10 The Character of a True Christian (Luke 6:20–26)
And turning His gaze toward His disciples, He began to say, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed 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. Be 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. But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.” (6:20–26)
In his recounting of the magnificent story of the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, Luke amasses irrefutable evidence that He is the Messiah, God in human flesh, the Savior of the world. Of the many proofs Luke has presented so far (see the list in the previous chapter of this volume), none is more compelling than Christ’s teaching. He was the most truthful, wise, and powerful preacher ever and His teaching consequentlydrew massive crowds who were amazed and astonished by what they heard (cf.Matt.7:28–29; John 7:31–32, 45–46).
Jesus spoke the truth with absolute divine authority on a wide spectrum of doctrinal and practical topics. He taught that God is creator (Matt. 19:4; Mark 10:6; 13:19), king (Matt. 5:35), father (Matt. 5:16; 23:9), and sovereign ruler of heaven and earth (Matt. 11:25; cf. 6:9–10). He is holy (John 17:11), merciful (Luke 6:36), gracious (Ps. 103:8, even to unbelievers [Matt. 5:45]), perfectly righteous (Matt. 5:48; John 17:25), omniscient (Matt. 6:8), and loving (John 14:21, 23; 16:27).
In His teaching concerning Himself, Jesus clearly, unequivocally, and emphatically declared His deity and absolute equality with the Father. The apostle John wrote that “the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God” (John 5:18). Jesus declared to the hostile Jewish leaders, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am” (John 8:58), taking for Himself the name “I AM” by which God revealed Himself in the Old Testament (Ex. 3:14). He again affirmed His deity in John 10:30 when He said to the Jews, “I and the Father are one.” Unlike modern cultists, the unbelieving Jews understood clearly that Jesus was claiming to be God; that was why they sought to kill Him (John 5:18; 8:59; 10:31–33). If, as some skeptics say they had misunderstood Him, Jesus’ failure to clarify what He really meant is inexplicable—particularly when failing to do so cost Him His life (John 19:7).
Reinforcing His claim to deity, Jesus taught that He had come from heaven (John 3:13; 6:38, 51, 62; 13:3; 16:28), sent by the Father (John 5:36–37) to do His will (John 6:38). He also claimed authority to forgive sins, a prerogative that belongs to God alone (Luke 5:20–24), and that He in fact possessed “all authority … in heaven and on earth”(Matt. 28:18).
Jesus predicted His death and resurrection (Matt. 17:22–23; 20:18–19; Mark 8:31; John 2:19–21), and taught that His death would be the atoning sacrifice for sin (Matt. 26:28; John 10:11, 15) that would provide salvation (Luke 19:10; cf. 5:31–32; Matt. 20:28) for all who believe in Him (John 3:14–18). Jesus also taught that He will one day return in glory (Matt. 24:27) to judge the wicked and establish His kingdom (Matt. 16:27; 25:31–46).
The Holy Spirit, according to Jesus’ teaching, is the third member of the Trinity, and hence God (Matt. 28:19). Blaspheming Him by rejecting His testimony to Christ is the unforgivable sin (Matt. 12:32). The Spirit brings people to salvation through the new birth (John 3:5–8), indwells and empowers believers (Luke 24:49; John 7:38–39; 14:16–17; 16:7), inspired the writers of Scripture (Mark 12:36; John 14:26; 16:13), and convicts the unbelieving world (John 16:7–11).
Jesus taught that mankind was created by God (Matt. 19:4). He spoke of God’s providential care for humanity in general (Matt. 5:45) and His children in particular (Matt. 6:24–34; 10:28–31). But mankind is in a state of rebellion against God. The unregenerate are hard-hearted rebels (Matt. 19:8), who refuse to obey the Son of God (John 3:36).They will not come to the light of God’s truth because they are evil and love the darkness of sin (John 3:19), thus proving themselves to be children of the devil (John 8:44). Because of their rejection of the Lord and only Savior Jesus Christ, unrepentant sinners will be judged (John 5:29; 12:48) and sentenced to eternal hell (Matt. 25:41; Mark 9:43–48).
