Luke 6
Two sabbath scenes open Luke 6 and set the terms for everything that follows. In the first, Jesus and His disciples pass through the corn fields, and the disciples pluck the ears, rub them in their hands, and eat. Certain Pharisees challenge them: Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days? (v. 2). Jesus answers with David eating the shewbread (vv. 3-4) and then with a claim that towers over the whole exchange: The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath (v. 5). In the second scene, on another sabbath, a man with a withered hand is in the synagogue, and the scribes and Pharisees watch whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him (v. 7). Jesus puts a question that pierces straight to the heart of the matter - Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it? (v. 9) - and heals the man whole.3
From the conflict the chapter turns to the mountain. Jesus went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God (v. 12); and when day came, He chose twelve from among His disciples and named them apostles (vv. 13-16). He came down with them to a level place, where a great multitude pressed to hear Him and be healed, for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all (v. 19). Then He lifted up His eyes and preached. The blessings fall first - on the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the hated - followed by the woes on the rich, the full, the laughing, and the universally praised (vv. 20-26). This is the kingdom's great reversal, the world's scale of value turned over.2
The heart of the sermon is its hardest word: Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you (vv. 27-28). The measure is not what others do to us but what we would have done to ourselves - as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise (v. 31) - and the model is the Father Himself, kind unto the unthankful and to the evil (v. 35): be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful (v. 36). From there flow the marks of a heart remade by such mercy: judge not… forgive… give (vv. 37-38); a tree known by its fruit and a mouth speaking from the heart's abundance (vv. 43-45); and at the last, two builders in a flood - one house dug deep and founded on rock, one set on the bare earth without a foundation - under the question that searches every hearer: why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? (v. 46).
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
Luke 6:1-11Lord Also of the Sabbath
1And it came to pass on the second sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. 2And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days? 3And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an hungred, and they which were with him; 4How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone? 5And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. 6And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered. 7And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him. 8But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. 9Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it? 10And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other. 11And they were filled with madness; and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus.
The first scene is small and ordinary: hungry men walking through a field, plucking heads of grain, rubbing the husks off in their hands, eating as they go (v. 1). The action itself was permitted - the law allowed a passerby to pick by hand from a neighbour's standing corn. What the Pharisees seize on is the day: Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days? (v. 2). In their reading, the plucking and rubbing counted as harvesting and threshing, work forbidden on the sabbath. Jesus answers not with a technical ruling but with a story they all knew: what David did, when himself was an hungred (v. 3). David, fleeing Saul, ate the consecrated shewbread that was lawful only for the priests, and gave it to his men (v. 4). The point is pointed. Scripture itself records a man after God's own heart setting a ceremonial restriction aside in the face of real human need, and it does not condemn him. The sabbath was given as a gift to people, not as a trap to spring on them; hunger met on the road is not a desecration of it. Jesus is not loosening God's law; He is recovering its purpose, which His challengers have buried under a heap of their own additions.3
Then comes the line that lifts the whole exchange onto another plane: The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath (v. 5). This is far more than a verdict in a dispute about grain. The sabbath was no human institution; it was set apart by God Himself at the founding of the world and written into the heart of His law at Sinai. To claim lordship over it - Lord also of the sabbath - is to claim an authority that belongs to its Giver. Jesus does not appeal to a rabbi's ruling or even to Moses as a higher court; He speaks as the One with the right to say what the day is for. The title He uses, Son of man, is His most characteristic name for Himself, and it carries a double note: it sounds humble, the lowly one among men, yet it reaches back to the figure in Daniel's vision to whom was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom. Here that figure stands in a Galilean grain field and calmly assumes authority over the holiest rhythm of Israel's week. The Pharisees came to judge His disciples; they find themselves standing before a Judge.
The second scene sharpens the first. On another sabbath a man with a withered right hand is in the synagogue, and the scribes and Pharisees are watching - not in hope of seeing mercy, but to find an accusation against him (v. 7). Jesus, who knew their thoughts (v. 8), refuses to act in a corner. He calls the man out into the open: Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. Then He turns the watchers' trap into a question they cannot escape: Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it? (v. 9). The question allows no neutral ground. To refuse to heal a man you could heal is not to keep the day holy; it is to choose harm over help, death over life. And the irony cuts deep: while Jesus is doing good and saving life, the men so anxious for the sabbath are plotting evil - communed one with another what they might do to Jesus (v. 11). He heals the hand with a word, restored whole as the other (v. 10), and they are filled with madness. A withered hand is made whole, and hardened hearts only harden further. The sabbath, it turns out, reveals what is really in a person.
