that Jesus gave, and hence is the one that regulates Christian conduct toward each other and all others.
32-36 And if ye love them that love you,-Sinners do good to others for policy’s sake, not from principle; they do good to others, hoping to receive good from others, and not for the good that they love to do. Jesus here lays down a higher and nobler course of conduct; Christians are to do good to others with no thought of receiving again any good from others; they are to do it because they love to do good; do it because God does and will provide for those who follow Christ. If Christians only did good to those in the world who did them good, they would do very little good in this world; if they did no more good than many church members do to each other, again they would be doing very little good. Christ gives a higher standard of conduct for his disciples. He sums up his teachings by saying that his disciples should love their enemies, “and do them good, and lend, never despairing.” There is no moral credit in simply loving those who love us; the wicked do that much; it is no mark of godliness simply to do good to those who do good to us; many godless people do like that.
Be ye merciful,-Prove yourself merciful by the conduct above described that you may be like your Father. Matthew says “be perfect.” God is the “Father of mercies” (2Co 1:3), and as mercy is one of the chief attributes of God shown to man, to be merciful like him is to reach completeness in our sphere, as he is completely “perfect” in his sphere. “Merciful” means “pitiful, compassionate”; it is the feeling produced by the misery and want of others. In Jas 5:11 it is very properly translated “tender mercy.”
37, 38 And judge not,-This forbids harsh, censorious judgments of the character of others; it also forbids unjust criticisms of the conduct of others. It does not forbid the forming of opinions as to what is right or wrong. It does admonish us that those opinions should be in love, never severe. Christians should not form hasty judgments, nor unkind judgments; they should never form judgments based on jealousy, suspicion, envy, or hate. The Golden Rule should govern one here; one should judge another as he would wish to be judged; one should not condemn with severity, but weigh in Christian love every judgment formed. One should not seek to judge, but if one must, let it be a “righteous judgment”; consider it as Christian.
give, and it shall be given unto you;-There are two things which are forbidden here, namely, “judge not” and “condemn not”; one will be judged and condemned with the same degree of severity, both by man and God, that he passes on others. There are also two things commanded here, namely, “release” and “give.” One will receive what one gives; the Christians’ law of conduct here is to “give and forgive.” This rule will keep peace and happiness in the church, in the community, and in the family. If one will follow this rule, one will receive full measure for it; “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom.” “Pressed down” as dry articles, “shaken together” as soft goods, “running over” as liquids. Full measure shall be given to the one who so deports himself. This “good measure” “shall they give into your bosom.” The gathered folds of the wide upper garment, bound together with the girdle, formed a pouch. In the eastern country people who wore a loose, outer garment used the bosom to pour the contents of grain or other articles into as they would a sack. In Rth 3:15 Boaz said to Ruth: “Bring the mantle that is upon thee, and hold it; and she held it; and he measured six measures of barley, and laid it on her: and he went into the city.” (See also Isa 65:7; Jer 32:18.)
39 And he spake also a parable unto them,-This “parable” is more like a proverb; it is put in the interrogative form and the original shows that a negative reply is expected. “Can the blind guide the blind?” The blind were very numerous in that country; Luke uses the word “parable” some fifteen times instead of “proverb” and for the longer narrative comparisons. This is the only use of the term parable concerning the metaphors in the “Sermon on the Mount.” One blind man is very unfit to guide another; so those who undertake to teach others when they do not know the truth themselves are unfit, for they are blind guides. The “pit” is an emblem of destruction; the Pharisees are described as “blind guides.”(Mat 15:14; Mat 23:16.) The reference here is to censorious and critical teachers who may have a “beam” in their eye. If ignorant and unskillful leaders attempt to guide people, they themselves will be the first to fall into the ditch or be desroyed. No one who is blind to spiritual truth can guide others into it.
40 The disciple is not above his teacher:-Here Jesus uses another proverbial statement that the disciple, so long as he is a disciple, or learner, cannot be above his master or teacher. The nature of the relationship of teacher and disciple is such that the teacher is above the disciple, and the disciple cannot become wiser and better than his teacher so long as this relationship exists. “But every one when he is perfected shall be as his teacher.” The disciple naturally makes his teacher his model and imitates him. If they are blind and censorious teachers, they would infuse the same spirit into their disciples; hence they would be unsafe and unfit instructors. “Perfected” as used here signifies in the original to “readjust, restore, to set right,” whether in a physical or moral sense. In Gal 6:1 it is used as restoring a brother taken in a fault; in medical language it means to set a bone or joint when it has been broken or dislocated.
41, 42 And why beholdest thou the mote-Jesus here rebukes and instructs those who would be teachers; suggestions to those who undertake to teach others are used here, and specific application made to the Pharisees and other religious teachers. In their censorious spirit, they magnify and are quick to see the smallest fault in their neigibor, but do not perceive the enormous faults in their own character. Some can always see the faults of others quicker than they can see their own faults; again the faults in others always seem much larger than their own faults yet in reality their own faults may be much greater than those in the other person, whom they are criticizing. Jesus uses here “the mote” and “the beam” to enforce his teaching. The “mote” and the “beam” are proverbial contrasts, the “mote” being the finest particle of dust or chaff against the “beam” of timber for a house frame-like the contrast between sawdust and the saw log itself.
43, 44 For there is no good tree that bringeth forth corrupt fruit;-The general principle here announced by Jesus was that which all believe. The good tree cannot bear corrupt fruit, nor can a rotten tree bring forth good fruit. The character of the tree is determined by the kind of fruit it bears. The tree and its fruit illustrate the heart and the life; the bad heart yields a wicked life; the good heart, a worthy life. Honest and pure intentions, the sincere purpose to do right, yield naturally the fruit of right doing; so Jesus teaches us to estimate what the inner man is by what the outer man does. Men do not gather figs from thorn trees, nor grapes from a “bramble bush.” Matthew uses “thistle,” while Luke uses “bramble bush.” Some think that Luke was acquainted with the “bramble bush” and used it for medicinal purposes, as he was a physician.
45 The good man out of the good treasure-The figure was changed from the general tree to the particular horn tree; the thorn tree was abundant in that country. So the figures are now applied to man’s character and conduct; out of the good man come good words and deeds, because there is a treasury of goodness in his heart. His thoughts and affections are pure. Out of the evil man comes evil, because the store of things in his heart is evil. Language is the overflowing of the soul and indicates its state and condition. (Mat 15:18; Rom 10:9-10; 2Co 4:13.) Jesus has passed by degrees from the conditions of the Christian life, the beatitudes, to the life itself; he has presented first the principle, then the life that is governed by the principle.
46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord,-The force of this question is seen when we look at the meaning of “Lord”; “Lord” means master, ruler; it is inconsistent to call one “Lord” and yet not obey him. The question implies: “Why do ye admit my right to rule and to lay down the law of your life, and yet not do the things which I command?” It seems that many, both real and professed friends, were thus addressing him; the repetition emphasizes a habitual profession. If they truly accepted Jesus as Lord, they would do what he commanded them; this was applicable to his apostles, also to his disciples today. The interrogative form makes this a two-edged sword; an emphatic warning, on one hand, against a mere profession, and an emphatic command, on the other, to make their profession and practice agree. Matthew (Mat 7:21-23) makes a different application of this.
47, 48 Every one that cometh unto me,-The one who comes to Christ in the proper sense as used here becomes a disciple or learner. Doing, obeying, comes by hearing and implies faith. (Rom 10:14.) The “words” as here used include all that Jesus had spoken during this sermon. Hearing is important, but there is something else needed; faith and obedience must be added to hearing. “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves.” (Jas 1:22.) The one that both hears and does what Jesus says is like the man building a house, who digged deep, and placed a foundation on the solid rock.
49 But he that heareth, and doeth not,-The foolish hearer who fails to do what the Lord requires, yet because he has heard, thinks himself secure, finds his professed Christian character swept away in a sudden flood of evil, like the house stuck upon the earth, which the sudden floods undermine and sweep away into ruin. The hearer, who does not obey, has no solid foundation for his character or hope. His hearing is commendable, but his failing to do or obey is condemned. The same figure is used here of the wind, rain, and flood beating against the house of the one who had built his house upon the rock. The difference is great; the one withstood all the furiousness of the storm, but the other went down in hopeless ruin; so it will be with those who hear but do not obey.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Chapter 33
Four Great Contrasts
The things revealed in these few verses of Inspiration are the meat of the Word, upon which only the strong can feed. By comparison, the glorious gospel doctrines of divine sovereignty, eternal predestination, free election, particular, effectual redemption, irresistible grace and the everlasting security of Gods elect in Christ are baby milk and baby food. Many who love to nurse upon the breasts of election and predestination choke on the things revealed in our Lords doctrine here.
Here our Master proclaims some of the most important things taught in holy scripture. These are spiritual truths that are galling to our flesh. May God the Holy Spirit give us eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts to heed the things he inspired Luke to record in this place.
Obvious Differences
While the sermon which begins here and runs through the end of this chapter, in many ways resembles our Lords Sermon on the Mount (recorded in Matthew 5-7), it must not be confused with it. I am aware that the vast majority of good commentators say they are the same; but a careful reading of the two makes it obvious that they are not. Though there are similarities, the differences are obvious.
For one thing, the sermon recorded by Matthew is properly called The Sermon on the Mount, because it was a sermon delivered upon a mountain side. The sermon here was delivered in the plain (Luk 6:17).
The Sermon on the Mount was delivered before our Lord had named his twelve apostles. This sermon was delivered immediately after he named them.
It is obvious that the two sermons are tremendously different in length. It might be thought that Luke was inspired to give a much more brief summary of the same message than Matthew was inspired to record, but there are some things found in this sermon which are not mentioned in the far more lengthy Sermon on the Mount. If this was just a shorter version of the same sermon, we would expect some things to be left out; but we would not expect things to be included here that were omitted from the more lengthy version.
In the passage before us the Master is speaking specifically to his disciples, to those who were truly his disciples and to those who were his disciples in name only. In these seven, short verses he lays the axe to the root of the tree and distinguishes clearly between true believers and mere lip service professors. He does so by making four great, glaring contrasts between true believers and false professors. First, he gives us four beatitudes, which characterize the true believer. Then he gives us four woes, which characterize the false professor.
Four Beatitudes
In Luk 6:20-23 our Saviour gives four words of blessing, four beatitudes, four conditions of true blessedness and happiness, by which all true believers are characterized.
Who are those men and women whom the Son of God pronounces blessed? The list is both remarkable and shocking. It is totally contrary to the opinion of the world. Here, our Lord singles out those who are poor, hungry, sorrowful and hated, and calls them blessed. How can this be? Let us look at each beatitude and see what the Master here teaches us.