The Lord presented Himself as the only way to God (John 14:6; cf. 10:7–9). He claimed to be the bread of life (John 6:35, 51), the good shepherd, who lays down His life for the sheep (John 10:11), the light of the world (John 8:12; 12:46), and the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). The Father sovereignly draws to Christ (John 6:37, 39, 44) those who will be saved through repentance (Mark 1:15; Luke 5:32; 13:3, 5; 24:47) and faith in the Son (John 1:12; 3:14–18, 36; 5:24; 6:40). They will receive eternal life (John 3:15–16) and spend eternity in heaven (John 14:2–3).
Foundational to all of Jesus’ teaching was His commitment to the absolute authority of Scripture. As the inspired word of God (Matt. 15:3–6), the Scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35). In fact, it would be easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for any part of God’s law to be altered (Matt. 5:18). Scripture is the rule of life (Matt. 4:4), and those who obey it are blessed (Luke 11:28).
The teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ is diametrically opposed to human thinking. Most of the Jewish people, particularly the religious leaders, found it repugnant, offensive, and threatening. In their minds it was so wrong that it had to have been satanic (cf. Mark 3:22). Then and now, the Lord’s teaching shatters popular worldviews. It challenges men’s motives, turns their world upside down, and stands their thinking on its head. It makes no attempt at political correctness and ignores conventional wisdom.
The Beatitudes recorded in this passage are a prime example. From the human perspective, it seems foolish to say that poverty, hunger, sorrow, and rejection are the producers of blessings, and riches, satisfaction, happiness, and honor. But as God incarnate, Jesus authoritatively defines who is blessed and who is cursed. What He said on this occasion and throughout His ministry demanded a paradigm shift of monumental proportions. Sadly the Jewish people, especially the religious leaders, refused to think outside the narrow box of first-century Judaism. To this day the world, like them, continues to reject Christ’s message.
As noted in the previous chapter of this volume, the crowd thatgathered to hear the Lord preach this sermon consisted of three groups: the apostles, the uncommitted, curious crowd, and the disciples. Luke’s note that as He began to preach Jesus turned His gaze toward His disciples indicates that the Sermon on the Mount is directed primarily at them (although the woes were addressed to the crowd in general). The disciples were at various levels of commitment and understanding, but they followed Jesus and considered Him their teacher.
Despite the claims of some, the Sermon on the Mount is not a statement of ethics, but a sermon on salvation. Trying to apply the principles in this sermon apart from regeneration is futile. Since He came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10), salvation was central to the Lord’s teaching. At the outset of His public ministry “Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’“ (Matt. 4:17). He taught that people are sinners, lacking the power and resources to deliver themselves, and thus are slaves to sin (John 8:34).The only way to escape divine judgment (cf. Luke 13:1–5) is through repentant faith in the Son of God (John 3:16–18, 36; 5:24; cf. Luke 18:13–14). It is not outwardly religious, superficially moral people who are saved, but rather people overwhelmed with their sinfulness, who cry out to God for forgiveness and mercy
Jesus’ message shocked and outraged the self-righteous religious people of Israel. This was not what they expected from their Messiah. They imagined that He would be pleased with their righteousness and religious ritual, and welcome them into the kingdom. Instead, Jesus scathingly denounced them as hypocrites (Matt. 23:1–33), and compared them unfavorably to the despised outcasts of Jewish society (Matt. 21:31–32). His message was unacceptable and intolerable, leading His nation to reject and murder Him.
Luke presents a condensed account of the Sermon on the Mount, which Matthew 5–7 recorded in more detail. However, neither gospel writer recorded everything Jesus said on this occasion. (Although the Lord undoubtedly repeated the themes of this sermon throughout His ministry the Sermon on the Mount is one continuous message, preached on one occasion, and not a collection of Jesus’ sayings.) Even Matthew’s longer account can be read in about ten minutes, and the Lord surely preached much longer than that. There are minor variations in Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts, but those are to be expected in the process of translating (the Lord spoke in Aramaic and Matthew and Luke wrote in Greek) and condensing Jesus’ message. (For a defense of the view that Matthew and Luke recorded the same sermon, see William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke, New Testament Commentary [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978], 334–35; D.A. Carson, Matthew, in Frank E. Gaebelein, ed. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), 8:125–26.)
