The Logic of Divine Love
Sunday, June 7th, 2026
Second Sunday After Pentecost
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Luke 6:27–36
Prayer
O Father, we thank You for Your great mercies, how they are new every morning, how they sustain us in the night, and how they lead us to eternal life. Please teach us now to become merciful as You are merciful, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
Imagine for a moment that you are alone. And you are standing on the shore of a secluded lake. The water is still. The sun is shining above you. It is warm but not too warm. There are no sounds or noises or any people to disturb you. All is calm. All is peaceful.
- Now imagine flying above the surface of that lake. And see how the more still it stands, the more it can reflect the light of the sun above you. If that lake is perfectly still, it can become a mirror image of the heavens above.
- Well that is what God created you to be. A perfect image and likeness of the Divine light, reflecting as in a mirror God’s radiance, warmth, goodness, and love.
- In the Garden of Eden we were like this. But after the fall, sin shattered us. Sin made us to be more like a stormy sea, dark, brooding, with waves of doubts crashing against one another, and therefore unable to reflect the Divine light above.
- The Bible says that your mind, your heart, your soul, is like a body of water. It’s like the Sea of Galilee, which can either be peaceful and calm at the word of Christ who says, “be still” and all is still (Mark 4:39), or we can be stormy, dangerous, and full of fear.
- Paul says in Ephesians 4:14, that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine.
- In Jude 13 false teachers are described as, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame.
- In Isaiah 57:20 it says, But the wicked are like the troubled sea, When it cannot rest, Whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
- It says in James 1:5-8, If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
- So what kind of body of water are you? What is the state of your heart? Do you have inner peace, or do you feel tossed about by conflicting thoughts, passions, fears, desires?
- Nobody likes being double-minded, anxious, fearful. We all want to experience tranquility, but too often we do not know how to acquire it.
- Well in our text this morning, the Lord Jesus teaches us where the peace of God may be found. And that peace of God, which Paul says in Philippians 4:7, surpasses all understanding, is only ever found where love is found. It says in 1 John 4:16, God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
- And so this means that you will only ever experience peace, to the degree that you also have God’s love dwelling within you. Perfect peace can only come from a perfect love. However, in this life our peace is so often imperfect (or altogether lacking), our minds are easily disturbed because of the inconstancy of our affection for God.
- And so here in this sermon from the Lord Jesus, God wants to show you what His perfect love looks like in action. What does God’s love look like, when it dwells inside a believer? That is what we shall begin to explore this morning.
Outline of the Text
Looking at our text, we can divide it into two basic sections as each relates to love. And this morning we’ll just look at the first section, and Lord willing next week we’ll take up the rest.
- In verses 27-31, Jesus teaches us What Divine Love Is.
- And then in verses 32-36, he explains Why we should love the way that God loves.
- So what is divine love, and what is the logic of this love so that we can love even our enemies? To answer these questions is really to show us the path to peace.
Verse 27 – What is Divine Love?
27But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,
- First recall the context of this saying. Jesus has just pronounced four blessings/beatitudes upon the poor, the hungry, the sad, and the hated, “Blessed are you” he says, looking especially upon his disciples. And then he pronounced four woes/warnings upon the greedy, the self-indulgent, the haughty, and the vainglorious, “Woe to you” he says. And now here, Jesus announces a new audience for the teaching that follows. He says, But I say unto you which hear… Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you.
- Who are those who hear? Jesus is referring to those who are listening in order that they may understand and obey Him. In other words, Jesus is talking to believers.
- Jesus does not expect unbelievers to be able to hear and do what he is about to command. And that is because this ability to truly love your enemies, and to do good to those who hate you, is a supernatural ability that comes from God above.
- This power to love your enemies the way that God loves them, is a power that you must first receive from God as a heavenly gift. And therefore, only those who first hear with faith can also receive this gift of supernatural love.
- Now we call this supernatural love from God charity, to help us distinguish it from the all the other natural loves where even sinners can love those who love them (as Jesus says in verse 32). But to love one’s enemies, and to do good to those who hate us, that is a divine kind of love. And in fact, it is a gracious participation in the very love that God is.
- Paul describes the divine origin of this love in Romans 5:5 when he says, the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Notice that our heart was like an empty space, until God poured His love in.
- And so we say that when the Holy Spirit fills our heart with God’s love, what we receive is a new heart, a new creation, a new disposition and habit of our soul where we can now love other people the way that God loves them. This is what we call charity. And it is a supernatural gift.
- In 1 Corinthians 12 and 13, charity is described as the greatest of all spiritual gifts. And that is because unlike the gifts of faith, and hope, which eventually give way to sight and fulfillment, charity is a love that unites us to God here and now, and then increases even more when we behold God face to face. Paul says, charity never ends.
- So charity is the beginning of God’s life within us, and it is only by His indwelling love, His Holy Spirit poured into our hearts, that we could ever dare hope to love people who hate us.
- Charity is also the highest form of friendship, because charity unites our will with God’s will. Charity is like the love-knot that ties us to God. It is how our spirit becomes interwined with God’s spirit.
- Paul describes this in Colossians 3:14-15 saying, And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
- Note again the connection between love and peace.
- To Summarize: Charity it is the love that comes from God, it is the love that unites us to God, and when we are united to God as His most intimate friends, we are enabled to love other people, even our enemies, for God’s sake. Charity transforms every ordinary relationship into a relationship that has God as its reference point.
- You could visualize this with a triangle. There is you and some other person on the same horizontal plane, and that line between could be a line of love, or enmity, or something in between. Charity sets God above that relationship, and so you can now love that other person through God, with God’s help, with the very love that God pours out into you, you can now pour out to them.