Blessed are ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God (Luk 6:21). He does not say, blessed are the poor, but blessed are you poor. In the Sermon on the Mount he said, Blessed are the poor in spirit (Mat 5:1). Those who are poor in spirit are those men and women who have been taught of God the utter depravity, corruption and sinfulness of their hearts. They are men and women who are convinced of sin, righteousness and judgment by God the Holy Spirit. The poor in spirit confess their sins and find forgiveness in Christ, being washed in his blood and robed in his righteousness.
All who are blessed of God with grace, salvation and eternal life in Christ are poor in Spirit. But, here our Saviour speaks of something else.
Here, the Master says, Blessed are ye poor. We must not imagine that the Lord is here making physical poverty a spiritual blessing and giving men a claim to heavenly glory upon the basis of earthly poverty. Here, our Lord is talking about physical, earthly, material poverty; but it is poverty accompanied by grace.
The Lord Jesus chose twelve apostles and sent them out to evangelize the world. He sent them out without any means visible of earthly support into a hostile world. When he did, he commanded them plainly not to provide for themselves and not to go begging for help from the world, and told them plainly that they would be hated, persecuted and driven out from the company of men.
Is it possible to conduct any kind of ministry in this way? Is it possible to evangelize the world this way? Not only is it possible, there is no other way! This is the only way Gods servants and Gods church can perform the work the Lord God has trusted to our hands.
Poverty itself is not virtuous and is not a blessing. In fact, poverty is often the result of divine judgment. In our text the Lord Jesus is talking about a willing, deliberate, self-imposed poverty. This is not the self-imposed poverty of hermits and monks, but the poverty men and women knowingly bring upon themselves by following Christ, obeying the will of God and serving the interests of his kingdom.
This is not the poverty which comes as the result of laziness, because a man pretends to be too spiritual to work. This is that poverty which comes when a man or woman counts the costs and forsakes all to follow Christ. In the early days of Christianity those who followed Christ literally gave up everything, often even life itself, because of their faith in and love for him.
Though our circumstances are somewhat different today, it is still true that those who follow Christ forsake all to follow him and love not their lives, even unto death. All true believers do exactly what our Lord required the rich young ruler to do. They sell all they have and follow him.
Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled (Luk 6:21). In Mat 5:6, in the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord said, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
There our Lord declares that all who are born of God, hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God in Christ. They long to stand before God in the perfect righteousness of Christ, and long to be perfectly conformed to Christ in righteousness and true holiness (Php 3:7-15). All who do truly hunger and thirst after this righteousness shall have it. They shall be filled.
Here, our Lord is declaring that those who hunger for the gospels sake shall be filled. Believers are people who willingly deprive themselves of that which they might otherwise lawfully enjoy for the gospels sake. They are willing to get along on less, so that they can give more. They do not have to have the finer things. They do not have to lavish themselves in luxury, but rather prefer to do without so that they may have to give for the furtherance of the gospel. Believers know that things craved by the flesh are only temporal and can never satisfy. So they do not mind giving them up. We look for satisfaction, we look to be filled in another world.
These are matters which apply to and are seen in all true believers; and they are matters which must and do characterize gospel preachers. Gods servants are men separated unto the gospel. They do not seek to enrich themselves by the gospel, but rather sacrifice the comforts and luxuries of life for the gospel. Gods servants do not seek the possessions of men, but their souls.
Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh (Luk 6:21). Sorrow is not itself beneficial or sanctifying. Our Lord is here talking about those who weep for his sake. Believers, as long as we live in this world of woe, have countless nights of weeping and tears. Like all other people, we experience the sorrows of sickness, pain, bereavement, broken homes, wayward children and earthly trouble.
In addition to the sorrows of the world, those who know, trust, love and follow Christ carry other burdens which cause them to weep. We carry the heavy load of our corrupt nature and constant sin. We carry the load of care for the souls of men. And we carry the heavy load of care for the church, the kingdom and the glory of our God in this world. Yet, those who sow in tears will reap in joy. Ye shall laugh! Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. The time of laughter shall soon come. We shall, at last, be filled with consolation. We shall soon possess unending, uninterruptible, everlasting joy! The joy of perfect righteousness, perfect peace, perfect understanding and perfect satisfaction!
Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of mans sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in like manner did their fathers unto the prophets (Luk 6:22-23).
Our Lord is here talking about religious persecution, persecution brought upon us because of the gospel we preach. The words used here are used specifically with regard to ecclesiastical censure and discipline. Our Lord could not have used stronger words to picture the heaping of mans wrath upon his people for the gospels sake.
Hatred, persecution, slander and reproach are the devices of Satan, not the tools of Gods church and people. We ought not to allow Satans rage, displayed in the wrath of men, to cause us too much pain. The tables will soon be turned.
Four Woes
But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets (Luk 6:24-26).
Stronger, more cutting, condemning statements than these cannot be found in the New Testament. But what do these words mean? We must not imagine that the mere possession of wealth is a curse. Jobs great wealth was the token of Gods favour toward him. We must not think that the mere display of laughter and joy is a sign of Gods wrath. David was a man who often spoke of laughter and displayed it both in song and dance; and he was a man after Gods own heart. We certainly must not imagine that the possession of a good name is an indication of a foul heart. Timothy was a man whose name was well spoken of by those outside the church as well as within it.
Who, then, are these men and women of whom the Master speaks, when he says, Woe unto you? They are those people who prefer the world to Christ, who prefer the riches of the world to the riches of his grace, who prefer the laughter of lusts to the happiness of holiness, who delight more in gain than in godliness, who love the praise of men more than the praise of God.
Our Lord knew, from the beginning, that there would be many in the professed church, many who claim to be his disciples in every age who, though convinced of the truth of the gospel and professing to love it, would yet live for the world in the lusts of their flesh. To all such men and women, the Son of God says, Woe unto you!
This is what our Lord declares. Let men think and say what they may. This is the doctrine of this passage. Those who are poor because they choose to follow Christ and serve him, rather than enrich themselves, are possessors of the kingdom of God. Those who choose and seek and get riches will perish with their moth eaten treasures. They have all here they will ever have, the consolation of thick clay. Those who prefer to be hungry in doing the will of God, to fullness in rebelling, shall be filled forever. Those who live to fill their bellies and their lusts shall be hungry forever in hell. Those who choose a path of sorrow for the glory of God, carrying the weight of weighty matters upon their hearts, shall be filled with the laughter of complete satisfaction in heaven. Those who live here for pleasure shall find nothing but sorrow forever in hell. Those who prefer the favour and praise of God to the favour and praise of men shall be numbered among the sons of God forever, in everlasting praise. Those who prefer the favour and praise of men to the favour and praise of God shall be the objects of everlasting contempt, from both God and men in hell forever!
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
he lifted: Mat 5:2-12, Mat 12:49, Mat 12:50, Mar 3:34, Mar 3:35
Blessed: Luk 6:24, Luk 4:18, Luk 16:25, 1Sa 2:8, Psa 37:16, Psa 113:7, Psa 113:8, Pro 16:19, Pro 19:1, Isa 29:19, Isa 57:15, Isa 57:16, Isa 66:2, Zep 3:12, Zec 11:11, Mat 11:5, Joh 7:48, Joh 7:49, 1Co 1:26-29, 2Co 6:10, 2Co 8:2, 2Co 8:9, 1Th 1:6, Jam 1:9, Jam 1:10, Jam 2:5, Rev 2:9
for: Luk 12:32, Luk 13:28, Luk 14:15, Mat 5:3, Mat 5:10, Act 14:22, 1Co 3:21-23, 2Th 1:5, Jam 1:12
Reciprocal: Lev 14:21 – poor Psa 9:18 – For the Psa 119:141 – small Mat 3:2 – for Rom 12:16 – condescend to men of low estate Rom 15:26 – the poor
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
0
Luke’s account of the sermon -on the mount begins with this verse. That sermon is related with more detail by Matthew, likewise my comments are more extended at that place, which are to be found in Matthew 5, 6, , 7. The reader should consult that account in connection with this chapter of Luke.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
THE discourse of our Lord, which we have now begun, resembles, in many respects, His well-known Sermon on the Mount. The resemblance, in fact, is so striking that many have concluded that Luke and Matthew are reporting one and the same discourse, and that Luke is giving us, in an abridged form, what Matthew reports at length. There seems no sufficient ground for this conclusion. The occasions on which the two discourses were delivered, were entirely different. Our Lord’s repetition of the same great lesson, in almost the same words, on two different occasions, is nothing extraordinary. It is unreasonable to suppose that none of His mighty teachings were ever delivered more than once. In the present case, the repetition is very significant. It shows us the great and deep importance of the lessons which the two discourses contain.
Let us first notice in these verses, who are those whom the Lord Jesus pronounced blessed. The list is a remarkable and startling one. It singles out those who are “poor,” and those who “hunger,”-those who “weep,” and those who are “hated” by man. These are the persons to whom the great Head of the Church says, “Blessed are ye”!
We must take good heed that we do not misunderstand our Lord’s meaning, when we read these expressions. We must not for a moment suppose that the mere fact of being poor, and hungry, and sorrowful, and hated by man, will entitle any one to lay claim to an interest in Christ’s blessing. The poverty here spoken of, is a poverty accompanied by grace. The want is a want entailed by faithful adherence to Jesus. The afflictions are the afflictions of the Gospel. The persecution is persecution for the Son of Man’s sake. Such want, and poverty, and affliction, and persecution, were the inevitable consequences of faith in Christ, at the beginning of Christianity. Thousands had to give up everything in this world, because of their religion. It was their case which Jesus had specially in view in this passage. He desired to supply them, and all who suffer like them for the Gospel’s sake, with special comfort and consolation.
Let us notice, secondly, in these verses, who are those to whom our Lord addresses the solemn words, “Woe unto you.” Once more we read expressions which at first sight seem most extraordinary. “Woe unto you that are rich!-Woe unto you that are full!-Woe unto you that laugh!-Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you!”-Stronger and more cutting sayings than these cannot be found in the New Testament.
Here, however, no less than in the preceding verses, we must take care that we do not misapprehend our Lord’s meaning. We are not to suppose that the possession of riches, and a rejoicing spirit, and the good word of man, are necessarily proofs that people are not Christ’s disciples. Abraham and Job were rich. David and Paul had their seasons of rejoicing. Timothy was one who “had a good report from those that were without.” All these, we know, were true servants of God. All these were blessed in this life, and shall receive the blessing of the Lord in the day of His appearing.
Who are the persons to whom our Lord says, “Woe unto you”? They are the men who refuse to seek treasure in heaven, because they love the good things of this world better, and will not give up their money, if need requires, for Christ’s sake.-They are the men who prefer the joys and so-called happiness of this world, to joy and peace in believing, and will not risk the loss of the one in order to gain the other.-They are those who love the praise of man more than the praise of God, and will turn their backs on Christ, rather than not keep in with the world.-These are the kind of men whom our Lord had in view when He pronounced the solemn words, “Woe, woe unto you.” He knew well that there were thousands of such persons among the Jews,-thousands who, notwithstanding His miracles and sermons, would love the world better than Him. He knew well that there would always be thousands of such in His professing Church,-thousands who, though convinced of the truth of the Gospel, would never give up anything for its sake. To all such He delivers an awful warning,-“Woe, woe unto you!”
