Living as a Biblical Christian on Jesus’ Terms, Part 8 – Luke 6:25-26

In His perfect wisdom, Jesus is helping his disciples through teaching them the Beatitudes. The first Beatitude, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’ is the essential and central blessing. The rest of the Beatitudes depend on being poor in spirit. We might ask “Why are Christians miserable when they are promised so many blessings?” It is because they fail to practice the first Beatitude and pursue  obedient sanctification (Matthew 7:24-28). Those who are poor in spirit are in the kingdom of God dwelling in the presence of the great and mighty king. They are truly blessed.

From Luke 6:24 the blessings turn into woes. Jesus goes from the positive to the negative. Being rich is not a sin but there are many who seek riches in the world instead of being rich in Christ. They use verses like 3 John 1:2 to justify their desires. This is wrong. The way Jesus declares woe here, it is not a possibility but a judgement. 

Luke 6:25bAfter the rich and well fed, Jesus says ‘Woe to you who laugh now’. Jesus doesn’t mean there should not be laughing or joy in the church. Jesus and God have a sense of humor and are full of smiles. Laughing is wonderful and can be a powerful aspect of life. Laughing can even be medicinal. God doesn’t disapprove of laughter, especially since He created it. 

Yet why does Jesus say woe to those who laugh? If we look at the other woes, its the rich and well fed, who are habitually and lavishly enjoying the world without concern for others (Luke 16:19). From this, we can draw the meaning of those who laugh, it is those who are excessively finding their joy and pleasure in worldly things. Jesus curses this laughter because He wants believers to rejoice in all circumstances, not just when it’s entertaining. He desires the believer to rejoice and have laughter in Him. Our laughter should not be in wealth or success or even at the misery of others. Our joy must be at all times in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is a big problem in the modern Church in America, which only rejoices when things are going well.

The ones who laugh and enjoy the world are cursed because they have given up their pilgrim mentality. We must realize this life is fleeting and we will enjoy the life to come. We cannot believe the lies of Joel Osteen who falsely preaches ‘your best life now’. The pitiful pursuit of trying to live and enjoy the now will eventually end up cursed (Colossian 3:1, 1 Peter 1:1, 1 Corinthians 15:19). The one who lives only for the present does not realize who Jesus is, that Jesus raises the dead, that Jesus is the hope. The fool will try to gain all things now instead of placing their joy and future in Jesus Christ. Particularly since most of the enjoyment and laughing comes as sin, when all is said and done, their enjoyment will be judged and condemned.

Jesus is the Bread of Life and He satisfies you full and completely (John 6:35). In contrast, when you look at the world, they are never satisfied. Even though there are so many things to do, they are bored. They always want something new. Look at the beautiful actors and actresses, why do they divorce even though they are rich and beautiful? It is because true satisfaction is found only in the Lord.

Death is not just the wage of sin, but sin is death and if you sin then you will no longer have a relationship with the living Lord. The sinner is condemned. Still, there are people who would rather laugh now and enjoy their sin. Romans 7:24 shows Apostle Paul who struggled against sin his whole life. We also sin, yet if we confess our sins, mourn and weep over our sinfulness, then we will be forgiven and have the joy of salvation (1 John 1:9). Jesus wept over our sin too (Matthew 23:37) It shows that salvation does not come through a light and cheerful way. We can know the content of the gospel but unless we mourn and repent we cannot be saved.

Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way. Luke 6:26 At first, this curse might seem to be in contradiction to 1 Peter 2:12. The context is different and Peter is addressing hypocrisy, while Jesus is talking about worldliness. There are many times when both Peter and Paul refused the praise of men in fear of taking the glory from God (Acts 10:26;14:14-15). As a bad example, some churches treat their pastor’s like a god, or like the pope, giving them honor only God deserves. Ironically, Jesus, the perfect Son of God was treated poorly by men. They insulted him, slandered him, questioned him, persecuted him and eventually hung him on the cross. The believer should be careful to not pursue better treatment than our Lord. Do not demand or think that you deserve better than Jesus. 

If you wish to be popular with the world then don’t teach sin and hell. If you say ‘yes’ to the world’s demands, ‘yes’ to social justice, ‘yes’ to critical race theory, ‘yes’ to universalism then people will say good things about you. Robert Schuller heretically says positive thinking is almost as important as the resurrection of Jesus. That is a dangerous and damning teaching but it is well received by the world. Compromising the Bible with the world will make you a friend of the world but an enemy of God. 

How to avoid being spoken well by the world? It’s simple. The Christian doesn’t have to go looking for trouble. Just don’t compromise Biblical truth and live by faith. Only by faith can we have a relationship with the Lord. If we abandon our faith, then we cut off ourselves from the Lord. So the righteous will live by faith and the world speaks ill of the righteous. We must be salt and light to preserve this dying world.

Finally, if you claim Jesus as the only way, then the world will hate you. The world loves the first part of John 14:6 but the moment you say ‘no one comes to the Father but through Me’, they hate you. The secular world wants a partial gospel or a softened gospel. They hate the true gospel but we must share it without compromise and boldly because only by the true gospel can they be saved. We will be scolded by the world. It is silly to expect their favor and it is not their favor that we seek. To preserve our own salvation and to bring others into it, we must remain true to Christ and His word.