The Rewards of Divine Love (Luke 6:27-36)

The Rewards of Divine Love
Sunday, June 21^st, 2026
Fourth Sunday After Pentecost
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Luke 6:27–36

Prayer

O Father, we thank You for Your Only Begotten Son, who lived what He taught, and who showed us by his life and death and resurrection, how to overcome evil with good. Teach us to do the same, by the power of Your Holy Spirit working within us, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

In Acts 20:35, the Apostle Paul says to the Ephesian elders, Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

• Now where exactly does Jesus say this?
  • Well, if you were to search all four gospels, you would discover that Jesus never says these exact words anywhere in his teaching. And therefore, Paul is either quoting some oral tradition that he and the Ephesians are familiar with, or what is probably more likely, Paul is just summarizing what Jesus is teaching right here in the Sermon on the Plain: It is more blessed to give than to receive.
    • It is more blessed, to love your enemies, to do good to those who hate you, and to lend to those who cannot repay you, because this is what God has done for us, and God is the most blessed, the most happy, the most joyful God, abundant in every good.
  • So if you had to summarize this section of Jesus’ sermon, you could rightly summarize it by saying, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
• Now this morning we are focusing on verses 32-36, which is where Jesus seeks to motivate us, motivate his disciples to give away the love that they themselves have received.
• And the logic of his argument runs like this: Because God’s love is a free gift of Divine mercy, therefore you should freely give what you have freely received.
  • Once upon a time, you were God’s enemy, you were God’s debtor, but Christ came and paid your debt, He suffered and died on the cross to reconcile you to God, and so the friendship with God that you now enjoy is all a gift of His mercy, so therefore show mercy to your enemies.
  • Moreover, because this supernatural love of charity is infinite (it is a participation in the very essence of God), the more love that you give away, the more love God bestows.
  • As Jesus will go on to say in verse 38, Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.
• So charity is this grace that increases the more you give it. You could think of your heart like a little teacup (or if you prefer, a shot glass), and when you become a Christian, God pours out His love so that it fills your little cup to the brim. On His side, He is and has an inexhaustible ocean of love to give you. But on your side, you can only receive as much love as the size of your heart allows.
  • Paul describes this reality in 2 Corinthians 6:11-13 when he says, O Corinthians! We have spoken openly to you, our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. Now in return for the same (I speak as to children), you also be open. That is, open your heart to God!
• Well how does God open your heart? How does God give you a bigger cup? Well, He does this by giving you opportunities to pour out the love that He has given you into people who do not deserve it. God enlarges your heart by giving you opportunities to show mercy to people who do not deserve mercy.
  • When you do this, walking in faith, living in hope, trusting God to supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus, then God expands your capacity to both give His love and receive His love. And thus, we experience what Paul says that Jesus says that, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
• So that is main point of this section (the blessedness of charity), and Jesus gives us two incentives (motivations) to be generous with our love the way that God has been generous towards us. And we find those two incentives in verse 35, where Jesus says, 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.
  • What are the two incentives to love your enemies?
    • 1) For a reward that shall be great.
    • 2) And that ye may be the children of the Highest.
      • What does this mean? To understand these incentives, let us walk through our text, starting in verses 32-34. Jesus says…

Verses 32-34

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.

• First, notice the contrast Jesus is making here, between the way that sinners love, and the way his disciples are to love.
  • Sinners are people who love those who love them, who do good to those who do them good, they make loans and receive back interest on those loans. That is just what ordinary human beings do, and Jesus calls them sinners. Sinners love this way.
  • So ask yourself, do you only love like these sinners love? Do you only do good to the people you like, to the people who look like you and share your values, to people who appreciate your love, and say thank you? Is there anything in how you act, that transcends what is common amongst sinners? This is the question Jesus asks three times in a row when he says, “what thank have ye?”
    • Other translations say, “what credit is that to you?,” or “what benefit is that to you?” In Greek the word for thank/credit/benefit is χάρις, from which we get the English word charisma, grace, or favor.
  • The idea is that a believer is someone who has received χάρις/grace from God, and therefore χάρις/grace should be manifest in how we treat other people, even those who are our enemies.
• So do you love those who love you? Great. Sinners can do that. Racists and Kinists do that. There is nothing meritorious, gracious, or praiseworthy about that kind of love that sinners have for one another. What thank have ye?
• But believers, we are those who love those who hate us. We do good to those who desire to do us evil. We lend to people who cannot repay, because we have God’s grace within us. This is the contrast Jesus is making between sinners and true disciples, between Christians in name only, and those who love God above all else. One has grace, the other does not. So which kind of person are you? What do the thoughts of your heart and your words, and your actions reveal about what you actually love? Do you have grace within you?
  • Now in verse 35, Jesus tells us plainly that there is a reward for those who have and manifest grace. He says…