One mighty lesson stands out plainly on the face of these verses. May we all lay it to heart, and learn wisdom! That lesson is the utter contrariety between the mind of Christ, and the common opinions of mankind,-the entire variance between the thoughts of Jesus, and the prevailing thoughts of the world. The conditions of life which the world reckons desirable, are the very conditions upon which the Lord pronounces “woes.” Poverty, and hunger, and sorrow, and persecution, are the very things which man labors to avoid. Riches, and fullness, and merriment, and popularity, are precisely the things which men are always struggling to attain. When we have said all, in the way of qualifying, explaining, and limiting our Lord’s words, there still remain two sweeping assertions, which flatly contradict the current doctrine of mankind. The state of life which our Lord blesses, the world cordially dislikes. The people to whom our Lord says, “woe unto you,” are the very people whom the world admires, praises, and imitates. This is an awful fact. It ought to raise within us great searchings of heart.
Let us leave the whole passage with honest self-inquiry and self-examination. Let us ask ourselves what we think of the wonderful declarations that it contains. Can we subscribe to what our Lord says? Are we of one mind with Him? Do we really believe that poverty and persecution, endured for Christ’s sake, are positive blessings? Do we really believe that riches and worldly enjoyments, and popularity among men, when sought for more than salvation, or preferred in the least to the praise of God, are a positive curse? Do we really think that the favor of Christ, with trouble and the world’s ill word, is better worth having than money, and merriment, and a good name among men, without Christ?-These are most serious questions, and deserve a most serious answer. The passage before us is eminently one which tests the reality of our Christianity. The truths it contains, are truths which no unconverted man can love and receive. Happy are those who have found them truths by experience, and can say “amen” to all our Lord’s declarations. Whatever men may please to think, those whom Jesus blesses are blessed, and those whom Jesus does not bless will be cast out for evermore.
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Notes-
v20.-[And he lifted up his eyes.] It is a disputed point, whether the discourse which begins with this verse, is the same as that recorded in Matthew chapters 5, 6, 7, and commonly called the sermon on the mount. The majority of commentators unquestionably regard the two discourses as the same. To this opinion, after much consideration, I feel unable to subscribe.
I regard the two discourses as distinct and different, and consider them as delivered at different times.
For one thing, the occasion of the discourse recorded by Luke, is not the same as the occasion of that recorded by Matthew. The discourse reported by Matthew was one “delivered on a mountain,” and previous to the appointment of the twelve Apostles. The discourse reported by Luke, was delivered in “the plain,” and after the twelve Apostles had been ordained. To me it seems impossible to get over this discrepancy.
For another thing, there is a wide difference between the persons called “blessed” in the discourse in Matthew, and the persons called “blessed” in the discourse in Luke. In Matthew the point brought forward in each case is the spiritual character of the person, in Luke his temporal circumstances and condition. There is a wide difference, for instance, between “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” and “Blessed be ye poor.”
For another thing, the variances between the two discourses in length is very notable. Luke’s report can in no sense be called an abridgment of Matthew. Many things that Matthew reports, he omits altogether. Some things that he inserts, on the other hand, are not to be found in Matthew at all.
In the last place, it seems unreasonable to suppose that our Lord never repeated the same lessons on different occasions. All public teachers find it necessary to do so. We cannot doubt that He did also. In the present instance He repeats to a different audience some of the truths which He had before preached at greater length in the Sermon on the Mount. And the repetition was meant to show their importance.
For the above reasons, I believe that Luke and Matthew are recording two different discourses. In saying this, I consider it only fair to myself to remark that the view I maintain is held by Poole, Cartwright, Doddridge, Whitby, Scott, and Watson.
[Blessed be ye poor.] The poverty spoken of here, as well as the hunger, weeping, and being hated, of the rest of the passage, must be taken in a literal sense, remembering only that it is poverty and sorrow for the Gospel’s sake to which our Lord refers. The expressions, “rich,” and “full,” and “laugh,” in the latter part of the passage, must evidently be taken in a literal sense. It seems unreasonable to interpret the one set of words spiritually and the other literally.
The promises, of course, in one case, as well as the threatenings in the other, admit of a much wider interpretation. “Ye shall be filled,” and “ye shall laugh,” are promises which to many of God’s saints are never fulfilled in this world. In like manner, “ye shall hunger,” and “ye shall mourn and weep,” are words of which the wicked, in many cases, will not know the full bitterness till hereafter.
v22.-[Separate you from their company.] The Greek word so rendered, according to Suicer, is especially applied to ecclesiastical excommunication.
v24.-[Ye have received.] The Greek word so rendered should rather have a present sense, “ye are receiving or having your consolation.”
v26.-[Woe unto you…all…speak well of you.] Let that expression be carefully noted. Few of our Lord’s sayings are more flatly contradictory to the common opinion, both of the Church and the world, than this. What is more common in the world than the love of every one’s praise? What more frequent in the Church than to hear it said, in commendation of a minister, that “every body likes him!” It seems entirely forgotten, that to be liked and approved by every body, is to be of the number of those to whom Jesus says, “Woe unto you.” To be universally popular is a most unsatisfactory symptom, and one of which a minister of Christ should always be afraid. It may well make him doubt whether he is faithfully doing his duty, and honestly declaring all the counsel of God.
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
Luk 6:20. And he lifted up his eyes. This look indicates the solemn opening of His discourse; comp. Mat 5:2 : opened His mouth.
His disciples, in the wider sense, though the Twelve were nearest and the people present. Alford: The discourse was spoken to the disciples generally,to the Twelve particularly,to the people prospectively. Our Lord probably sat as He taught (comp. Mat 5:1), as this was His custom and that of Jewish teachers in general. Nor is this forbidden by Luk 6:17, since an interval of healing had elapsed.
Blessed. Luke gives four beatitudes, answering to the first, fourth, second, and last mentioned by Matthew, and adds four corresponding woes,
Ye. This is properly supplied, since in the reasons for the blessedness the second person is used. In Matthew the direct address appears first in Luk 6:11, but is implied throughout.
Poor, i.e., poor in spirit (Matthew). To refer this only to literal poverty, etc., and to limit the blessings to the temporal recompense in the Messiahs kingdom, is forbidden by the context no less than by the account in Matthew. Neither the Evangelist nor our Lord could mean this. In chap. Luk 12:21; Luk 16:11, Luke shows his knowledge of the distinction between spiritual and earthly riches. An appeal on the part of our Lord to the prejudices of the poor and miserable, like a modern demagogue, is as contrary to His character as to the effect of His teaching.
The kingdom of God. Equivalent to the kingdom, of heaven (Matthew). See on Mat 5:3.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
As our Saviour’s condition in this world was very poor, so was his disciples’ condition also; therefore to relieve them against their poverty and low estate in the world, he thus bespeaks them, Blessed be ye poor; you that believe in me, and follow me, are in a happier condition than those that are rich, and have received their consolation; for yours is the kingdom of heaven.
Christ was the poor man’s preacher, and the poor man’s comforter; yet a bare outward poverty, or an avowed voluntary poverty, will entitle none to the blessing. It is not a poverty of possession, but a poverty of spirit, that makes us members of the kingdom of grace, and heirs of the kingdom of glory.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Luk 6:20. And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples The multitude that pressed to touch Jesus, in order to be healed, being at length rendered still and quiet, he turned to his disciples, and in their audience, and that of the multitude, repeated, standing on the plain, many remarkable passages of the sermon he had before delivered, sitting on the mount; which for the importance and variety of matter contained in it was, of all his sermons, the most proper to be remembered by the twelve disciples, now that they were constituted apostles, and appointed to preach. The Evangelist Matthew, having recorded the former sermon in its place, judged it unnecessary to give this repetition of it here. But if the reader is of opinion that the two sermons are the same, because this in Luke comes immediately after the election of the twelve apostles, as that in Matthew comes after the calling of the four disciples, Simon, Andrew, James, and John, let him consider, in the first place, that the calling of the four disciples, which precedes the sermon in Matthew, is without doubt a fact entirely different from the election of the twelve apostles preceding the sermon in Luke, and happened long before it. Besides, the sermon in Luke was preached immediately after the election of the twelve, whereas a large tour through Galilee, which may have taken up some months, intervened between the calling of the four disciples and the sermon in Matthew. And to name no more differences, the sermon recorded by Matthew was delivered on a mountain, in a sitting, posture; whereas, when he pronounced this, which Luke speaks of, he was in a plain, or valley, where he could not sit because of the multitude which surrounded him, but stood with his disciples. But though there was not so much evident disagreement in the facts preceding these two sermons, the reader might easily have allowed that they were pronounced at different times, because he will find other instances of things really different, notwithstanding in their nature they may be alike, and were preceded, and also followed, by like events. For instance, the commission and instructions given to the seventy, were, in substance, the same with the commission and instructions given to the twelve, Matthew 10., and were introduced after the same manner: The harvest is plenteous, &c., Mat 9:37. Yet from Luke himself it appears they were different, that evangelist having related the mission of the twelve as a distinct fact, Luk 9:1. So likewise the two miraculous dinners were not only like each other in their natures, but in their circumstances also, for they were introduced by the same discourses, and followed by like events; particularly at the conclusion of both, Jesus passed over the sea of Galilee. Nevertheless, both being found in the same evangelist, no reader can possibly think them the same. Macknight. Dr. Whitby and Dr. Doddridge view this subject in exactly the same light. Hardly any thing, says the latter, that I have observed in the common harmonies surprises me more than that so many of them make this discourse to be the very sermon on the mount, recorded at large by Matthew. That was delivered by Christ sitting on a mountain, this standing in a plain; and, which weighs yet much more with me, there is such a difference in the expression, when the parallel passages come to be compared, that it seems evident the evangelists have not related it exactly, if they meant to give us the same. On the other hand, there appears not the least difficulty in supposing that Christ might here repeat a part of what he had delivered some months before to another auditory, and probably at some greater distance than just in the same neighbourhood. For it is plain from other instances, that this is nothing more than what he often had occasion to do. Compare Mat 9:32-34 with Mat 12:22; Mat 12:24; and Mat 16:21 with Mat 17:23; and Mat 20:17-19. This, therefore, for the reasons above stated, being evidently a different sermon from that delivered on the mount, and preached to a different auditory, and on a different occasion; and there being here only four of the eight beatitudes mentioned in that sermon, and not one of these being expressed in the same words which are there used; it is not necessary that they should be understood in the same sense. The poor here may either mean the poor in spirit; the hungry, those that hunger after righteousness; and the mourners, those that sorrow after a godly manner to repentance, 2Co 7:9; or the condition added to the last clause, Luk 6:22, for the Son of mans sake, may be understood as implied in all the clauses, and that those disciples of Christ only are pronounced blessed, who are exposed to, and patiently suffer, poverty, hunger, grief, or persecution for his sake, that they may obtain that kingdom, and that reward in heaven, which he hath promised to his faithful servants. Indeed our Lords words are only addressed to his disciples, Luk 6:20, he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed, (or rather, happy, as means,) are ye poor, &c. As to those who are not the true disciples of Christ, but are ignorant and wicked, or carnal and worldly, however poor, destitute, afflicted, or reproached they may be in this world, they are not happy, but miserable, and in the way to be miserable for ever. We must therefore say, in explanation of this passage, the poor are happy if they be enriched with divine knowledge and grace; for they are entitled to the kingdom of God in all its transcendent and eternal glories. They that hunger now, and are destitute of all the comfortable accommodations of life, are happy if they feel that nobler appetite, by which the pious soul longs after improvements in holiness: for the time is near when they shall be filled with what they long for, and shall be made partakers of the most substantial and valuable blessings. Happy are they who now weep and mourn under a sense of sin, or under that wholesome discipline of affliction, by which God reduces his wandering children, and trains them up to superior virtue; for all their sorrow shall pass away like a dream, and they shall ere long laugh and rejoice in a complete deliverance from it. They whom men hate, separate from their company, and reproach, &c., for the Son of mans sake, are happy, for that glorious and powerful and gracious Person, on whose account they are thus treated, is abundantly able, and as willing as able, amply to recompense them for all they suffer for his sake. And therefore far from being dismayed and overwhelmed with trouble and distress, at such abuses and assaults, they ought to rejoice and leap for joy, fully assured that their reward in heaven will be in proportion to their sufferings on earth. Besides, such persecuted followers of Christ may comfort themselves with this consideration, that the servants of God, in all ages, have been treated in a similar manner.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2 d. Luk 6:20-49. The Sermon.