Luke 6:12-26The Twelve · Blessings and Woes
12And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. 13And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles; 14Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, 15Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes, 16And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor. 17And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; 18And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed. 19And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all. 20And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. 21Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. 22Blessed 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. 23Rejoice 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. 24But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. 25Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. 26Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
Before the most consequential choice of His ministry, Jesus prays through the night: he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God (v. 12). Luke notes again and again that Jesus prays at the hinges of His work, but this is the longest vigil he records - a whole night on the mountain. The next morning He calls His disciples and chooses twelve, whom also he named apostles (v. 13). The word means sent ones, those dispatched with the authority of the one who sends them; the number twelve unmistakably recalls the twelve tribes, as though Israel were being refounded around this Teacher. And the list that follows (vv. 14-16) is striking for how ordinary and unlikely it is - fishermen, a tax collector, a man called Zelotes for his zeal, names history would otherwise never have recorded. It is honest, too: it ends with Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor. Jesus chose the twelve after a night of prayer, knowing what was in each of them, and one of those hands He clasped would betray Him. The night of prayer says something we are slow to learn: the largest decisions are not made by cleverness or strategy but carried first, and long, to God.
Jesus comes down from the mountain with the twelve and stands on a level place - not above the crowd on a height, but among them on the plain (v. 17). The crowd is vast and far-flung: people from all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the Gentile coastlands of Tyre and Sidon, drawn to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases (v. 17). Those tormented by unclean spirits are set free; the sick are made well (v. 18). And then a detail of remarkable tenderness: the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all (v. 19). They did not need to be singled out or argued into faith; they reached toward Him, and power went out from Him to heal. It is into this scene - the desperate and the diseased pressing close, every one of them healed - that the great sermon falls. The words about the poor and the hungry and the weeping are not abstractions delivered to the comfortable; they are spoken over a crowd of the poor and the hungry and the weeping, who have just been touched and made whole. The teaching and the healing are one piece.
Then Jesus lifts up His eyes on His disciples and turns the world's scale of value upside down: 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 (vv. 20-21). Notice how direct it is - not blessed are the poor in the abstract, but blessed be ye poor, you, here, now. The conditions the world pities or fears - poverty, hunger, grief - Jesus calls blessed, because each strips away the illusion of self-sufficiency and turns a person toward God, and because each carries a promise that reverses it: the poor inherit a kingdom, the hungry are filled, the weeping will laugh. The fourth blessing goes further still: Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you… and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake (v. 22). To be hated for His sake is not a sign that something has gone wrong but a place among the prophets - Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for… in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets (v. 23). The blessing is not on suffering for its own sake, but on those whose poverty, hunger, tears, and rejection have driven them to depend on God and to belong to Christ. To them the kingdom is given.
Matched against the four blessings stand four woes, and they must be heard with the gravity Jesus gives them: 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! (vv. 24-26). A woe is not a curse hurled in anger; it is a cry of grief and warning, the lament of one who sees where a road ends and pleads with those walking it. The danger Jesus names is not wealth or fullness or laughter in themselves, but the settled self-satisfaction that has already received its comfort and looks for nothing beyond it. To be rich and full and applauded, and to rest content in it, is to have taken your consolation now - and to have nothing laid up where it lasts. Each woe is the exact mirror of a blessing: the full will hunger, the laughing will mourn, just as the hungry are filled and the weeping laugh. And the last is the sharpest of all: woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you, for that is how the world treated the false prophets (v. 26). Universal applause is not the mark of faithfulness; the true prophets were hated. The woes are not God's vindictiveness; they are His mercy, sounding the alarm before the comfortable sleep through their only hour to wake.3
Luke 6:27-38Love Your Enemies · Be Ye Merciful
27But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, 28Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. 29And 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. 30Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. 31And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. 32For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. 33And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. 34And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35But 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. 36Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. 37Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: 38Give, 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.
Now comes the command that sets this kingdom apart from every other: Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you (vv. 27-28). Jesus addresses it pointedly to you which hear - not everyone listening will receive it, for it cuts against every instinct. The world's settled rule is to love friends and repay enemies; Jesus reverses the second half entirely. And He does not leave love as a vague feeling. He spells it out in four active verbs, each aimed at the very people who wrong us: do good to the ones who hate, bless the ones who curse, pray for the ones who mistreat. This is love as deed and word and intercession, not as sentiment. The examples that follow are deliberately extreme - offering the other cheek, letting the coat go after the cloke, giving to everyone who asks (vv. 29-30). They are not a flat code to be applied with wooden literalism in every case, but vivid pictures meant to break the reflex of retaliation and self-protection at its root. The point is a heart so free of the need to defend and avenge itself that it can absorb wrong and still seek the wrongdoer's good. That is not weakness; it is a strength the world has no category for.
