Believing Means Doing
Luke 6 (Amplified version for emphasis)
Blessings and Woes
17And Jesus came down with them and took His stand on a level spot, with a great crowd of His disciples and a vast throng of people from all over Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to listen to Him and to be cured of their diseases--
18Even those who were disturbed and troubled with unclean spirits, and they were being healed [also].
19And all the multitude were seeking to touch Him, for healing power was all the while going forth from Him and curing them all [[d]saving them from severe illnesses or calamities].
20And solemnly lifting up His eyes on His disciples, He said: Blessed (happy--[e]with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, apart from your outward condition--and [f]to be envied) are you poor and [g]lowly and afflicted (destitute of wealth, influence, position, and honor), for the kingdom of God is yours!
21Blessed (happy--[h]with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, apart from your outward condition--and [i]to be envied) are you who hunger and seek with eager desire now, for you shall be filled and completely satisfied! Blessed (happy--[j]with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, apart from your outward condition--and [k]to be envied) are you who weep and sob now, for you shall laugh!
22Blessed (happy--[l]with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, apart from your outward condition--and [m]to be envied) are you when people despise (hate) you, and when they exclude and excommunicate you [as disreputable] and revile and denounce you and defame and cast out and spurn your name as evil (wicked) on account of the Son of Man.
23Rejoice and be glad at such a time and exult and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is rich and great and strong and intense and abundant in heaven; for even so their forefathers treated the prophets.
24But woe to (alas for) you who are rich ([n]abounding in material resources), for you already are receiving your consolation (the solace and sense of strengthening and cheer that come from prosperity) and have taken and enjoyed your comfort in full [having nothing left to be awarded you].
25Woe to (alas for) you who are full now (completely filled, luxuriously gorged and satiated), for you shall hunger and suffer want! Woe to (alas for) you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep and wail!
26Woe to (alas for) you when everyone speaks fairly and handsomely of you and praises you, for even so their forefathers did to the false prophets.
Love for Enemies
27But I say to you who are listening now to Me: [[o]in order to heed, make it a practice to] love your enemies, treat well (do good to, act nobly toward) those who detest you and pursue you with hatred,28Invoke blessings upon and pray for the happiness of those who curse you, implore God's blessing (favor) upon those who abuse you [who revile, reproach, disparage, and high-handedly misuse you].
29To the one who strikes you on the [p]jaw or cheek, offer the other [q]jaw or cheek also; and from him who takes away your outer garment, do not withhold your undergarment as well.
30Give away to everyone who begs of you [who is [r]in want of necessities], and of him who takes away from you your goods, do not demand or require them back again.
31And as you would like and desire that men would do to you, do exactly so to them.
32If you [merely] love those who love you, what [s]quality of credit and thanks is that to you? For even [t]the [very] sinners love their lovers (those who love them).
33And if you are kind and good and do favors to and benefit those who are kind and good and do favors to and benefit you, what [u]quality of credit and thanks is that to you? For even [v]the preeminently sinful do the same.
34And if you lend money [w]at interest to those from whom you hope to receive, what [x]quality of credit and thanks is that to you? Even notorious sinners lend money [y]at interest to sinners, so as to recover as much again.
35But love your enemies and be kind and do good [doing favors [z]so that someone derives benefit from them] and lend, expecting and hoping for nothing in return but [aa]considering nothing as lost and despairing of no one; and then your recompense (your reward) will be great (rich, strong, intense, and abundant), and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind and charitable and good to the ungrateful and the selfish and wicked.
36So be merciful (sympathetic, tender, responsive, and compassionate) even as your Father is [all these].
Judging Others
37Judge not [neither pronouncing judgment nor subjecting to censure], and you will not be judged; do not condemn and pronounce guilty, and you will not be condemned and pronounced guilty; acquit and forgive and [ab]release (give up resentment, let it drop), and you will be acquitted and forgiven and [ac]released.
38Give, and [gifts] will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will they pour [ad]into [the pouch formed by] the bosom [of your robe and used as a bag]. For with the measure you deal out [with the measure you use when you confer benefits on others], it will be measured back to you.
39He further told them [ae]a proverb: Can a blind [man] guide and direct a blind [man]? Will they not both stumble into a ditch or a [af]hole in the ground?
40A pupil is not superior to his teacher, but everyone [when he is] completely trained (readjusted, restored, set to rights, and perfected) will be like his teacher.
41Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye but do not notice or consider the beam [of timber] that is in your own eye?
42Or how can you say to your brother, Brother, allow me to take out the speck that is in your eye, when you yourself do not see the beam that is in your own eye? You actor (pretender, hypocrite)! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.
A Tree and Its Fruit
43For there is no good (healthy) tree that bears decayed (worthless, stale) fruit, nor on the other hand does a decayed (worthless, sickly) tree bear good fruit.44For each tree is known and identified by its own fruit; for figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor is a cluster of grapes picked from a bramblebush.
45The upright (honorable, intrinsically good) man out of the good treasure [stored] in his heart produces what is upright (honorable and intrinsically good), and the evil man out of the evil storehouse brings forth that which is depraved (wicked and intrinsically evil); for out of the abundance (overflow) of the heart his mouth speaks.
The Wise and Foolish Builders
46Why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and do not [practice] what I tell you?47For everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words [in order to heed their teaching] and does them, I will show you what he is like:
48He is like a man building a house, who dug and went down deep and laid a foundation upon the rock; and when a flood arose, the torrent broke against that house and could not shake or move it, because it had been securely built or [ag]founded on a rock.
49But he who merely hears and does not practice doing My words is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation, against which the torrent burst, and immediately it collapsed and fell, and the breaking and ruin of that house was great.
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S.S. Says,
These words are some of the most powerful and paradigm changing words that Jesus ever spoke. In one sermon he turned the World, the system of domination and revenge and the value systems associated with it upside down. In Christian circles today we hear a lot about the Ten Commandments and the fight to hang them on our walls. We hear a lot of condemnation of them that do not adhere or accept our own particular brands of belief. We have too often shunned the even-the-enemy loving, grace filled Jesus of the gospels and clung to the image of Christ the avenger from the book of Revelation. Instead of only scrapping to hang the Ten Commandments in our public places, would we not, could we not better serve Jesus and our World by living as Jesus lived- speaking as he spoke- loving as he loved instead of shoveling dirt on those we perceive as our enemies? I acknowledge that there is a time to fight- to stand up for what is right. There is a right and wrong way to do that however. My question is why is no-one pushing to hang the Beatitudes in the public places? Another question... wouldn't living as Christ like disciples and servants... living by humble example be better than hanging plaques on the walls?
When Jesus asks in Luke 6:46, "Why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and do not [practice] what I tell you?"-what is your answer?
Too many that wear the name "Christian" today are not true disciples of Christ.
Mark and remember this from Luke 6:49:
"But he who merely hears and does not practice doing My words is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation, against which the torrent burst, and immediately it collapsed and fell, and the breaking and ruin of that house was great."
Selah!
Footnotes:
- Luke 6:9 Hermann Cremer, Biblico-Theological Lexicon.
- Luke 6:9 John Wycliffe, The Wycliffe Bible.
- Luke 6:10 Some manuscripts add this phrase.
- Luke 6:19 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
- Luke 6:20 Hermann Cremer, Biblico-Theological Lexicon.
- Luke 6:20 Alexander Souter, Pocket Lexicon.
- Luke 6:20 Joseph Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon.
- Luke 6:21 Hermann Cremer, Biblico-Theological Lexicon.
- Luke 6:21 Alexander Souter, Pocket Lexicon.
- Luke 6:21 Hermann Cremer, Biblico-Theological Lexicon.
- Luke 6:21 Alexander Souter, Pocket Lexicon.
- Luke 6:22 Hermann Cremer, Biblico-Theological Lexicon.
- Luke 6:22 Alexander Souter, Pocket Lexicon.
- Luke 6:24 Joseph Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon.
- Luke 6:27 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
- Luke 6:29 Joseph Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon.
- Luke 6:29 Joseph Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon.
- Luke 6:30 Joseph Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon.
- Luke 6:32 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
- Luke 6:32 William Tyndale, The Tyndale Bible.
- Luke 6:33 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
- Luke 6:33 Joseph Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon.
- Luke 6:34 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
- Luke 6:34 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
- Luke 6:34 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
- Luke 6:35 Hermann Cremer, Biblico-Theological Lexicon.
- Luke 6:35 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
- Luke 6:37 Literal translation.
- Luke 6:37 Literal meaning.
- Luke 6:38 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
- Luke 6:39 G. Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon.
- Luke 6:39 Alexander Souter, Pocket Lexicon.
- Luke 6:48 Some manuscripts so read.
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