The aim, prevailing thought, and plan of this discourse have been understood in many different ways. The solution of these questions is rendered more difficult by the difference between the two accounts given by Matthew and Luke. As to its aim, Weizscker regards the Sermon on the Mount as a grand proclamation of the kingdom of God, addressed to the whole people; and it is in Matthew’s version that he finds the best support for this view of it. He acknowledges, nevertheless, that the fact stated in the preface (Luk 6:1-2 : He taught them [His disciples], saying…) is not in harmony with this design. Luke, according to him, has deviated further even than Matthew from its original aim, by modifying the entire discourse, to make it an address to the disciples alone. Ritschl and Holtzmann, on the contrary, think that the discourse was addressed originally to the disciples alone, and that Luke’s version of it has preserved with greater accuracy its real tenor; only the situation described Luk 6:17-19 would not, according to Holtzmann, accord with its being addressed to them. Keim reconciles all these different views by distinguishing two principal discourses, one addressed to all the people, about the time of the Passover feast, of which we have fragments in Mat 6:19-34; Mat 7:7-11; Mat 7:1-5; Mat 7:24-27. This inaugural discourse would be on the chief care of human life. The second is supposed to have been addressed somewhat later to the disciples only, about the time of Pentecost. Matthew 5 is a summary of it. This would be a word of welcome addressed by Jesus to His disciples, and an exposition of the new law as the fulfilment of the old. As to the criticism on the Pharisaical virtues, Mat 6:1-18, it is doubtless closely related, both in substance and time, to the preceding discourse; but it did not form part of it.
The prevailing idea, in Matthew, is certainly an exposition of the new law in its relations with the old. In Luke, the subject is simply the law of charity, as the foundation of the new order of things. Many critics deny that any agreement can be found between these two subjects. According to Holtzmann, the 5th chapter of Matthew should be regarded as a separate dissertation which the author of the first Gospel introduced into the Sermon; Keim thinks that Luke, as a disciple of Paul, wanted to detach the new morality completely from the old. The anonymous Saxon even sets himself to prove that the Sermon on the Mount was transformed by Luke into a cutting satire against
Saint Peter!
As to the plan of the discourse, many attempts have been made to systematize it. Beck: (1) the doctrine of happiness (beatitudes); (2) that of righteousness (the central part in Matthew and Luke); (3) that of wisdom (conclusion). Oosterzee: (1) the salutation of love (Luke, Luk 6:20-26); (2) the commandment of love (Luk 6:27-38); (3) the impulse of love (Luk 6:39-49). The best division, regarding it in this abstract way, and taking Matthew as a basis, is certainly that of Gess: (1) the happiness of those who are fit to enter into the kingdom (Mat 5:3-12); (2) the lofty vocation of the disciples (Mat 5:13-16); (3) the righteousness, superior to that of the Pharisees, after which they must strive who would enter into the kingdom (v. Luk 6:17-34); the rocks on which they run a risk of striking (the disposition to judge, intemperate proselytizing, being led away by false prophets); next, the help against these dangers, with the conclusion. (Luk 7:1-27).
The solution of these different questions, as it seems to us, must be sought first of all in the position of affairs which gave rise to the Sermon on the Mount. In order to see it reproduced, as it were, before our eyes, we have only to institute a comparison. Picture a leader of one of those great social revolutions, for which preparations seem making in our day. At an appointed hour he presents himself, surrounded by his principal adherents, at some public place; the crowd gathers; he communicates his plans to them. He begins by indicating the class of persons to which he specially addresses himself: you, poor working people, loaded with suffering and toil! and he displays to their view the hopes of the era which is about to dawn. Next, he proclaims the new principle which is to govern humanity in the future: The mutual service of mankind; justice, universal charity! Lastly, he points out the sanction of the law which he proclaims, the penalties that await those who violate it, and the rewards of those who faithfully keep it. This is the caricature; and by the aid of its exaggerations, we are able to give some account of the features of the original model. What, in fact, does the Sermon on the Mount contain? Three things: 1 st. An indication of the persons to whom Jesus chiefly addresses Himself, in order to form the new people (Luke, Luk 6:20-26; Mat 5:1-12); 2 d. The proclamation of the fundamental principle of the new society (Luke, Luk 6:27-45; Mat 5:13 to Mat 7:12); 3 d. An announcement of the judgment to which the members of the new kingdom of God will have to submit (Luke, Luk 6:46-49; Mat 7:13-27). In other words: the call, the declaration of principles, and their sanction. This is the order of the discourse. There is nothing artificial about this plan. It is not a logical outline forcibly fitted to the discourse; it is the result of the actual position of the work of Jesus, just as we have stated it. The discourse itself explains for whom it is intended. Jesus addresses the mass of the people present, as forming the circle within which the new order of things is to be realized, and at the same time the disciples and apostles, by means of whom this revolution is to be brought about. Luke and Matthew, therefore, are not at variance in this matter, either with each other or with themselves. As to the fundamental idea of this discourse, see Luk 6:27.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
XLII.
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT.
(A Mountain Plateau not far from Capernaum.)
Subdivision B.
BEATITUDES: PROMISES TO MESSIAH’S SUBJECTS.
aMATT. V. 3-12; cLUKE VI. 20-26.
a3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. [The sayings in this subdivision are called beatitudes from the word “beati (meaning blessed), with which they begin in the Vulgate, or Latin Bible. According to Matthew, these beatitudes are nine in number and seven in character, for the last two, which concern persecution, do not relate to traits of character, but to certain external circumstances which lead to blessings. Luke gives us [228] beatitudes not recorded in Matthew. Most of the beatitudes are paradoxical, being the very reverse of the world’s view, but Christians who have put them to the test have learned to realize their unquestionable truth. The poor in spirit are those who feel a deep sense of spiritual destitution and comprehend their nothingness before God. The kingdom of heaven is theirs, because they seek it, and therefore find and abide in it. To this virtue is opposed the pride of the Pharisee, which caused him to thank God that he was not as other men, and to despise and reject the kingdom of heaven. There must be emptiness before there can be fullness, and so poverty of spirit precedes riches and grace in the kingdom of God.] 4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. [ Isa 42:2, Isa 42:3, Luk 2:25, Rom 8:18, Joh 16:20, Joh 16:21. The blessing is not upon all that mourn ( 2Co 7:10); but upon those who mourn in reference to sin. They shall be comforted by the discovery and appropriation of God’s pardon. But all mourning is traced directly or indirectly to sin. We may take it, therefore, that in its widest sense the beatitude covers all those who are led by mourning to a discerning of sin, and who so deplore its effects and consequences in the world as to yearn for and seek the deliverance which is in Christ. Those to whom Christ spoke the beatitude bore a double sorrow. Not only did their own sins afflict their consciences, but the hatred and opposition of other sinners added many additional sighs and tears. Joy springs from such sorrow so naturally that it is likened to harvest gathered from the seed ( Psa 126:6). But sorrows, even apart from a sense of sin, often prove blessings to us by drawing us near unto God.] 5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. [His hearers were full of hopes that, as Messiah, he would glut their martial spirit, and lead them to world-wide conquest. But the earth was not to be subjugated to him by force. Those who were meek and forbearing should receive what the arrogant and selfish grasp after and can not get. “Man the animal has hitherto possessed the globe. Man the divine is yet to take it. The [229] struggle is going on. But in every cycle more and more does the world feel the superior authority of truth, purity, justice, kindness, love, and faith. They shall yet possess the earth” (Beecher). The meek shall inherit it in two ways: 1. They shall enjoy it more fully while in it. 2. They shall finally, as part of the triumphant church, possess and enjoy it. Doubtless there is also here a reference to complete possession to be fulfilled in the new earth– Dan 7:27, Rev 3:21, Rev 5:10.] 6 Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. [Our Lord here declares that those who feel a most intense desire for righteousness shall obtain it. Under no other religion had such a promise ever been given. Under Christianity the promise is clear and definite. Compare Rom 8:3, Rom 8:4, Heb 7:11, Heb 7:19, Heb 7:25. This promise is realized in part by the attainment of a higher degree of righteous living, and in part by the perfect forgiveness of our sins. But the joy of this individual righteousness, blessed as it is, shall be surpassed by that of the universal righteousness of the new creation– 2Pe 3:13.] 7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. [As meekness is rather a passive virtue, so mercy is an active one. The meek bear, and the merciful forbear, and for so doing they shall obtain mercy both from God and man. This beatitude, like the rest, has a subordinate, temporal application; for God rules the world in spite of its sin. This beatitude has primary reference to the forgiveness of offences. The forgiving are forgiven– Mat 6:14, Mat 6:15.] 8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. [The pure in heart are those who are free from evil desires and purposes. They have that similarity of life to the divine life which excludes all uncleanness, and which enables them to comprehend, after a sympathetic fashion, the motives and actions of God. Such see God by faith now, that is, by the spiritual vision of a regenerate heart ( Eph 1:17, Eph 1:18), and shall see him face to face hereafter ( 1Co 13:12, 1Jo 3:2, 1Jo 3:3). The Jews to whom Christ spoke, having their hearts defiled with carnal hopes and self-righteous pride, failed to see God, [230] as he was then revealing himself in the person of his Son, thus forming a sad contrast to the gracious promise of the beatitude. “They only can understand God who have in themselves some moral resemblance to him; and they will enter most largely into the knowledge of him who are most in sympathy with the divine life”–Beecher.] 9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God. [The term includes all who make peace between men, whether as individuals or as communities. It includes even those who worthily endeavor to make peace, though they fail of success. They shall be called God’s children, because he is the God of peace ( Rom 15:33, Rom 16:20, 2Co 13:11); whose supreme purpose is to secure peace ( Luk 2:14); and who gave his Son to be born into this world as the Prince of Peace ( Isa 9:6). Here again Jesus varies from human ideas. In worldly kingdoms the makers of war stand highest, but in his kingdom peacemakers outrank them, for the King himself is a great Peacemaker– Col 1:20, Eph 2:14.] 