Luke 6:35-36 35But love your enemies and do good and lend, expecting nothing back, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and evil. 36Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
Jesus gives a summarizing statement in verse 35 that incorporates verses 32 love, verse 33 do good, and verse 34 lend. Each of these commands are in the present continuous tense, which implies a lifestyle. Loving one’s enemy is difficult if not even impossible from a human perspective. What makes people our enemy is usually some harm they do to us. Our natural response is to return their meanness to them. Doing good has the context of verse 33 and the condition of receiving good first from people. Followers of Jesus ought to take the initiative to do good and not wait for others to do good to them. We should be agents of wellness. When we walk into a room or are among people, we should be a positive force that builds up the situation, even when the situation is difficult or bad.
Free lending is also difficult, especially if we have had to work hard for what we have. We must always remember that we are but mere stewards of God’s gifts to us. We may work hard for what we have, but even the work we do is a gift. A job can be easily lost or an accident can quickly happen, putting us in financial problems. Would we be willing to lend when we do not have much to give?
Jesus gives three motivations to match the three commands. The three outcomes could be in response to the last command of lending but more likely go with all three of the commands and should be taken as a group. The first is a great reward. This reward is not described in detail here, but it is hinted at with the second outcome of being called the children of God, which is a reward in itself. As God’s children, we receive the promise of eternal life. The fatherhood of God and his position as the Most High are important themes in Jesus’ teaching. We can approach the Almighty Creator as his beloved children. The third motivation is to receive God’s kindness. We as his children receive his kindness, but so does the rest of the world. At one point, we all were ungrateful and evil, but God extended mercy and forgiveness to us. The last motivation also provides the model for how we as God’s children should act. If God is kind to all people, including those who are ungrateful and evil, so should we show kindness to these types of people.
This thought is echoed in another concluding statement in verse 36. We are to imitate God by extending the mercy he has shown us to other people, even our enemies and people in need. Mercy (oiktirmones) is a form of compassion and sympathy. The root is related in the Septuagint to God’s mercy and grace. God is the source of all compassionate mercy (2 Corinthians 1:3). God’s mercy is the catalyst and reason for the coming of Jesus (Luke 1:50, 54, 58, 72, 78). The same way God has acted towards us is how we should respond to the people around us. It is not easy to extend mercy and compassion to people who hurt us or are our enemy, but Jesus does not put conditions on mercy. We can show it in the tangible ways Jesus gives in this sermon and in other places in his teachings. The only way we can do this is through God’s love flowing in our hearts and through our actions. The more we are changed by his powerful presence, the more we will become merciful. Mercy counteracts materialism. Grace is the antidote to greed. Love overcomes and replaces lust.
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