Encouragements And Warnings

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The world is often divided into the “Haves” and the “Have-nots.”  Now there is a real distinction in these words, but the exact dividing line is often very subjective.  Part of the problem is the envy that is in the heart of every man.  In fact the real problem of having and not having is continuing to live with faith as we encounter them both in a multitude of ways and measures.  Even when we know the Words of God and believe they are true, this life will test our ability to trust Him.

On one hand we can see that God Himself has scattered and spread gifts in such a fashion that they are not equally distributed.  Yet, on the other hand, we see God giving a two-pronged challenge to mankind in His Word.  To the “Haves” is the challenge to be a blessing to the “Have-nots.”  But, to the “Have-nots” is the challenge to trust God and His care above and beyond the care of mankind.  In His desire to cast off God, modern man has severed one side of this prong and has instead stoked the fires of envy as an engine of social transformation.  The question we are left with is this: If such men are successful what will become of the envious masses on the other side of the Equation?  Will mankind have been made better or trapped within a net of his own making?

The words of Jesus in this passage stand as an eternal encouragement to those who do not have and an eternal warning to those who do.  Yet, it does so in a masterful way that does not reduce the “have-nots” into a raving mob seeking to “get theirs.” These very words douse the fires of envy and yet stir a very different kind of fire altogether, a fire of faith in the God of Heaven and the Day of Judgment.  Let’s look at Luke 6:20-26.

Encouraging The “Have-nots”

These instructions are basically the same as Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount” in Matt. 5-7.  There are some differences in wording and in some content.  Yet, the overall meaning is the same and it is clearly a synopsis.  In Matthew, Jesus encourages people who are in 8 or 9 different kinds of situations.  But in Luke, we have less encouraging and an additional warning to those who are in the opposite situation.  The masterful touch of Jesus lies not in encouraging some and warning others.  Rather, it lies in exactly whom He calls blessed and to whom He pronounces woe.  He calls blessed and happy people that all of mankind would call cursed.  And, in the same way, He calls cursed those whom most of us would envy and think of as happy and blessed.  This strange inversion calls for deeper thinking than just following your instincts, gut, and heart.  It calls us to see things from God’s eternal perspective.  Is it possible you have envied people whom God warns of coming woe?  And is it possible you have cursed situations that God says is a blessing?  Try to actually hear what Jesus is saying rather than looking for ways to manipulate what He says in order to get “social justice.”

Jesus starts by stating that the poor are blessed because the Kingdom of God is being given to them.  Now in Matthew is qualified as the poor in spirit.  Thus it is most likely that Jesus uses the simple form her in Luke to get attention.  Blessed are those with no wealth because God is even now giving them His kingdom.  Yet, it is clear that Jesus means us to questioningly dissect such a statement.  Would God really give His kingdom to a person solely because they are poor?  What if they are a poor scoundrel who steals from all around him?  Is such a person to be given God’s kingdom?  Clearly Jesus went into further elaboration and so we find Matthew’s phrase, “poor in spirit.”  Now Poor in spirit may sound like a bad thing.  So to help us understand one might ask what spirit is in question?  It is not The Holy Spirit of God that He is pointing to.  Rather, it is a man’s own spirit.  In our modern vernacular it would be close to the phrase, “full of himself.”  It is one thing to be lacking in wealth of this world.  But it is quite another to be empty of spirit.  A poor man who rages against the rich with billows of envy surging within is not a blessed man.  We would agree, but for the wrong reasons.  He is not blessed because he is not poor enough.  God is not looking only for men who are poor in material things, but those who know and accept that their very spirit is poor and a beggar before God and fellow men.  These are the ones who were in the middle of receiving the Kingdom of God in the days of Jesus.  In fact if a man who is rich in material things of this world recognizes his poverty of spirit, he too can be blessed with this kingdom.  Later Jesus will give a warning to the rich, so let’s move on.