At the center of the command stands the rule that gives it its measure: And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise (v. 31). It is deceptively simple and quietly searching. The standard for how I treat others is not how they treat me - that is the world's arithmetic, repaying kindness with kindness and injury with injury. The standard is how I would wish to be treated myself. And Jesus drives home why merely returning love for love falls short: if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them (v. 32). Loving those who love you back is no achievement; the hardest, most grasping people on earth manage that much. The same goes for doing good to those who do good to you, and lending where you expect repayment (vv. 33-34) - all of it is simple exchange, the giving that expects an equal return. There is no grace in a transaction. What marks the children of God is a love that breaks out of the closed circle of reciprocity - that gives where no return is possible, that does good to those who will never repay. Jesus is not setting a higher price on love; He is describing a different kind of love altogether, the kind that originates rather than merely responds.
The command reaches its ground in the character of God: 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 (v. 35). Here is the deepest reason to love an enemy - not that it works, not that it earns a reward, though a reward is promised, but that it makes us resemble our Father. And the description of Him is breathtaking in its scope: God is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. His kindness is not reserved for the deserving or rationed to those who thank Him. He sends sun and rain on people who curse Him, who use His gifts against Him, who never look up to acknowledge the hand that feeds them. To love only those who love us is to be unlike God at the very point where His glory shines clearest. To love the unthankful and the evil - to give where there is no gratitude and no return - is to bear the family likeness, to be recognizably children of the Highest. The love Jesus commands is not finally an achievement of willpower; it is the overflow of having grasped how God has loved us, who were ourselves once among the unthankful and the evil.
From the Father's mercy flow the marks of a heart shaped by it. First, the end of a condemning spirit: Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven (v. 37). This is not a ban on all discernment - the same sermon will tell good fruit from bad - but on the harsh, censorious habit of pronouncing sentence on others, of writing people off, of cataloguing faults we are blind to in ourselves. The measure we use comes back to us: condemn, and you live under condemnation; forgive, and you find forgiveness. Then the open hand: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom (v. 38). The image is of grain poured into the fold of a garment - not levelled off at the brim but pressed down, shaken to settle it, and heaped until it spills over the edge. That is the picture of how God answers a generous life. The principle is plain and bracing: with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. A grudging, tight-fisted, fault-finding spirit narrows the channel through which grace can flow back; a generous, forgiving, open-handed one opens it wide. We are not bargaining with God here; we are discovering that the heart which gives mercy is the heart most able to receive it.3
Luke 6:39-49Known by the Fruit · The House on the Rock
39And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? 40The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. 41And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 42Either 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. 43For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 44For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. 45A 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. 46And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? 47Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: 48He 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. 49But 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.
Jesus turns from the heart's outward acts to its inward honesty, beginning with two short parables. Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? (v. 39) - a guide who cannot see is no help; he only drags others into his own pit. And the disciple is not above his master (v. 40) - a learner comes to resemble the one he follows, so everything depends on who is doing the leading. Then the famous image of the eye: why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? (v. 41). A mote is a speck of sawdust; a beam is a roof-timber. The picture is almost comic in its exaggeration - a man squinting at a fleck in someone else's eye while a whole plank juts from his own - and that is exactly the absurdity of fault-finding. We see the small failing in another with perfect clarity and stay utterly blind to the large one in ourselves. Jesus does not say to ignore the speck; He says deal with the timber first. Cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote (v. 42). Self-examination is not the enemy of helping a brother; it is the only thing that makes such help honest rather than hypocritical. The censorious eye that misses its own plank is blind, and a blind guide leads only into the ditch.
From the eye Jesus moves to the tree, and the principle is reality over appearance: For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit (vv. 43-44). A tree cannot be argued about; you watch what it grows. Of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes (v. 44) - the fruit declares the root, every time, without fail. The image quietly demolishes the gap between what we project and what we are. A person may say the right words, keep the right appearances, wear the look of goodness - but over time the life produces what the heart actually is, the way a tree produces after its kind. This is not a counsel of despair, as though we were trapped forever as whatever tree we happen to be; the rest of the sermon has just been about hearts being remade. It is a call to reality. Do not mistake foliage for fruit, or reputation for righteousness. And turned inward, it is searching rather than merely diagnostic of others: what is my life actually growing? Not what do I claim, not what do I intend, but what comes off the branches when the seasons turn - in how I treat the people closest to me, in what I do when no one is watching. The fruit tells the truth the words may hide.
Jesus names the source the fruit grows from: 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 (v. 45). The heart here is the inner storehouse - the deep reservoir of what a person truly loves, treasures, and is - and the mouth is its overflow. The phrase is unforgettable: of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. What fills the heart eventually spills out the lips. This is why words matter as evidence: not the careful, guarded words we choose when we are being watched, but the ones that escape us - what we say when we are tired, provoked, off guard, among friends who think as we do. Those unguarded words are the overflow, and they reveal the reservoir. A person can manage their speech for a while, the way a tree might be propped to look healthy for a season, but the abundance of the heart will out. The remedy Jesus implies is not merely to watch the mouth but to change the treasure - to attend to what the heart is storing up, because that, in the end, is what will be spoken and lived. Guard the spring, and the stream runs clean.
