Introduction
Are you willing to follow Jesus all the way, even into the places your heart would never choose on its own? The central teaching of Jesus in Luke 6:27–28 is that true discipleship is tested not by how I love my friends, but by whether I will actively love my enemies through doing good, blessing with my words, and praying for those who harm me. All summer we’ve been walking through Luke’s account of what Matthew records as the Sermon on the Mount. And before I open the text, I want you to hear this as a personal invitation: baptism is a public declaration that I belong to Jesus, fully. I still remember the first person I baptized as a pastor. His name was Sonko, a refugee from Sierra Leone, working as a cleaner at a Christian hostel in Amsterdam. We invited him into prayer and Bible study, and whenever we asked if he wanted to follow Jesus, he’d answer with surprising honesty: “I’m only 20% Christian.” Months later: “I’m 50% Christian.” But eventually, by God’s grace, he came to the point where he said, “I want to be 100% for Jesus,” and we baptized him in a lake at Vondel Park. That story convicts me because I know I can’t truly be “20% Christian” or “50% Christian.” And yet, if I’m honest, there are commands of Jesus that expose where I’m still hesitant, guarded, or resisting. Few commands test my devotion like the one we’re about to read, because it requires me to go where I would never naturally go. Luke 6:27–28 says:
“But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.”
G.K. Chesterton famously observed that Christianity “has been found difficult and left untried.” This passage is one of the clearest examples: Jesus doesn’t merely call me to avoid hatred, He commands me to actively love.
Main Points
Are you willing to follow Jesus all the way, even into the places your heart would never choose on its own? The central teaching of Jesus in Luke 6:27–28 is that true discipleship is tested not by how I love my friends, but by whether I will actively love my enemies through doing good, blessing with my words, and praying for those who harm me.
All summer we’ve been walking through Luke’s account of what Matthew records as the Sermon on the Mount. And before I open the text, I want you to hear this as a personal invitation: baptism is a public declaration that I belong to Jesus, fully. I still remember the first person I baptized as a pastor. His name was Sonko, a refugee from Sierra Leone, working as a cleaner at a Christian hostel in Amsterdam. We invited him into prayer and Bible study, and whenever we asked if he wanted to follow Jesus, he’d answer with surprising honesty: “I’m only 20% Christian.” Months later: “I’m 50% Christian.” But eventually, by God’s grace, he came to the point where he said, “I want to be 100% for Jesus,” and we baptized him in a lake at Vondel Park.
That story convicts me because I know I can’t truly be “20% Christian” or “50% Christian.” And yet, if I’m honest, there are commands of Jesus that expose where I’m still hesitant, guarded, or resisting. Few commands test my devotion like the one we’re about to read, because it requires me to go where I would never naturally go.
Luke 6:27–28 says:
“But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.”
G.K. Chesterton famously observed that Christianity “has been found difficult and left untried.” This passage is one of the clearest examples: Jesus doesn’t merely call me to avoid hatred, He commands me to actively love.
The Most Revealing Test Of Devotion
Jesus begins, “But I say to you who hear…” That phrase matters. He’s not looking for people who merely agree with Him; He’s calling for people who will hear and obey. And what follows may be the sharpest test of whether I’m truly submitted to Him: not how I treat those who treat me well, but how I respond to those I would label “enemy.”
This can’t stay theoretical. I need to let the Holy Spirit bring real faces to mind: an ex-spouse, a former friend, a business partner who betrayed me, someone in my own family, someone who has lied about me, used me, or harmed me. Discipleship becomes real when Jesus touches the places I’ve tried to protect.
Jesus Corrects Our Natural Instincts
Luke records Jesus saying, “But I say…” and Matthew clarifies what He’s correcting:
Matthew 5:43–44:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies…”
The Old Testament command (implied from Leviticus 19) calls God’s people to love their neighbor and refuse vengeance. But by Jesus’ day, many teachers had added an easy, flesh-pleasing distortion: “Love your neighbor, hate your enemy.”
That is the natural human instinct. In their world it looked like: love your neighbor, hate the tax collector; love your neighbor, hate the sinner and prostitute; love your neighbor, distrust the Gentile. In our world it shows up just as easily, politically, socially, and personally. The flesh always wants a category of people I’m allowed to dismiss, despise, or dehumanize.
Jesus will not permit that. His love expands beyond my comfort and confronts my excuses.
Love Is Not Mere Neutrality
I need to hear this clearly: Jesus does not say, “Don’t hate your enemies.” Many of us try to settle into a religious neutral, “I’m not bitter anymore,” “I don’t wish them harm,” “I just avoid them,” “I don’t talk about them.”
But Jesus commands active love. He defines love with verbs:
- Do good to those who hate you
- Bless those who curse you
- Pray for those who spitefully use you
Christian obedience here is not passive tolerance. It’s intentional action.
Obedience Leads; Feelings Follow
When Jesus says “Do good,” He doesn’t start by commanding an emotion. He commands an action. That’s a core kingdom principle: my feelings are not meant to lead my obedience, my obedience often leads my feelings.
The world says: “Follow your heart.” “If it feels good, do it.” “I don’t have feelings anymore, so I’m done.” But the kingdom of God is upside down: I obey Jesus first, and God can shape my heart as I walk it out.
You already know this is true in everyday life: I don’t always feel like eating healthy, working out, or even making my bed, but disciplined actions produce good fruit. And it’s true spiritually too: I don’t always feel like reading Scripture or praying, yet the joy of God is found in His presence, not before it.
So when it comes to enemies, Jesus is teaching me to stop waiting for the “loving feeling” and start practicing loving obedience.