10 Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. [Those who suffer because of their loyalty to the kingdom of heaven are blessed by being bound more closely to that kingdom for which they suffer.] cBlessed are ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. [These three beatitudes given by Luke, like the two closing beatitudes of Matthew are pronounced not upon character, but upon those in certain trying conditions. They are addressed to the disciples ( Luk 6:17), and are meant to strengthen and encourage them to continue in the life of sacrifice when discipleship demanded. For light upon the meaning of these beatitudes, see such passages as these: Mat 10:37-39, Mat 16:24-26, Mar 10:28-30, Mat 10:22-25. The service to which Jesus called meant poverty, hunger, and tears, but it led to rich reward– 1Co 11:23-33, 1Co 12:1-5.] 22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when [231] they shall separate you from their company, and reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, aand persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my cthe Son of man’s sake. [The Master here presents the various forms of suffering which would come upon the disciples by reason of their loyalty to him. We shall find several like statements as we proceed with the gospel story. They would first be conscious of the coldness of their brethren before the secret hate became outspoken and active. Later they should find themselves excommunicated from the synagogue ( Joh 16:2). This act in turn would be followed by bitter reproaches and blasphemy of the sacred name by which they were called–the name Christian ( Jam 2:7, 1Pe 4:4). “‘Malefic’ or ‘execrable superstition’ was the favorite description of Christianity among Pagans (Tac., Ann. xv. 44; Suet. Nero, xvi.), and Christians were charged with incendiarism, cannibalism and every infamy” (Farrar). All this would finally culminate in bloody-handed persecution, and procure the death of Christ’s followers by forms of law; all manner of false and evil accusations would be brought against them.] 23 Rejoice ye in that day, band be exceeding glad: cand leap for joy: for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for in the same manner did their fathers unto the prophets. afor so persecuted they the prophets that were before you. [In commanding rejoicing under such circumstances Jesus seemed to make a heavy demand upon his disciples, but it is a demand which very many have responded to ( Act 5:41, Act 16:25). Anticipations of the glorious future are a great tonic. For instances of persecution of the prophets, see 1Ki 19:10, 2Ch 16:10, 1Ki 22:27, 2Ch 24:20, 2Ch 24:21; Jer 26:23, Jer 32:2, Jer 37:15, Jer 38:4-6, Jer 38:28, Heb 11:36-38.] c24 But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. [ Luk 16:25.] 25 Woe unto you that are full now! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you, ye that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. [These three woes are respectively the converse of the three beatitudes recorded by [232] Luke. This converse is to be expected, for as long as sin lasts woes stand over against beatitudes as Ebal against Gerizim. But the woe here expressed by the Saviour is more of a cry of compassion than a denunciation, and may be translated, “Alas for you!” The first woe applies to those who love and trust in riches ( Mar 10:24). Jesus does not clearly define the line beyond which the possession of riches becomes a danger, lest any, fancying himself to be on the safe side of the line, should lull himself to repose and be taken off his guard. Riches are always dangerous, and we must be ever watchful against their seduction. The second woe is kindred to the first. Righteousness is the soul’s true food. Those who feast upon it shall be satisfied, but those who satiate themselves with this world shall waken some day to a sense of emptiness, since they have filled themselves with vanity ( Ecc 2:1-11, Jam 5:1-6). The third woe is not pronounced upon those who make merriment an occasional relief ( Pro 17:22, Pro 15:13, Pro 15:15); but upon those who, through lack of earnestness, make it a constant aim. Half the world has no higher object in life than to be amused ( Pro 13:14, Ecc 7:6). Those who sow folly shall reap a harvest of tears. The truth of this saying was abundantly fulfilled in the Jewish wars, which culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem about forty years later.] 26 Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for in the same manner did their fathers to the false prophets. [This is the converse to the beatitudes pronounced upon those who are reviled, etc. A righteous life rebukes an evil one, and the general tendency of evil is to deride that which rebukes it. This tendency caused the wicked of Christ’s times to say that he had a demon, and that he cast out demons by the power of Beelzebub. If our lives draw to themselves no reproach, they can not be right in the sight of God. A good name is more to be desired than great riches; but we must not sacrifice our fidelity to Christ in order to attain it. If we adhere strictly to the virtues which Christ enjoined, we shall find that the world has an evil name for every one of them. Earnest contention for his [233] truth is called bigotry; loyalty to his ordinances is dubbed narrowness; strict conformity to the laws of purity is named puritanism; liberality is looked upon as an effort to court praise; piety is scorned as hypocrisy, and faith is regarded as fanaticism.]
[FFG 228-234]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
CHAPTER 16
SERMON ON THE MOUNT
Matthew 5-7, and Luk 6:20-49. A few days ago it was my privilege to spend two beautiful bright days at the sea of Galilee, sailing over it, and visiting the places of historic note. Our dragoman escorted us up Mt. Hattin, which hangs over the city of Tiberias on the west coast, and said to us, This is the Mount of Beatitudes. I correct this mistake, lest you fall into it. While perhaps all the guides through that country would corroborate our dragoman, the Word of the Lord is the end of all controversy. Mt. Hattin, so celebrated as the battlefield on which the Christian Crusaders suffered their last and final defeat by Saladin, the Mohammedan general, A.D. 1189, after which the Cross retreated from the Holy Land, the Crescent superseding even till this day, is twenty miles from Capernaum overland, and ten by sea. Hence this can not be the Mount of Beatitudes, as we see (Matthew 8 and Luke 7) that when our Lord concluded this sermon, and they descended from the mount, they were at the city of Capernaum, which is on the north coast. From these Scriptures, we see very clearly that the great mountain, rising in his majesty, immediately back of Capernaum, is really and unmistakably the Mount of Beatitudes. This conclusion satisfies the Scripture at all points i.e., the location of the mountain; the plateau, about midway from the summit down to the sea, where Jesus descended with his apostles; and the city of Capernaum, down on the plain, hard by the sea.
Seeing the multitudes, He went up into the mountain, and having sat down, His disciples came to Him. Our Lord, having already this morning done a mighty work of bodily healing and soul saving, retires from the multitude, leaving them on that level place i.e., plateau, on the southern slope of the Mount of Beatitudes, Capernaum and the sea of Galilee being down at the base retires back into the mountain, where He had spent the preceding night in prayer, organizing the Apostolate about sunrise. Though at the beginning only His disciples came to Him, the multitudes doubtless follow on.
Opening His mouth, He continued to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of the heavens. Luke: Lifting up His eyes toward His disciples, He said, Blessed are ye poor, because yours is the kingdom of God. Here, as uniformly in the Scriptures, heaven (E.V.) is heavens in the Greek, corroborating the astronomical revelation of many worlds constituting the celestial universe. Kingdom of heaven and kingdom of God are everywhere precisely synonymous here, Matthew giving the former, and Luke the latter; simply meaning the Divine government, including all the saints and angels in glory, and the holy people under the reign of grace on the earth. Spiritual poverty stands at the head of these seven wonderful, spiritual Beatitudes, corroborating the uniform teaching of God’s Word, setting forth humility as the fundamental and primary grace of the Holy Spirit, without which every other is defective and evanescent. Conviction, superinduced by the straight preaching of the awful Sinai gospel is prerequisite in every substantial work of grace. John Fletcher was once interrogated, What is the most important Christian grace? He answered, Humility. What is the next? His response was, Humility. To the third inquiry he gave the same answer. When John Wesley preached the funeral sermon of that good man, he said: The most saintly man I ever saw lies in that coffin, and I never expect to see another such till I go to glory. Perfect humility is the corner-stone of all Christian perfection.
Blessed are they that mourn, because they shall be comforted. When the Holy Spirit transmits His wonderful light into the deep interior of the sinner’s heart, revealing to him his absolute destitution and hopeless bankruptcy, he is inundated with a Bochim of weeping, refusing to eat or sleep; but crying to God out of a broken heart, mourning night and day, despite all efforts to comfort him, till Jesus sends into his troubled breast the infallible Comforter. Hence, you see the logical connection of these two Beatitudes poverty of the spirit preparing the way for the comfort of the Holy Ghost.
Blessed are the meek, because they shall inherit the earth. Meekness is a strong, clear case of humility, bringing us down low at the feet of Jesus, there to abide in the bottom of the valley of humiliation, from which we can never fall, as we are already on the bottom, and no place into which to fall. The meek here signifies the genuine humble saints of God in all ages and nations, in whom the Holy Ghost has wrought the glorious work of pride’s extermination. Here our Savior flashes out a glorious anticipation of the Millennial Theocracy, when the humble saints of God, who have lived and died in poverty, many of them sealing their faith with their blood, shall be promoted to the thrones and principalities, and, as the subordinates of the glorified Christ, rule the world. We are very sure that the Lord’s meek and holy people have not yet inherited this earth. With very little exception, it is in the hands of Satans people. The Word of the Lord can not fail. I am living in constant anticipation of the trumpet call, responsive to which the saints, living and dead, will fly up to meet the Lord in the air. (1Th 4:13-18.)
Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, because they shall be filled. Here we have another beautiful couplet of these Beatitudes; meekness, which is perfect humility, puts us in position to be filled with the Holy Ghost. Are you hungry? Do you not hear the invitation ringing? Your chair is vacant at the table of the Lord, which is groaning beneath the very bounty of heaven, the blessed Master sitting at the head, and saying to all, Help yourselves, while the angels are all around you, with smiling solicitations to partake of this and that, and everything sweet, delicious, and nutritious; the fatted calf floating in his gravy, bread enough and to spare, milk and honey flowing, delicious grapes of Eshcol, strawberries, cream, and every edible desirable or conceivable, without money and without price. Are you thirsty? The crystal river of life is flowing at your feet, and Jesus is ready to turn the water into wine.
