Living as God’s People

January 12, 2014 Background Scripture: Luke 6:12 – 49 Lesson Passage: Luke 6:12, 13, 17 – 31 Jesus taught many lessons on how children of God should live and conduct themselves in this world. Perhaps none of his teachings on this subject are as detailed and profound as that in his Sermon on the Mount. Much of Luke 6 parallels the teachings of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. It is not clear whether Matthew and Luke are recording the same event since Jesus was known to teach about a subject more than once during his ministry. In fact, he is recorded as using the phrase “again, I say unto you” quite often in the gospel narratives. If this is the same event, it is interesting to note that Matthew records much more information than Luke which is uncharacteristic of the two writers. On the other hand, there are some critical facts that Luke includes in this text which is what one comes to expect of Luke’s writings. According to the text, Jesus was preparing to select twelve men to become his apprentices or disciples. Jesus was going to spend the next three and a half years pouring his teachings into them and afterwards he commissioned them to go and make disciples of the entire world. Rather than use his divine attribute of omniscience to select them, he humbled himself and submitted himself to his Heavenly Father. So he spent all night in prayer to God. This is an excellent model to follow when preparing to make major decisions. The next day, he called all of his students or followers to him and from among them he selected twelve. Together, they approached the crowd in the plains where he healed the sick among them and then began to teach them about the blessings of being a part of the kingdom of God. The blessings he spoke of were to be received later in heaven rather than during their earthly life. They were going to endure many trials and hardships in their future but Jesus was teaching them to look beyond their present circumstances of distress and he assured them of a future reward for their endurance. Some of their persecutions would come because of their relationship with Jesus and they would be rewarded greatly because of their suffering. These would not be isolated incidents but persecution would become a part of their way of life as children of God. Tribulations could not be avoided but they were given assurance of their future reward to help them endure the suffering. Then Jesus turned from acknowledging their emotional and social pains in this world to warn those who have it easy in this world. The earthly blessings of this life are the totality of their reward. In the afterlife beyond this world, their fortunes would be reversed and they shall lack a reward in the future and their present joy would become anguish and pain in the future. From there his teaching moved towards how to live according to the Law of love. Jesus taught them the proper actions and response to others as children of God. There are expectations of how children of God should live in this life. Jesus taught them how to live up to the expectations that God has of His children. Our lesson passage ends with what we know as the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do onto you. This is how we live as God’s people. Robert C. Hudson January 6, 2013