Jesus closed this sermon by dividing those who hear (or read) it into two groups (see the exposition of vv. 47–49 in chapter 12 of this volume). He likened those who hear and obey His teaching to a man who builds a house on a solid foundation of rock. Such people are untouched by the storm of divine judgment (John 5:24). On the other hand, those who reject His teaching are like a man who built his house on sand. They will be swept away to damnation by the flood of divine judgment (John 3:36).
Jesus had the same two groups in view as He opened His message, describing them with the terms “blessed” and “woe.” Makarios (“blessed”) refers to those in the most beneficial, favored position, who experience the true well-being that comes from a right relationship with God. Ouai (“woe”) refers to those in the worst, most unfavorable condition, who experience the calamity, disaster, and damnation reserved for the wicked. Everyone falls into one of those two categories; there is no middle ground.
The Lord’s use of these terms was not a wish, nor was He merely praying for God’s blessing or cursing on people. On the contrary, they are absolute statements of fact; divine verdicts rendered by God’s authoritative judgment. The concept of divine blessing and cursing was well-known to Jesus’ audience from the Old Testament (cf.Deut.27, 28).
Luke’s account of the Beatitudes reveals four blessings bestowed on the righteous, and four woes pronounced on the wicked. Each blessing has a promised benefit connected to it, while each woe has a corresponding promised threat. As noted above, the blessings and woes seem backwards from the perspective of self-righteous sinners. But the Lord’s words paint His composite portrait of the blessed and the cursed.
THE BLESSED
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed 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. Be 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.” (6:20b-23)
The first characteristic of those who are blessed is that they are poor. Ptōchos (poor) derives from the verb ptōssō, which means, “to cringe and cower in fear.” It describes those who are utterly destitute andentirely dependent on others for support. They are at the bottom rung of the social scale. Reduced to begging, they cower and cringe in begging humiliation. While the Bible commends helping those in need (e.g., Lev. 25:35; Deut. 15:7–8; Prov. 19:17; Isa. 58:6–7; Gal. 2:10), poverty itself is not a blessing. In fact, in Proverbs 30:8–9, a righteous man asked the Lord to preserve him from poverty so that he would not be tempted to steal and thus profane the name of the Lord.
But Jesus was not teaching that those who are materially and economically poor are thereby blessed. As Matthew’s parallel account of this sermon indicates, the Lord was speaking of those who are “poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3). The blessed are those who understand their spiritual poverty and the bankrupt condition of their soul, no matter how much or how little wealth they possess. They acknowledge that they are bankrupt in righteousness and have absolutely no spiritual resources with which to obtain God’s favor, and that salvation cannot be by good works, morality, or religious rituals. They are like the repentant tax collector in Luke 18:13, who “was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’” (cf. Pss. 34:18; 51:17; Isa. 57:15; 66:2). Jesus described such people in Luke 4:18 as poor, captives, blind, and oppressed, and proclaimed the gospel of God’s forgiveness, grace, and mercy to them.
Such an acknowledgment of spiritual deficiency was unthinkable to the proud, self-righteous people of Israel. They saw themselves as the spiritual elite, whose good works, religious observances, and Abrahamic ancestry had earned them entrance to God’s kingdom. The Lord completely overturned that self-serving assessment. In reality, they were like the people in the Laodicean church, who said, “‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and [did] not know that [they were] wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” (Rev. 3:17).
The promise to the spiritually destitute is that theirs is the kingdom of God. The present tense verb is indicates that more than just the future blessings of the earthly millennial kingdom are in view. Believers enjoy now the kingdom blessings of “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).They are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17), and possessors of the the kingdom blessings of eternal life, grace, mercy forgiveness, joy hope, security, comfort, peace, love, and righteousness.