It is your privilege to eat to gluttony and drink to intoxication. I fear the trouble is, that you do not hunger and thirst. Thirty thousand promises in God’s Infallible Word assure you, that heaven is full of salvation, and you have nothing to do but tap the ocean by faith and you will get full. Even now is the auspicious moment for you to eat and drink and be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. The merciful man is merciful to everything that has feeling. His heart leaps over the ocean, and breaks with sympathy for the heathen millions, sitting in the valley and the shadow of death. He cries to God to make him a blessing to all his neighbors and friends. O how gushingly and genuinely he loves his enemies! He is full of kindness to the horse, cow, hog, sheep, dog, cat, chicken, and every living creature. He longs to do good to everybody and everything. O how he loves the antiholiness people, who fight him so pugnaciously! He does not feel like leaving his Church, where God needs him to show mercy to the unsaved. If they turn him out, he is still the more flooded with loving sympathy and tender mercy, crying out, Father, forgive them; they know not what they do. This blessing takes away all your horns, hoofs, claws, sharp teeth, and leaves you harmless as a wasp whose sting has been extracted. These Beatitudes run in couplets: Spiritual poverty puts you down where you can mourn and be comforted.
Meekness is still a deeper humiliation, preparatory for the filling of the Holy Ghost. From the bottom of a deep well, you can look up and see stars at noonday. If you want to see the deep things of God, close your eyes. The blessing of mercy is still progressive in the sphere of humiliation, and a glorious preparatory school for the happy graduation, which follows in the next Beatitude; i.e., a clean heart.
Blessed are the pure in heart, because they shall see God. Our Savior has decreed that none shall see the kingdom unless they are born from above; and now we hear the irrevocable decree ringing out, None but the pure in heart shall see God. The heart is never pure, so long as it contains any malevolent affection; i.e., pride, vanity, folly, envy, jealousy, revenge, selfishness, bigotry, sectarianism, anger, malice, ambition, avarice, lust, or any other incentive out of harmony with pure love, the character of Jesus, the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and the will of God. The precious blood of Jesus, applied by the Holy Spirit, through humble faith, preceded and accompanied by complete consecration and obedience to God, is the heavenly elixir for the purification of the heart.
Blessed are the peacemakers, because they shall be called the children of God. Things are very apt to be called what they are. The Bible was first written in Hebrew, which is a rigidly significant language, every name having a meaning. Consequently, when Adam, before the black darkness of sin fell on his intellect, looked on the animals which God had created and brought to him, he had no trouble to name them all, not haphazardously, but significantly of their character, by the wonderful intuition of his unfallen intellect looking into the very nature of every animal, diagnosing its constitution, recognizing its character, and calling it just what it was. That mutation is still in the world in a modified state, as a rule calling everything by its right name; i.e., what it is. When you receive a clean heart, you, ex-officio, become a peacemaker; i.e., like a ministering angel, you make peace among all the inmates of your house, not only with one another, but with God, thus rendering your home a little heaven. You become a peacemaker in your community, reconciling alienated friends; rising above partisan strife, whether political or ecclesiastical; shedding a benignant, heavenly influence all around. Is there any serious trouble between neighbors or Church members? You run, lest some one may anticipate you, and take the blessing which God has for the peacemaker, and you may miss it. Religious professions which do not illustrate and verify these Beatitudes are all counterfeit and spurious.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake, because theirs is the kingdom of the heavens. Such is the importance of the blessing of persecution that our Lord here repeats it in a more elaborate form: Blessed are ye when they may revile you, and persecute you, and say every evil word against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, because great is your reward in the heavens; for thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Luke gives this blessing so grand and beautiful, we give you the full benefit of his testimony: Blessed are ye when the people may hate you, and when they may turn you out of the Church, despise and cast out your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of man. Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy; for, behold, your reward is great in heaven, for according to these things their fathers were accustomed to do unto the prophets. The old prophets, like the apostles, suffered a terrible persecution all their lives, many of them sealing their faith with their blood. You wonder why I give you this Scripture from Luke, Turn you out of the Church. The word which our Savior used is aphorisosin, and means separate i.e., separate you from their fellowship; i.e., turn you out of the Church, which was currently customary during all the persecutionary ages, when they burned the heretics, invariably excommunicating them from the Church antecedently to their martyrdom. When they burned Bishops Latimer and Ridley at Smithfield, during the reign of Bloody Mary, the Roman Catholic bishop turned them out of the Church before they took their lives. Much of this excommunication is now going on a matter of great encouragement to God’s true people, because it is a literal fulfillment of our Savior’s prophecy. What shall we do amid all these persecutions, excommunications, and everything they dare to undertake? as they certainly would expose God’s people to martyrdom now, as in bygone ages, if the civil arm would only enforce ecclesiastical law. Our Savior tells us what we are to do amid all these persecutions, (Luk 6:23), Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy; for, behold, your reward in heaven is great; for according to these things their fathers were accustomed to do unto the prophets. Hence, you see, it is no time to put on a long face, turn blue, and complain, O they have done me so much evil, and even turned me out of the Church. Do you not know that all your murmuring and complaining grieves the Holy Spirit and pleases the devil, and at the same time shows to the world that your place is down low at the altar, where you are to stay until you get a clean heart? Do you not see here that persecution is a blessing, and actually climaxes the preceding six? If you were sanctified wholly, then persecution would be a blessing to you, and you would rejoice in it. The joy of perfect love can not be quenched out by the devil’s cold water. When you get this catalogue of blessings, as you see, culminating in a clean heart, then you will be in fix to obey the Savior, who commands you to rejoice in your persecutions, and leap for joy, even in case that they turn you out of the Church, ignoring you as a heathen or a publican. Rely upon it, this is all true.
These Beatitudes are a glorious and ineffable reality. If you are not sanctified wholly, having a genuine case, in harmony with the Scriptures, wrought by the Holy Ghost, persecution will not be a blessing to you; as it is very likely to upset you, provoke you to commit sin, and bring you under condemnation. While, if you really have a clean heart, filled with the Holy Ghost, you will stand on an eminence, not only above, but out of reach of persecution, so that you will actually get happy, rejoice and leap for joy, amid the persecutions; not that you rejoice over the persecution, but your eye is on that great reward in heaven, the persecution serving as an exceedingly valuable test, throwing wide open the door through which God pours a flood of blessed assurance, which lifts you above all the raging storms and black tornadoes which earth and hell combined can raise against you. Remember, the blackest clouds are white as snow on the upper side, where the sun is shining in his beauty. These seven Beatitudes are the sapphire steps of Jacob’s ladder, by which you climb above every storm, tread the bright plateaus of the Delectable Mountains, where the Sun of righteousness eternally shines in His undimmed glory, and the fadeless flowers of Paradise emit their heavenly fragrance on celestial airs, their fadeless tints and hues flashing in the gorgeous glory of the Sun that never sets.
Moreover, woe unto you rich people, because you exhaust your consolation; not, as E.V., have your consolation, as in that case it would read echete, whereas we have apechete, which means exhaust. How is this? Why the rich, worldly people have only the consolation of this world, which is fleeting and transitory. Therefore they exhaust their happiness in this life i.e., use it all up and have none left for eternity.
Woe unto you who have been filled, because you shall hunger. Still speaking of these rich, worldly, unsaved people, who have been filled i.e., satisfied with the bounty of this world, which they must quickly leave, and go away to hunger through all eternity. Woe unto you who laugh now, because you shall weep and mourn. It is impossible to live for this world and for heaven at the same time, as they are utterly out of harmony, either with other. Here is the turning-point in human destiny.
We are all brought face to face with the issue: Take this world or heaven.
Woe unto you when all the people may speak well of you; according to these things their fathers were accustomed to do unto the false prophets. During an Annual Conference, a petition was brought before the Cabinet, requesting them to send a preacher who would please, not only the Methodists, but other denominations and the outsiders, specifying, We want a well-rounded man. The presiding bishop observed, There is but one round figure, and that is zero, all the rest having sharp corners; so go and tell them I haven’t got the man. But be of good comfort; for they can pick him up anywhere, as there are plenty of them. It is a significant fact that the climacteric effort is made in pulpit and pew to please everybody, which is inevitably selfcondemnatory, at the same time illustrating their unhappy identity with the false prophets, and confirming the sad conclusion that we live in an age of fallen Churches and false prophets; also warranting the conclusion that the false prophets of the old dispensation were the popular preachers, beloved and applauded by the people, who believed them to be orthodox, genuine, and true, while they persecuted Elijah, Elisha, John the Baptist, and all the glorious prophetical procession from righteous Abel down to the present day.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Luk 6:20-49. The Sermon on the Level Place.This is much briefer than Matthew 5-7. The sections in Mt. that illustrate the fulfilment of the Law are omitted; more stress is laid on love and mercy. Other parallels with Mt.s Sermon are found elsewhere in Lk.; very little of Lk.s Sermon (Luk 6:24-26, Luk 6:34 f. only) is not found in Mt. There are also differences of arrangement.
Luk 6:20-26. Beatitudes and Woes (Mat 5:1-12*).In place of eight blessings we have in Lk. four (shorter) blessings and four contrasted woes; in Lk. Jesus does not qualify the poor (or the hungry); they are, as with the Psalmist, the righteous, and will have their innings in the next life, where the rich (the wicked) will suffer. C. Dives and Lazarus, Luk 16:19-26.
Luk 6:22 f. suggests Jewish persecution of the early Church.cast out your name as evil: a reference to calumny directed against those of the Christian way.
Luk 6:24-26. The woes are peculiar to Lk., and are less genuine than the blessings. Cf. Jas 5:1-4. Perhaps they are not launched at persecutors of the Church (e.g. rich Pharisees) so much as at worldly-minded folk in general.
Luk 6:26. General popularity too often implies that its recipient panders to prejudice and smothers his conscience.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Verse 20
This discourse is given more fully in Matthew, beginning at the Matthew 5:2-12.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
6:20 {4} And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed [be ye] poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.
(4) Christ teaches against all philosophers, and especially the Epicureans, that the greatest happiness of man is laid up in no place here on earth, but in heaven, and that persecution for righteousness’ sake is the right way to achieve it.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
3. The Sermon on the Mount 6:20-49
Luke’s version of this important address, primarily aimed at Jesus’ disciples, is much shorter than Matthew’s (Mat 5:3 to Mat 7:29). Matthew’s account contains 137 verses whereas Luke’s has 30. Both accounts begin with beatitudes, contain the same general content, and end with the same parables. However, Luke edited out the teachings that have distinctively Jewish appeal, specifically Jesus’ interpretations of the Mosaic Law, the "legal matters." These parts had less significance for an audience of predominantly Gentile Christians.
"Luke’s including the Sermon in a form that relates to Gentiles shows the message is timeless." [Note: Idem, "A Theology . . .," p. 114.]
Some commentators refer to this section of Luke’s Gospel as the Sermon on the Plain. Some of them believe that it was a different sermon from the Sermon on the Mount, given on a different occasion and in a different place, as mentioned above. Others believe there was only one sermon, and they use this name to differentiate this version of the sermon from Matthew’s version that they call the Sermon on the Mount. I believe it is the same sermon and prefer to call it the Sermon on the Mount to avoid the implication of two sermons.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The choices of disciples 6:20-26
Matthew recorded nine beatitudes, but Luke included only four. Matthew gave no woes, but Luke recorded four. The four beatitudes precede the four woes, and the beatitudes parallel the woes in thought. The beatitudes are positive and the woes correspondingly negative (cf. Psalms 1; Isa 5:8-23).