C.S. Lewis captured this wisdom: don’t waste time wondering whether you love, act as if you did, and you will presently come to love.
Overcome Evil With Active Good
This kind of love is not weak; it is spiritually aggressive in the best way. Paul says in Romans 12:17, 21:
“Repay no one evil for evil… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
If I repay evil for evil, I become shaped by the very darkness I claim to resist. But holiness means I’m set apart, I respond differently because I belong to a different King.
Doing good can be practical and concrete: a letter, a phone call, a generous act, help with a need, even something as simple as serving them in a tangible way. And sometimes doing good won’t require direct interaction at first, Jesus gives us two starting points that begin in the heart and come out through the mouth.
This is how we “kill” an enemy, not by destroying them, but by removing the hostility through Christlike goodness: “Kill your enemies by making them friends.”
Blessing Replaces Cursing With New Speech
Jesus says, “Bless those who curse you.” The Greek idea behind “bless” is to “speak good words”, it’s connected to what we call a eulogy, where someone highlights the best rather than broadcasting the worst.
To curse is the opposite: to speak evil, to wish harm, to hope for the worst. Cursing comes naturally (just put yourself in traffic at rush hour and you’ll see how quickly the flesh rises). But God’s people are different: where the world curses, we bless.
Now here’s where I may hit a dead end and need God’s help: “What if I can’t think of anything good about them?” This is where I ask for God’s perspective. Even my enemy bears the image of God, was knit together by the Creator, is an object of God’s purposeful design, and is someone God desires to come to repentance and life. If I take God’s view seriously, I will find something I can honor, something I can acknowledge, something I can speak with restraint and truth rather than venom.
And Jesus presses this “how much more” into my closest relationships: if I’m called to bless those who curse me, how much more should I bless within covenant relationships, marriage, family, church? Holiness starts at home: husbands and wives highlighting the best, parents and children learning to speak life, the family of God refusing to devour one another with cutting words.
Prayer For Those Who Hurt And Abuse
Jesus also says, “Pray for those who spitefully use you.” Other translations help broaden the meaning:
- “those who mistreat you” (NIV)
- “those who hurt you” (NLT)
- “those who abuse you” (ESV)
This includes exploiting, manipulating, humiliating, threatening, insulting, emotional, physical, and spiritual mistreatment. Jesus is intentionally leaving no one off the list. If they hate you, if they curse you, if they harm you, pray.
Prayer is not pretending the evil wasn’t evil. Prayer is placing the person, and my pain, before God. It’s asking God to do what only God can do: bring conviction, repentance, healing, restraint, salvation, and justice in His hands rather than mine. It’s also one of the first ways God pries my fingers off vengeance and teaches me to entrust myself to Him.
This may feel heavy, and it is. But it is also the way of Jesus, and it is the pathway to freedom.
Conclusion
Discipleship is not proven by the parts of Jesus’ teaching I find easy. It’s proven where Jesus commands me to go against my natural instincts and trust His kingdom way. Luke 6:27–28 calls me to active love: doing good, blessing with my words, and praying for those who hate, curse, mistreat, and even abuse.
So I want you to practice this with one real person, not a distant category, not a theoretical “enemy,” but someone the Holy Spirit brings to mind. Start with what Jesus gives you today: speak good instead of evil, and pray instead of replaying the offense. As you obey, ask God to shape your heart, and trust that feelings can follow obedience.
And if you realize you’ve been holding back areas of your life from Jesus, “20%,” “50%”, hear again the invitation: Jesus is worthy of 100%. He calls you to a devotion that is full, costly, and beautiful.
Father, thank You for the words of Jesus that are both piercing and life-giving. Forgive me for the ways I’ve tried to water down obedience, settle into neutrality, or keep parts of my heart closed off. Holy Spirit, bring to mind the person You want me to love in real and practical ways. Give me grace to do good when I don’t feel like it, to bless instead of curse, and to pray instead of seeking revenge.
Lord, teach me to see people as You see them, made in Your image, not beyond Your reach, not outside Your care. Protect my home and my church relationships from harmful words, and make us a holy people who overcome evil with good. I surrender my rights, my bitterness, and my desire to repay. Help me follow Jesus fully. In His name, amen.
Conclusion
Discipleship is not proven by the parts of Jesus’ teaching I find easy. It’s proven where Jesus commands me to go against my natural instincts and trust His kingdom way. Luke 6:27–28 calls me to active love: doing good, blessing with my words, and praying for those who hate, curse, mistreat, and even abuse.
So I want you to practice this with one real person, not a distant category, not a theoretical “enemy,” but someone the Holy Spirit brings to mind. Start with what Jesus gives you today: speak good instead of evil, and pray instead of replaying the offense. As you obey, ask God to shape your heart, and trust that feelings can follow obedience.
And if you realize you’ve been holding back areas of your life from Jesus, “20%,” “50%”, hear again the invitation: Jesus is worthy of 100%. He calls you to a devotion that is full, costly, and beautiful.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for the words of Jesus that are both piercing and life-giving. Forgive me for the ways I’ve tried to water down obedience, settle into neutrality, or keep parts of my heart closed off. Holy Spirit, bring to mind the person You want me to love in real and practical ways. Give me grace to do good when I don’t feel like it, to bless instead of curse, and to pray instead of seeking revenge.
Lord, teach me to see people as You see them, made in Your image, not beyond Your reach, not outside Your care. Protect my home and my church relationships from harmful words, and make us a holy people who overcome evil with good. I surrender my rights, my bitterness, and my desire to repay. Help me follow Jesus fully. In His name, amen.