A second mark of the blessed is hunger. As Matthew 5:6 indicates, this hunger does not result from lack of food, but from lack of righteousness. It is an intense, deep, all-consuming longing for acceptance with God. The picture is of impoverished, starving spiritual beggars, longing for the righteousness that they cannot obtain on their own. Thepsalmist described this yearning for God when he wrote, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?” (Ps. 42:1–2). In asimilar vein David wrote, “O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Ps. 63:1).
The blessing pronounced on the spiritually hungry is that they shall be satisfied. Chortazō (satisfied) literally refers to fattening animals, which will eat until they cannot eat any more. When used of humans, it means to eat one’s fill, or to be completely satiated. Those who truly hunger for righteousness will be fully satisfied. Psalm 34:10 promises that “they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.” The most beloved of all Psalms opens, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” (Ps. 23:1). In Jeremiah 31:14 God declares, “My people will be satisfied with My goodness” (cf.Ps. 107:1–9; Isa.25:6; Luke 12:37; 13:29).
The third Beatitude pictures the blessed as those who weep now. This is the emotional breakdown that follows recognition of spiritual bankruptcy and lack of righteousness. These mourners view themselves as the poor, prisoners, blind, and oppressed (cf. 4:18), and are burdened, disappointed, fearful, and hurting. Theirs is the sorrow of repentance, of which James wrote: “Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you” (James 4:9–10). It is the “sorrow that is according to the will of God [which] produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation” (2 Cor. 7:10).
Those who mourn will not only be comforted (Matt. 5:4), but will even laugh, expressing the joy relief, and freedom of the forgiven. Psalm 30:5 promises, “Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.” In Jeremiah 31:13 God promises, “I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and give them joy for their sorrow.” At His second coming the Lord Jesus Christ will “comfort all who mourn … in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting” (Isa. 61:2–3; cf. 35:10; 51:3, 11).
The final Beatitude is perhaps the most paradoxical and, from the human perspective, most incomprehensible of all. The first three describe how the repentant sinner views himself; the fourth describes how the world sees him. The Lord used four verbs, hate, ostracize, insult, and scorn to sum up the vitriol, hostility, and animosity poured out on His disciples by the unbelieving world. This fourth Beatitude indicates that the work of the first three has been accomplished. Genuine salvation has occurred, and the disciples’ changed lives are an evident rebuke to all. The world’s hostile reaction to Christ’s followers is evidence that they are among the blessed, since the world does not reject its own.
The underlying reason for sinners’ hatred, ostracism, insults, and scornful denunciation of the name (Christian) that believers bear as evil is because of their association with the Son of Man. The Lord elaborated on that truth in His charge to the Twelve before sending them out to preach (Matt. 10:16–33). In verse 16 Jesus likened the opponents they would face to vicious wolves (cf. Matt. 7:15; Acts 20:29). He further cautioned the apostles that they would be severely punished in the courts and synagogues (cf. 2 Cor. 11:24), including being put out of the synagogue (John 9:22, 34; 16:2), and by rulers (Matt. 10:17–18). Families will be divided when some members identify with Christ (v. 21; cf. Luke 12:51–53). All of this hatred will be directed at believers because they name the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (vv. 22, 24–25), whom the unbelieving world hates (John 15:18–19; 16:33).
Jesus’ prediction came to pass. The apostles faced persecution from the Jewish authorities (Acts 4:1–22; 5:17–40), as did the church as a whole (Acts 8:1, 3); Herod murdered James, the brother of John (Acts 12:1–2); Stephen was martyred (Acts 7:58–60); Paul’s life amply fulfilled the Lord’s words about him to Ananias, “I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake” (Acts 9:16; cf. 2 Cor. 11:22–33); and eventually, as noted in previous chapters of this volume, most of the apostles were martyred for their bold preaching of the gospel.