The second is this, Happy and blessed are those who are hungry now because they are going to be filled.  Now the first blessing had a present aspect only.  But these that follow have a present and future aspect.  Those who are hungry now are promised a future filling.  That may seem to be an empty promise, but it is one that is made by the Creator Himself.  Thus you despise it at your own peril.  Life is not about how much money you have or if you have gone hungry.  Rather, life is about where you are headed.  What you do today impacts where you end up tomorrow.  Many in this world are headed towards great hunger and they don’t even know it.  Others who despair of life today are headed towards great satisfaction.  The question is which are you headed towards?  Similar to poverty, Jesus speaks to those who are often going hungry.  This begs the same questions.  Is hunger the key to getting something from God?  Matthew lets us in on the deeper aspect of what Jesus is getting at.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  It is a horrible thing to have no food and go hungry for days on end, while others have so much they waste it.  However, there are greater things we should “hunger” for that are just as much absent from our lives.  Are you not just hungry for physical food, but for the greater things of life like righteousness, truth, and real love?  If you only labor and hunger for food then you will only find a temporary satisfaction.  But, if you hunger and thirst for the greater things that God is concerned about then you will have a great day of satisfaction ahead.  Again, this blessing may seem like a platitude that doesn’t put food in your belly now.  But then isn’t that the rub?  Can you go hungry of material things now for the greater food that God has promised to give?  Do you trust Him?

The third category is mourning.  Blessed are those who are weeping now because they will laugh in the future.  Life has a certain measure of grief for all of us, but some get much more than others.  For the grieving of this world God promises a future time of laughter ahead.  Now when you are in the midst of weeping you may not want to think of such things.  But it is not intended to make you quit weeping.  Rather it is intended to give you hope in the midst of darkest despair.  I will laugh again.  It is promised by God Himself.  In Revelation 21:4 it says, “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.  There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”  Though we wish he would deal with these things today, and though we may wish to labor all day long to quash those things that make us hurt, God asks us to trust Him.  He will make it right.  He will heal the hurt.  And, He will fill our heart with laughter.  Solomon warned that the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.  He was not saying that God despises laughter.  Rather the point is where their heart wants to be.  The fool is willing to do anything to have a party and laugh.  But he often does so ignoring very sober things.  Whereas the wise recognize that this life has much grief to it and that often the laughter of fools is like the noise of wood that is in the fire.  Instead of embracing bitterness, hatred and anger, we are given the hope that God can heal even this thing that wounds us so.

Lastly, Jesus deals with the situation of being hated, excluded, or excommunicated by others.  He describes it further as being faulted and blamed, to the point that they “cast out your name as evil.”  Now here Luke adds the key phrase “for Christ’s sake.”  Thus the oppressed and outcasts of this world are not rewarded by God simply for being outcasts.  At some point this world rose up and cast out Hitler and his armies but that does not mean they will be rewarded by God.  Rather when such happens because we stand with Christ.  If you stand with God, His Word, and His commands, this world will hate you in one form or another.  The trying of your faith will be tempted to leave His side.  Whether you do so in bold rebellion or you do so in seductive twisting of His words both are leaving His side.  If you stand with Christ you will have great reward in heaven.  Notice the future is the key.  This coming day of Judgment in which God sets all things right is easy to dismiss.  Mankind has lived for thousands of years and no such day has come.  First, none of us can know exactly what each who has left this world encountered on the other side.  We can take God’s word for it or we can claim ignorance.  Second, we do so over the top of the evidence of Judgment in the past.  There is much evidence for the global flood if one has eyes to see.  There is also much history of great kingdoms and nations warned by God that they would be destroyed.  All of these have entered the dustbin of history as God said they would.  Thus, it is easy to once again dismiss these future promises as a religious means to pacify the weak.  But the truth is that such statements give us insight into the dragon that speaks them.  If I am weak and believing something that is a fairy tale, what is that to you?  Why must you ridicule my faith rather than just dismiss it?  Why must you eradicate those who believe rather than just ignore them?  Why must you silence the promises of hope rather than disbelieve them?  It is because there is a spiritual enemy that seeks to rob the world of such precious promises.  Manipulation is used precisely because they are valuable.  Will you stand with Christ, whether it is a day when the world pretends favor, or, when it rails against Christ Himself?