The whole sermon comes to rest on a question and a picture. The question searches everyone listening: And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? (v. 46). To call Jesus Lord is to confess His authority; and authority is precisely the thing meant to be obeyed. To name Him Lord and ignore His words is a contradiction at the root - the title and the life pulling against each other. Then the picture that makes it concrete: two builders, two houses, one storm. The first built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock (v. 48); the second built without a foundation… upon the earth (v. 49). On a calm day the two houses might look alike. The difference is hidden, underground, in what was done before anyone could see - whether the builder dug deep to the rock or simply set his walls on the surface. Then the flood arose, and the stream beat against them both. The house on the rock could not shake it; the house on the earth fell, and the ruin of that house was great. The one thing that distinguishes the two builders is named plainly: the wise one heareth my sayings, and doeth them (v. 47); the foolish one heareth, and doeth not (v. 49). Both hear. Both, perhaps, admire. Only one digs the words down into a life by doing them - and only that one stands when the storm comes that tries every house.
Further study
- Luke 6 · Greek interlinear + lexiconBible HubThe Greek text of Luke 6 word by word, each term linked to its lexicon entry - useful for kurios (v. 5, “Lord” of the sabbath), for makarios (vv. 20-22, the “blessed” of the Beatitudes), and for oiktirmon (v. 36, the “merciful” that mirrors the Father).
- Luke 6 ↔ Matthew 5-7 · Leviticus 19 · Romans 5 & 12Intertextual BibleTraces the threads tying Luke 6 to the rest of Scripture - the Beatitudes and the command to love enemies (vv. 20-36) read alongside the Sermon on the Mount and the call love thy neighbour as thyself (Lev. 19:18), and the Father's kindness to the unthankful and to the evil (v. 35) read beside while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8).
- Luke 6 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Luke 6 - the sabbath controversies and the question of verse 9, the naming of the twelve (vv. 13-16), the structure of the blessings and woes (vv. 20-26), and the much-discussed measure of verse 38, “good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over.”
Where this echoes in Scripture
Lord Also of the Sabbath
- 1 Samuel 21:6So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread.The story Jesus appeals to in verses 3-4 - David and his men eating the consecrated bread in their need.
- Mark 2:27The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.The principle underlying the whole scene - the day given as a gift to people, not people as servants of the day.
- Daniel 7:13-14one like the Son of man came... and there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom.The title Jesus claims in verse 5 - the Son of man to whom authority and a kingdom are given.
- Isaiah 58:13-14If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath... and call the sabbath a delight... then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD.The sabbath as delight rather than burden - the purpose Jesus recovers over against his accusers.
- Matthew 11:28Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.The rest the sabbath foreshadowed, offered in person by its Lord (v. 5).
The Twelve · Blessings and Woes
- Matthew 5:3-12Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven... Blessed are they that mourn.The fuller Sermon on the Mount form of the Beatitudes of verses 20-23.
- James 2:5Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom?The truth of verse 20 - the poor as heirs of the kingdom God has promised.
- 1 Samuel 2:7-8The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich... He raiseth up the poor out of the dust.The great reversal of verses 20-26 sung long before - God lifting the lowly and humbling the high.
- Luke 1:52-53He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things.Mary’s song anticipating the very reversal Jesus now preaches in verses 20-25.
- 2 Corinthians 8:9though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.The blessing of the poor (v. 20) embodied in the One who pronounces it.
Love Your Enemies · Be Ye Merciful
- Matthew 5:44-48Love your enemies... that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven... Be ye therefore perfect.The parallel command and its ground - loving enemies as the mark of the Father’s children (vv. 27, 35-36).
- Romans 5:8, 10while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us... when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.The enemy-love of verse 27 shown supremely - God loving and dying for His enemies.
- Romans 12:20-21Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him... Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.The active good of verses 27-28 - overcoming evil by doing good to the one who wrongs you.
- Luke 23:34Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.The command of verses 27-28 lived out by the One who gave it - blessing and praying for those who killed Him.
- Psalm 103:13Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.The fatherly mercy of verse 36 - the compassion disciples are called to mirror.
Known by the Fruit · The House on the Rock
- Matthew 7:24-27whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.The Sermon on the Mount form of the two builders of verses 47-49 - hearing and doing the words of Christ.
- James 1:22But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.The very point of verses 46-49 - the difference between hearing the word and doing it.
- Matthew 12:34-35out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things.The same teaching as verse 45 - the mouth as the overflow of the heart’s treasure.
- 1 Corinthians 3:11For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.The foundation of verse 48 named - Christ Himself the only rock a life can stand on.
- Galatians 5:22-23But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.The good fruit of verses 43-44 - what a heart made new by the Spirit grows.