But instead of being fearful and despondent when persecution comes, Jesus commanded believers to be glad in that day and leap for joy. The phrase in that day indicates that persecution will not be the constant lot of believers, but will happen occasionally. Acts 2:47 describes a time when the church had “favor with all the people” (cf. 5:13), while 9:31 records another time when “the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase” Peter informed his readers that trials last “a little while,” and only happen “if necessary” (1 Peter 1:6).
When they do face the world’s hostility, believers are to regard it as a time to be glad, to be completely carried away to the point that they even leap for joy. The reason for such exuberance on the part of persecuted believers is twofold. First, they rejoice because they know that their reward is great in heaven. To properly handle trials and opposition, Christians must have an otherworldly perspective. They must keep in mind, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, that “momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:17–18; cf. Rom. 8:18). It was thatheavenly focus that allowed the apostles, after having been beaten by the Sanhedrin, to leave “the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41). Paul and Silas, having been beaten and put in the stocks at Philippi, nevertheless were “praying and singing hymns of praise to God” (Acts 16:25). Paul told the Colossians, “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Col. 1:24). Enduring suffering and hostility isa mark of genuine saving faith (cf. Matt. 10:22; 24:13).
Not only their future reward in heaven, but second their association with the heroes of faith of the past should motivate believers to joyously endure hostility. They are in the noblest of company, for in the same way, Jesus declared, their fathers used to treat the prophets (cf. Luke 11:47–51; 13:34; Acts 7:52; Rom. 11:3; 1 Thess. 2:15; James 5:10).
THE CURSED
“But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.” (6:24–26)
The use of the strong adversative conjunction plen (but) indicates that the woes pronounced on those who reject Jesus Christ are in direct contrast to the blessings granted to His true believers. The first woe was not pronounced on the materially rich. Being wealthy in and of itself is not sinful; Abraham, Job, Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea were rich, and according to Deuteronomy 8:18 God grants the power to obtain wealth. The rich in view here are those who imagine themselves to be rich in the spiritual realm, who think that their righteous deeds are sufficient to obtain salvation. A prime example is the Pharisee in the Lord’s story, who “was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get’“ (Luke 18:11–12). The curse pronounced on them is that they are receiving their comfort in full in this life. What awaits them in eternity is the comfortless, ceaseless torment of hell (cf. Luke 16:25).
The second curse is on those who are well-fed now. These are the people who are totally satiated with their hypocritical self-righteousness. Unlike those who hunger for a righteousness they know they do not have and cannot earn, they imagine that they have everything they need, andlack nothing. The curse pronounced on them is that they shall be eternally hungry, experiencing the gnawing, never-ending hunger of a lost soul in hell.
A third mark of the cursed is that they laugh now. Smugly content with their religious achievements and superficial morality, they happily contemplate the eternal bliss that they foolishly imagine awaits them in the eternal kingdom. The sobering reality, however, is that while “many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,” many who think that they are “sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness” (Matt. 8:11–12). In sharp contrast to the everlasting joy promised to the true disciples, “in that place [hell] there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (v. 12; cf. 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28).
The final contrasting woe pronounced on the cursed is that of popularity “Woe to you when all men speak well of you,” Jesus warned, “for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.” The Lord had earlier linked the unpopular true disciples to the true prophets; here He linked the false disciples to the false prophets. Refusing to acknowledge their spiritual poverty, arrogant self-righteousness, and baseless contentedness, the cursed enjoy the company of others, having their ears tickled by the deceitful lies of the false prophets (2 Tim. 4:3).”An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land, “God declared.” The prophets prophesy falsely … and My people love it so!” (Jer. 5:30–31). Those who embrace their teaching will share the false prophets’ doom (cf.Jer. 14:14–15; 23:14–15, 25–34; Ezek. 13:9).
There are only two kinds of people in the world. Christ’s true followers, the spiritually poor, hungry, sorrowful, and rejected, cry out to God for pardon and mercy through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. They are blessed with eternal riches, satisfaction, joy, acceptance, and reward. In contrast, those who see themselves as spiritually full, rich, happy, and accepted will be cursed with eternal poverty, emptiness, sorrow, and judgment.