Two types of disciples are in view throughout this section of the sermon, the poor and oppressed and the rich and popular. The first type can anticipate God satisfying their needs, but the second type should expect divine judgment. The comparisons call on the disciples to consider which group they want to be in. Matthew’s beatitudes are more ethical and describe what a disciple of Jesus ought to be. Luke’s beatitudes describe the actual condition of the two types of disciples and the consequences of those conditions. A beatitude is an acknowledgment of a fortunate state of being (cf. Psa 1:1; Pro 14:21; Pro 16:20; Pro 29:18). They mock the world’s values by exalting what the world despises and rejecting what the world admires. [Note: Morris, p. 126.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The Beatitudes 6:20-23 (cf. Matthew 5:3-10)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Clearly Jesus’ disciples were the primary objects of His instruction in this sermon (cf. Luk 6:13-19).
"Blessed" (Gr. makarios) in this context describes the happy condition of someone whom God has blessed with His special favor. [Note: See Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, s.v. "makarios," by F. Hauck and G. Bertram, 4:362-70.] Luke’s original Greek readers would have been familiar with the word.
"Originally in Greek usage the word described the happy estate of the gods above earthly sufferings and labors." [Note: Martin, p. 220.]
Poor disciples are those who have given up what the world offers to follow Jesus faithfully (cf. Deu 33:29; Psa 2:12; Psa 32:1-2; Psa 34:8; Psa 40:4; Psa 84:12; Psa 112:1). Some of Jesus’ disciples had already done this (cf. Luk 5:11; Luk 5:28). Such disciples characteristically look to God for their needs rather than to themselves or the world. The parallel passage in Matthew clarifies that spiritual poverty, namely, a recognition of one’s spiritual need, is at the root of this physically poor disciple’s thinking (Mat 5:3).
"They rely on God and they must rely on Him, for they have nothing of their own on which to rely. . . . The rich of this world often are self-reliant" [Note: Morris, pp. 126, 127.]
The second part of each beatitude explains why the person in view is blessed or happy. Disciples who forego the wealth of the present world order to follow Jesus faithfully have Jesus’ promise that they will enjoy the benefits of the new world order, namely, the messianic kingdom. Jesus’ disciples are better off poor now, yet having a part in the coming messianic kingdom, than being rich now and having no part in that future kingdom.
"Human society perpetuates structures of injustice and exclusion, but God intervenes on the side of the oppressed. The disruptive effect of this intervention is often presented in Luke as a reversal of the structures of society: those with power, status, and riches are put down and those without them are exalted. This reversal was proclaimed in the Magnificat (Luk 1:51-53). A similar overturn of the established order was anticipated in Simeon’s prophecy that Jesus ’is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel’ (Luk 2:34)." [Note: Tannehill, 1:109.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 15
THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
IN considering the words of Jesus, if we may not be able to measure their depth or to scale their height, we can with absolute certainty discover their drift, and see in what direction they move, and we shall find that their orbit is an ellipse. Moving around the two centers, sin and salvation, they describe what is not a geometric figure, but a glorious reality, “the kingdom of God.” It is not unlikely that the expression was one of the current phrases of the times, a golden casket, holding within it the dream of a restored Hebraism; for we find, without any collusion or rehearsal of parts, the Baptist making use of the identical words in his inaugural address, while it is certain the disciples themselves so misunderstood the thought of their Master as to refer His “kingdom” to that narrow realm of Hebrew sympathies and hopes. Nor did they see their error until, in the light of Pentecostal flames, their own dream disappeared and the new kingdom, opening out like a receding sky, embraced a world within its folds. That Jesus adopted the phrase, liable to misconstruction as it was, and that He used it so repeatedly, making it the center of so many parables and discourses, shows how completely the kingdom of God possessed both His mind and heart. Indeed, so accustomed were His thoughts and words to flow in this direction that even the Valley of Death, “lying darkly between” His two lives, could not alter their course, or turn His thoughts out of their familiar channel; and as we find the Christ back of the cross and tomb, amid the resurrection glories, we hear Him speaking still of “the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.”
It will be observed that Jesus uses the two expressions “the kingdom of God” and “the kingdom of heaven” interchangeably. But in what sense is it the “kingdom of heaven?” Does it mean that the celestial realm will so far extend its bounds as to embrace our outlying and low-lying world? Not exactly, for the conditions of the two realms are so diverse. The one is the perfected, the visible kingdom, where the throne is set, and the King Himself is manifest, its citizens, angels, heavenly intelligences, and saints now freed from the cumbering clay of mortality, and forever safe from the solicitations of evil. This New Jerusalem does not come down to earth, except in the vision of the seer, as it were in a shadow. And yet the two kingdoms are in close correspondence, after all; for what is the kingdom of God in heaven but His eternal rule over the spirits of the redeemed and of the unredeemed? What are the harmonies of heaven but the harmonies of surrendered wills, as, without any hesitation or discord, they strike in with the Divine Will in absolute precision? To this extent, then, at least, heaven may project itself upon earth; the spirits of men not yet made perfect may be in subjection to the Supreme Spirit; the separate wills of a redeemed humanity, striking in with the Divine Will, may swell the heavenly harmonies with their earthly music.
And so Jesus speaks of this kingdom as being “within you.” As if He said, “You are looking in the wrong direction. You expect the kingdom of God to be set up around you, with its visible symbols of flags and coins, on which is the image of some new Caesar. You are mistaken. The kingdom, like its King, is unseen; it seeks, not countries, but consciences; its realm is in the heart, in the great interior of the soul.” And is not this the reason why it is called, with such emphatic repetition, “the kingdom,” as if it were, if not the only, at any rate the highest kingdom of God on earth? We speak of a kingdom of Nature, and who will know its secrets as He who was both Natures child and Natures Lord? And how far-reaching a realm is that! From the motes that swim in the air to the most distant stars, which themselves are but the gateway to the unseen Beyond! What forces are here, forces of chemical affinities and repulsions, of gravitation and of life! What successions and transformations can Nature show! What infinite varieties of substance, form, and color! What a realm of harmony and peace, with no irruptions of discordant elements! Surely one would think, if God has a kingdom upon earth, this kingdom of Nature is it. But no; Jesus does not often refer to that, except as He makes Nature speak in His parables, or as He uses the sparrows, the grass, and the lilies as so many lenses through which our weak human vision may see God. The kingdom of God on earth is as much higher than the kingdom of Nature as spirit is above matter, as love is more and greater than power.
We said just now how completely the thought of “the kingdom” possessed the mind and heart of Jesus. We might go one step farther, and say how completely Jesus identified Himself with that kingdom. He puts Himself in its pivotal center, with all possible naturalness, and with an ease that assumption cannot feign He gathers up its royalties and draws them around His own Person. He speaks of it as “My kingdom”; and this, not alone in familiar discourse with His disciples, but when face to face with the representative of earths greatest power. Nor is the personal pronoun some chance word, used in a far-off, accommodated sense; it is the crucial word of the sentence, underscored and emphasized by a threefold repetition; it is the word He will not strike out, nor recall, even to save Himself from the Cross. He never speaks of the kingdom but even His enemies acknowledge the “authority” that rings in His tones, the authority of conscious power, as well as of perfect knowledge. When His ministry is drawing to a close He says to Peter, “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven”; which language may be understood as the official designation of the Apostle Peter to a position of pre-eminence in the Church, as its first leader. But whatever it may mean, it shows that the keys of the kingdom are His; He can bestow them on whom He will. The kingdom of heaven is not a realm in which authority and honors move upwards from below, the blossoming of “the peoples will”; it is an absolute monarchy, an autocracy, and Jesus Himself is here King supreme, His will swaying the lesser wills of men, and rearranging their positions, as the angel had foretold: “He shall reign over the house of David for ever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.” Given Him of the Father it is, {Luk 22:29, Luk 1:32} but the kingdom is His, not either as a metaphor, but really, absolutely, inalienably; nor is there admittance within that kingdom but by Him who is the Way, as He is the Life. We enter into the kingdom, or the kingdom enters into us, as we find, and then crown the King, as we sanctify in our hearts Christ as 1Pe 3:15.
This brings us to the question of citizenship, the conditions and demands of the kingdom; and here we see how far this new dynasty is removed from the kingdoms of this world. They deal with mankind in groups; they look at birth, not character; and their bounds are well defined by rivers, mountains, seas, or by accurately surveyed lines. The kingdom of heaven, on the other hand, dispenses with all space-limits, all physical configurations, and regards mankind as one group, a unity, a lapsed but a redeemed world. But while opening its gates and offering its privileges to all alike, irrespective of class or circumstance, it is most eclective in its requirements, and most rigid in the application of its test, its one test of character. Indeed, the laws of the heavenly kingdom are a complete reversal of the lines of worldly policy. Take, for instance, the two estimates of wealth, and see how different the position it occupies in the two societies. The world makes wealth its summum bonum; or if not exactly in itself the highest good, in commercial values it is equivalent to the highest good, which is position. Gold is all-powerful, the goal of mans vain ambitions, the panacea of earthly ill. Men chase it in hot, feverish haste, trampling upon each other in the mad scramble, and worshipping it in a blind idolatry. But where is wealth in the new kingdom? The worlds first becomes the last. It has no purchasing-power here; its golden key cannot open the least of these heavenly gates. Jesus sets it back, far back, in His estimate of the good. He speaks of it as if it were an encumbrance, a dead weight, that must be lifted, and that handicaps the heavenly athlete. “How hardly,” said Jesus, when the rich ruler turned away “very sorrowful,” “shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God”; {Luk 18:24} and then, by way of illustration, He shows us the picture of the camel passing through the so-called “needles eye” of an Eastern door. He does not say that such a thing is impossible, for the camel could pass through the “needles eye,” but it must first kneel down and be stripped of all its baggage, before it can pass the narrow door, within the larger, but now closed gate. Wealth may have its uses, and noble uses too, within the kingdom-for it is somewhat remarkable how the faith of the two rich disciples shone out the brightest, when the faith of the rest suffered a temporary eclipse from the passing cross-but he who possesses it must be as if he possessed it not. He must not regard it as his own, but as talents given him in trust by his Lord, their image and superscription being that of the Invisible King.