Warning the “Haves”

Matthew does not give this “flip side of the coin,” although it is implied.  Those who are rich, well-fed, living to party, and popular are all headed for a difficult future.  The very thing that most clamor for are the very things that lead to Judgment.  Why do we clamor so?

Jesus says, woe to the rich for they have no future help.  A time will come when they call for help but none will come.  The story of the Rich man and Lazarus is a perfect backdrop for these statements.  After death the rich man begs for help, but none is given.  In this life his wealth itself gave him power to command such things to himself.  But such things cannot help you in the life to come.  So how is the poor man better than the rich if they both can recognize these things and escape destruction?  The poor man is blessed because he sees that he is in poverty.  Life has forced him to accept that he has nothing.  He is only half way to true riches.  Once he sees that even he himself is found wanting before God, he can cry out for mercy and be saved.  But riches blind a man to his true poverty.  They surround him with a false sense of security that cannot help in the day of Judgment.  Is it possible that in this modern world those who clamor to have the wealth of the rich are clamoring for a curse?  Is it possible that even as the wealth is being taken from the rich that they are receiving a blessing?  It is high time to wake up because the Dragon is loose upon the earth and deceiving us quite skillfully.  Those who know God’s Word have no excuse.  Riches cannot save us only true poverty before God.  Is there hope for the rich?  If they recognize their true poverty and come to God as a beggar who is destitute, then yes.  James 2:5 says, “has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love him?”  What riches do you seek?

Jesus warns those who are full now because they are headed to great hunger.  In the story of the rich man thirst is the picture.  Here it is hunger.  Like a thirsty man in hell, so a time of insatiable appetite is ahead for those consumed with consuming in the here and now.  Yet, the spiritual application goes deeper.  Those who are satisfied with their own righteousness will find themselves falling short on the day of Judgment and it will be too late to plead for grace.  What are you hungry for?  Yet another question is this, What satisfies me?  Be careful because in the answers of these questions lies blessing and cursing, life and death.

Jesus moves to warn those who laugh now.  You will mourn.  Those who have laughed it up in the pleasures of this life without thought for the judgment to come will mourn on that day.  Christ is not against riches, food, and laughter.  He is warning against man’s tendency to seek such things and be satisfied with them at the expense of Truth.  The truth is that none of these things satisfy beyond a small moment of time.  They testify of themselves that they are not eternal.  Yet, men allow themselves to be blinded to the greater things that satisfy for eternity.  No matter how good your life is, you are in danger of judgment and should not let the abundance of such things blind you to this reality.

Lastly Jesus warns those who are accepted by all men.  Woe to you when all men speak well of you because they spoke well of the false prophets.  This proverbial statement is not meant to cause us to try and make sure no one speaks well of us.  Rather it is warning us of putting any trust in such well speaking.  There is a day when the righteous are spoken well of, but it is rare and short lived.  Furthermore, we are not in such a day.  The key to this is the phrase, “for Christ’s sake.”

Each of these four categories require us to use wisdom and discern the heart of God.  Thus we should be accepted among the righteous, but we should expect rejection from this world.  Jesus said elsewhere that this world would hate his true disciples because it also hated Him.  This has never changed.  Sure the world is not always directly opposed to Christ.  In fact, Scripture warns that in the last days, it will promote a false Christ through false prophets. Thus the seductive twisting of the truths of God will be used to promote an anti-christ.  The deception of the end times is even now upon us.  The antichrist is truly against Christ.  But he seductively puts himself in the place of Christ; the True Christ.  If you have ears to hear then you will hear in these words of Jesus, not a call to arms against the rich of the world.  But, rather, you will hear a call to arms against how easily your very heart is manipulated against the things of God.  You will hear the poverty of your own soul and see how desperate you are without His Grace.  Come to the True Jesus today, learn of Him, and you will have true blessing.