- So this how charity transforms everything, and it is why it is the greatest of all spiritual gifts.
- Now a second thing we need to note before we get into some of these actions that love does, is that these commands in verses 27-30 are for Christians as private persons, and not for the civil magistrate or public officials as such.
- To put it another way, what Jesus is commanding here is not a new civil law for the government to enact or enforce. Because if it was, then it would contradict the Ten Commandments, and many other things that Jesus will say and do elsewhere. So we always have to interpret Scripture with Scripture, and that is especially true when it comes to these teachings here. Don’t get confused, these are personal and private commands for Christians as Christ, not new civil laws for the commonwealth or magistrate.
- To give you just one example to illustrate this point, when Jesus says in verse 29, him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also, by saying this Jesus is not trying to legalize theft. Jesus is not decriminalizing stealing. He is saying that insofar as belongs to you as a Christian, freely give what you have freely received, and God will make it up to you. He clothes the grass and the lilies and can find you a new coat. Don’t take vengeance into your own hands.
- The Apostle Paul elaborates on this more in Romans 12 and 13 when he says, Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
- And how does God repay evildoers? Paul goes on to say a few verses later, But if you do evil, be afraid; for [the powers that be, the civil magistrate] does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. (Rom. 13:4).
- So there is no contradiction between a Christian loving his enemies and suffering loss or persecution, and then the civil magistrate coming along and executing those same enemies for their crimes to protect and maintain the common good.
- Whenever the common good is jeopardized by evil, the most loving thing the magistrate can do for them, is punish them, prevent them from doing more harm to themselves and others.
- This is the love the magistrate (as magistrate) shows for the common good, and it is in no way opposed to the love you show by not withholding your private goods when certain need demands. But the point is, that punishment, the sword, vengeance, belongs to the lawful authorities, and not to private individuals as such.
- So if you misunderstood this, you can end up with all kinds of weird and false conclusions about what a Christian can and cannot do. And so just remember Jesus never contradicts himself, he is not abolishing the law in any way, he is rather showing how love is the fulfillment of the love, specifically in our private affairs.
- So what exactly does love for our enemies look like?
- Well, we learn in verse 27, that to love means to do good to someone. Jesus says, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,
- So to love is to will what is good for someone. And we should go further and say that divine love (charity), wills what is what is most good for someone (what is best for them).
- And so we should ask here, what is the best good we can will for our enemies? It is that they get converted to knowing and loving God. And this is what separates charity from all other loves. Charity wills God for other people, and therefore does whatever is within its power to give God to that person.
- And so Jesus says the way you will lead people to me, is by doing good to them, even when they hate you. Later he will explain this more saying we are to be merciful, even as God is merciful. And then he goes on to say in verses 28-31 what kinds of private actions lead people to God.
Verses 28-31
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.
- These are the concrete actions of a person who desires his or her enemies to be converted to God. These are also the actions that only a blessed person can do. And by that I mean, you must be blessed in the sense that Jesus just pronounced blessings, upon those who contemn riches, who are poor in spirit, who hungry for righteousness, and so on. Only a person who first has the blessedness of God can love like God loves.
- We observe in this list of actions, that these are all sacrificial acts, acts of suffering, of enduring the loss of material goods, the loss of our dignity (to be backhanded on our right cheek). It can include at times even the loss of our lives and livelihoods, and all because we desire God for the people who hate us.
- This is the logic of divine love that produces Christian martyrs. Think of what Stephen says to God about the people who are presently stoning him to death.
- It says in Acts 7:60, And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
- Did God answer that prayer? Yes, and the fruit of that prayer was the conversion of Saul who became the Apostle Paul. Stephen’s blood was the seed of Paul’s conversion. Stephen overcame evil with good, and O how God blessed that offering!
- Love of this kind is shocking. It is other-worldly. It does not make sense to the selfish heart, and that is the point. It says in 1 Corinthians 13:5, charity does not seek its own, it is not provoked, it thinks no evil.
- Who loves this way? Nobody forsakes their goods and lives for their enemies, unless they are first convinced that God has loved them in this way.
- So think. What did Jesus give up to save you? Heaven. What did Jesus suffer to make you His friend? Hell.
- Everything here that Jesus commands, Jesus himself will later do as he goes to the cross.
- Jesus blesses those who curse him. He prays for them from the cross saying, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And he prays this as they are parting his garments and casting lots for them.
- The soliders took his cloke, and he offered them his life. They struck him on the cheek (John 18:22), and he turned to offer them his whole body to be crucified. They mocked at him. They stripped him of every dignity they could, and Jesus patiently endured all of it, from love for those who hated him.
- This is the gospel. That while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son (Romans 5:8, 10).
- And so if God’s love could change you from an enemy into His friend, then He can do the same for your enemies, changing them into His friends and yours.
Conclusion
And so I close with a question of application. Do you love your enemies? Do you do good to those who hate you?
- Sadly, most of us are guilty of not even loving our friends. Many of us are guilty of not even loving our spouse, our children, our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
- How could we ever love our enemies, if we don’t even have genuine love for one another here?
- This should make you sad. How little you love God. How little charity we exercise in our hearts for one another.
- And so I want you go home this week, and meditate on this. Do you love other people with divine love? Have you actually received from God the love that the Holy Spirits pours into a believing heart?
- Because if you are cold to other people. Cold to your spouse, cold to your parents, cold to some other race, or skin color, or class, or people group, cold to anyone, that should alarm you. Wherever there is coldness in your heart, that is a place where evil grows, and where God is absent.
- So hear these words from 1 John 3:13-18 and ask God to convict you where you are fall short of His love. John says, Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
- And so may we, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