Again, Jesus sets down vacillation, hesitancy, as a disqualification for citizenship in His kingdom. At the close of His Galilean ministry our Evangelist introduces us to a group of embryo disciples. The first of the three says, “Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest”. {Luk 9:57} Bold words they were, and doubtless well meant, but it was the language of a passing impulse, rather than of a settled conviction; it was the coruscation of a glowing, ardent temperament. He had not counted the cost. The large word “whithersoever” might, indeed, easily be spoken, but it held within it a Gethsemane and a Calvary, paths of sorrow, shame, and death he was not prepared to face. And so Jesus neither welcomed nor dismissed him, but opening out one part of his “whithersoever,” He gave it back to him in the words, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.” The second responds to the “Follow Me” of Christ with the request that he might be allowed first to go and bury his father. It was a most natural request, but participation in these funeral rites would entail a. ceremonial uncleanness of seven days, by which time Jesus would be far away. Besides, Jesus must teach him, and the ages after him, that His claims were paramount; that when He commands obedience must be instant and absolute, with no interventions, no postponement. Jesus replies to him in that enigmatical way of His, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead: but go thou and publish abroad the kingdom of God”; indicating that this supreme crisis of his life is virtually a passing from death to life, a “resurrection from earth to things above.” The last in this group of three volunteers his pledge, “I will follow Thee, Lord; but first suffer me to bid farewell to them that are at my house”; {Luk 9:61} but to him Jesus replies, mournfully and sorrowfully, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God”. {Luk 9:62} Why does Jesus treat these two candidates so differently? They both say, “I will follow Thee,” the one in word, the other by implication; they both request a little time for what they regard a filial duty; why, then, be treated so differently, the one thrust forward to a still higher service, commissioned to preach the kingdom, and afterwards, if we may accept the tradition that he was Philip the Evangelist, passing up into the diaconate; the other, unwelcomed and uncommissioned, but disapproved as “not fit for the kingdom?” Why there should be this wide divergence between the two lives we cannot see, either from their manner or their words. It must have been a difference in the moral attitude of the two men, and which He who heard thoughts and read motives detected at once. In the case of the former there was the fixed, determined resolve, which the bier of the dead father might hold back a little, but which it could not break or bend. But Jesus saw in the other a double-minded soul, whose feet and heart moved in diverse, opposite ways, who gave, not his whole, but a very partial, self to his work; and this halting, wavering one He dismissed with the words of forecasted doom, “Not fit for the kingdom of God.”
It is a hard saying, with a seeming severity about it; but is it not a truth universal and eternal? Are any kingdoms, either of knowledge or power, won and held by the irresolute and wavering? Like the stricken men of Sodom, they weary themselves to find the door of the kingdom; or if they do see the Beautiful Gates of a better life, they sit with the lame man, outside, or they linger on the steps, hearing the music indeed, but hearing it from afar. It is a truth of both dispensations, written in all the books; the Reubens who are “unstable as water” can never excel; the elder born, in the accident of years, they may be, but the birthright passes by them, to be inherited and enjoyed by others.
But if the gates of the kingdom are irrevocably closed against the halfhearted, the self-indulgent, and the proud, there is a sesame to which they open gladly. “Blessed are ye poor,” so reads the first and great Beatitude: “for yours is the kingdom of God”; {Luk 6:20} and beginning with this present realization, Jesus goes on to speak of the strange contrasts and inversions the perfected kingdom will show, when the weepers will laugh, the hungry be full, and those who are despised and persecuted will rejoice in their exceeding great reward. But who are the “poor” to whom the gates of the kingdom are open so soon and so wide? At first sight it would appear as if we must give a literal interpretation to the word, reading it in a worldly, temporal sense; but this is not necessary. Jesus was now directly addressing His disciples, {Luk 6:20} though, doubtless, His words were intended to pass beyond them, to those ever-enlarging circles of humanity who in the after-years should press forward to hear Him. But evidently the disciples were in no weeping mood today; they would be elated and joyful over the recent miracles. Neither should we call them “poor,” in the worldly sense of that word, for most of them had been called from honorable positions in society, while some had even “hired servants” to wait upon them and assist them. Indeed, it was not the wont of Jesus to recognize the class distinctions Society was so fond of drawing and defining. He appraised men, not by their means, but by the manhood which was in them; and when He found a nobility of soul-whether in the higher or the lower walks of life it made no difference who stepped forward to recognize and to salute it. We must therefore give to these words of Jesus, as to so many others, the deeper meaning, making the “blessed” of this Beatitude, who are now welcomed to the opened gate of the kingdom, the “poor in spirit,” as, indeed, St. Matthew writes it.
What this spirit-poverty is, Jesus Himself explains, in a brief but wonderfully realistic parable. He draws for us the picture of two men at their Temple devotions. The one, a Pharisee, stands erect, with head uplifted, as if it were quite on a level with the heaven he was addressing, and with supercilious pride he counts his beads of rounded egotisms. He calls it a worship of God, when it is but a worship of self. He inflates the great “I,” and then plays upon it, making it strike sharp and loud, like the tom-tom of a heathen fetish. Such is the man who fancies that he is rich toward God, that he has need of nothing, not even of mercy, when all the time he is utterly blind and miserably poor. The other is a publican, and so presumably rich. But how different his posture! With heart broken and contrite, self with him is a nothing, a zero; nay, in his lowly estimate it had become a minus quantity, less than nothing, deserving only rebuke and chastisement. Disclaiming any good, either inherent or acquired, he puts the deep need and hunger of his soul into one broken cry, “God be merciful to me a sinner”. {Luk 18:13} Such are the two characters Jesus portrays as standing by the gate of the kingdom, the one proud in spirit, the other “poor in spirit”; the one throwing upon the heavens the shadow of his magnified self, the other shrinking up into the pauper, the nothing that he was. But Jesus tells us that he was “justified,” accepted, rather than the other. With nought he could call his own, save his deep need and his great sin, he finds an opened gate and a welcome within the kingdom; while the proud spirit is sent empty away, or carrying back only the tithed mint and anise, and all the vain oblations Heaven could not accept.
“Blessed” indeed are such “poor”; for He giveth grace unto the lowly, while the proud He knoweth afar off. The humble, the meek, these shall inherit the earth, aye, and the heavens too, and they shall know how true is the paradox, having nothing, yet possessing all things. The fruit of the tree of life hangs low, and he must stoop who would gather it. He who would enter Gods kingdom must first become “as a little child,” knowing nothing as yet, but longing to know even the mysteries of the kingdom, and having nothing but the plea of a great mercy and a great need. And are they not “blessed” who are citizens of the kingdom-with righteousness, peace, and joy all their own, a peace which is perfect and Divine, and a joy which no man taketh from them? Are they not blessed, thrice blessed, when the bright shadow of the Throne covers all their earthly life, making its dark places light, and weaving rainbows out of their very tears? He who through the strait gate of repentance passes within the kingdom finds it “the kingdom of heaven” indeed, his earthly years the beginnings of the heavenly life.
And now we touch a point Jesus ever loved to illustrate and emphasize, the manner of the kingdoms growth, as with ever-widening frontiers it sweeps outward in its conquest of a world. It was a beautiful dream of Hebrew prophecy that in the latter days the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of the Messiah, should overlap the bounds of human empires, and ultimately cover the whole earth. Looking through her kaleidoscope of ever-shifting but harmonious figures, Prophecy was never weary of telling of the Golden Age she saw in the far future, when the shadows would lift, and a new Dawn, breaking out of Jerusalem, would steal over the world. Even the Gentiles should be drawn to its light, and kings to the brightness of its rising; the seas should offer their abundance as a willing tribute, and the isles should wait for and welcome its laws. Taking up into itself the petty strifes and jealousies of men, the discords of earth should cease; humanity should again become a Unit, restored and regenerate fellow-citizens of the new kingdom, the kingdom which should have no end, no boundaries either of space or time.
Such was the dream of Prophecy, the kingdom Jesus sets Himself to found and realize upon earth. But how? Disclaiming any rivalry with Pilate, or with his imperial master, Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world,” so lifting it altogether out of the mould in which earthly dynasties are cast. “This world” uses force; its kingdoms are won and held by metallic processes, tinctures of iron and steel. In the kingdom of God carnal weapons are out of place; its only forces are truth and love, and he who takes the sword to advance this cause wounds but himself, after the vain manner of Baals priests. “This world” counts heads or hands; the kingdom of God numbers its citizens by hearts alone. “This world” believes in pomp and show, in outward visibilities and symbols; the kingdom of God cometh not “with observation”; its voices are gentle as a zephyr, its footsteps noiseless as the coming of spring. If man had had the ordering of the kingdom he would have summoned to his aid all kinds of portents and surprises: he would have arranged processions of imposing events; but Jesus likens the coming of the kingdom to a grain of mustard cast into a garden, or to a handful of leaven hid in three sata of meal. The two parables, with minor distinctions, are one in their import, the leading thought common to both being the contrast between its ultimate growth and the smallness and obscurity of its beginnings. In both the recreative force is a hidden force, buried out of sight, in the soil or in the meal. In both the force works outward from its center, the invisible becoming visible, the inner life assuming an outer, external form. In both we see the touch of life upon death; for left to itself the soil never would be anything more than dead earth, as the meal would be nothing more than dust, the broken ashes of a life that was departed. In both there is extension by assimilation, the leaven throwing itself out among the particles of kindred meal, while the tree attracts to itself the kindred elements of the soil. In both there is the mediation of the human hand; but as if to show that the kingdom offers equal privilege to male and female, with like possibilities of service, the one parable shows us the hand of a man, the other the hand of a woman. In both there is a consummation, the one par perfect work, an able showing us the whole mass leavened, the other showing us the wide-spreading tree, with the birds nesting in its branches.
Such, in outline, is the rise and progress of the kingdom of God in the heart of the individual man, and in the world; for the human soul is the protoplasm, the germ-cell, out of which this world-wide kingdom is evolved. The mass is leavened only by the leavening of the separate units. And how comes the kingdom of God within the soul and life of man? Not with observation or supernatural portents, but silently as the flashing forth of light. Thought, desire, purpose, prayer-these are the wheels of the chariot in which the Lord comes to His temple, the King into His kingdom And when the kingdom of God is set up within you the outer life shapes itself to the new purpose and aim, the writ and will of the King running unhindered through every department, even to its outmost frontier, while thoughts, feelings, desires, and all the golden coinage of the hear bear, not, as before, the image of Self, but the image and superscription of the Invisible King-the “Not I, but Christ.”
And so the honor of the kingdom is in our keeping, as the growths of the kingdom are in our hands. The Divine Cloud adjusts its pace to our human steps, alas often far too slow! Shall the leaven stop with us, as we make religion a kind of sanctified selfishness, doing nothing but gauging the emotions and staging its little doxologies? Do we forget that the weak human hand carries the Ark of God, and pushes forward the boundaries of the kingdom? Do, we forget that hearts are only won by hearts? The kingdom of God on earth is the kingdom of surrendered wills and of consecrated lives. Shall we not, then, pray, “thy kingdom come,” and living “more nearly as we pray,” seek a redeemed humanity as subjects of our King? So will the Divine purpose become a realization, and the “morning” which now is always “somewhere in the world” will be everywhere, the promise and the dawn of a heavenly day, the eternal Sabbath!