Verse 35

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…

• What is this great reward that Jesus speaks of?
  • Recall that charity is the love that comes from God, unites us to God, and loves everyone in relation to God. Charity values God more than anything else, and therefore desires God more than anything else.
    • The soul that has been touched by this Divine flame says with Song of Solomon 8:7, Many waters cannot quench love, Neither can the floods drown it: If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, It would utterly be contemned.
    • Or if you like a more homely analogy, we are all like onions, you don’t just take a bit out of an onion, but God’s love comes along and cooks us low and slow until we become sweet.
  • So if you were to ask a person that is full of charity/sweetness, “What reward do you want for loving your enemies?” They would say to you something like, “I just want my enemies to know and love God, and I want to know and love God more than I presently do.”
    • Or, as Moses says to God upon the mountain, if I have found grace in thy sight, please, show me Thy glory (Ex. 33:17-18). Is that what you heart desires?
    • The great reward that charity desires is the increase of charity in oneself, so that more charity can be shared with others. Put another way, charity asks God for a bigger cup, a larger heart, a sweeter and more open disposition, so that we can have more of Him.
    • And if that is the honest desire of your heart, that is the surest sign that you are a true son of Abraham. For what does God say to him in Genesis 15:1, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
• Now this great reward of knowing and loving God begins in this life and is perfected in the next.
  • God says to Moses in Exodus 33:20, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.
  • And it says in 1 John 3:2, we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
  • And in Revelation 21:3-4 it says, And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 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.”
  • To behold God face to face in glory, after death, is the greatest reward of all. That is when Jesus will say to us, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord (Matthew 25:21).
• So that is the future and perfect reward that God promises to those who love Him, but there are also rewards we can begin to experience in this life, here and now when we love our enemies. So what are those rewards? They are joy and peace.
  • Joy and peace are the two unique effects of divine love.
    • It says in Psalm 119:165, Great peace have they which love thy law: And nothing shall offend them.
    • And Jesus says in John 15:9-11, As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
• So do you know the joy and the peace that comes from possessing and delighting in what no one and no thing can take away? Do you have God hidden in your heart? Are not you hidden in God’s heart? Is not your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, where no mortal creature can ever blot it out?
  • It says in Zephaniah 3:17, The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.
• So what can your enemies really take from you, if God is your exceeding great reward? If God is truly your all in all?
  • What if your enemies are actually helping you do what John the Baptist says in John 3:30, “He must increase, and I must decrease.”
    • Sometimes God permits us to suffer temporal losses, persecution, hatred and contempt, because He wants to increase our joy and peace in Him.
    • Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:10, Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
• How is this possible? Only if you know that God is the good that cannot be taken from you, no matter what they do to your body, your reputation, your possessions, your homeland, your culture your family, the people that you love.
  • Jesus says in Matthew 10:28, Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
  • And what does Paul say at the climax of Romans 8? If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
  • That is the truth that gives birth to joy and peace, because it is rooted in what no creature can take away, namely the love of God for us.
• This is also what will set you free to forgive those people who have hurt you the most. As Jesus says in verses 35-36, ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
  • So whose child are you? Who is your father? God, or the devil?
  • God forgives; the devil holds grudges.
  • God forgets your sins, He removes them as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103), he drowns them in the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19). Whereas the devil is constantly out to accuse you, to condemn you, for sins you may have done and for sins you have not done, the devil is a fanciful liar and he will do whatever he can to keep you holding on to sins, real or imagined, and he will encourage you to play the victim, to blame other people, to not take responsibility for your actions, to exaggerate the faults of others, and to minimize your own. The devil is a deceiver for he himself is deceived.
  • Who is Jesus? He is the way, the truth, the life. Jesus is the God who humbles himself even unto death for sinners. Whereas the devil never humbles himself, he exalts himself in pride.
  • The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is kind to the unthankful and evil, the devil is cruel to everyone he meets.
  • So whose child are you? Who is your father?
    • You will know who you are, by how you treat those who hate you.
    • James 2:13 says, For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

Conclusion

• Are you merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful? Because showing mercy is its own reward.
  • It says in Proverbs 11:17, 25, The merciful man doeth good to his own soul: But he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh…The generous soul will be made rich, And he who waters others, will also be watered himself.
  • It really is more blessed to give than to receive. It is better for your health, in this life and the next, to show mercy rather than to harbor bitterness.
• And so the place you must constantly dwell and return to if you would become merciful as your Father is merciful, is the place where God most revealed His mercy: Upon the cross of Jesus Christ.
  • At the cross you must see what your sins deserved. Not just the world’s sins, or those people’s sins, but your sins. Your sins deserve crucifixion. Your sins deserve never-ending punishment. Your sins were an affront to the infinite dignity of God. Your sins were an offense against your Creator such that Peter says the Jews is true for you. He says in Acts 3:14-15, But you denied the Holy One and the Just…and killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.
    • Do you really believe what God says about your sins and what they deserve? If you don’t believe that you deserve damnation, then it will be hard to show mercy and to forgive the people who hurt you.
    • But if you do believe that you have truly offended God, and that He would be just to condemn you to hell for all time, then you can also see just how kind He has been to you, to the ungrateful, and the evil.
  • At the cross we also see what Jesus gave up to win us. What he sacrificed to save us. What value the Father placed on restoring us to fellowship with Him. As it says in Romans 8:32, He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
  • Do you see how pitiful we are!? We are hardly willing to suffer the slightest insult, the slightest injustice, the slightest indignity. We are petty to the core. Would like God to be petty with you? It says in Psalm 130:3, If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? None of us, apart from the cross.
• A soul that is filled with grace, thinks to itself, “whatever evils I suffer here, are infinitely less than the punishment I deserve, and whatever evil is done against me, is less than that wickedness I have committed against the infinitely glorious God.”
• If that becomes your heart’s rationale, well then God has started to enlarge your heart, and pour His love into it, and so may He, both now and forever, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.