Bible Commentaries
Luke 6

Verses 1-6

21-28 Compare Mat_9:9 ; Mar_2:13-14 .

21 Human wisdom and expedience would have urged our Lord to choose for His apostles men of the highest character and reputation. Instead, He chooses those that were despised and abhorred. Not without cause were the collectors of revenue for Rome hated for their traitorous occupation and extortionate greed. John the baptist, in telling them to assess no more than what had been prescribed (313), pointed out their most reprehensible practice. They collected far in excess of the government's requirements and kept the balance themselves. This opportunity to enrich themselves at the expense of their fellow-countrymen was the only motive which could tempt a Jew into this hated occupation. They were always classed with sinners. Our Lord does not seek to cover His call of Levi, or Matthew, as he is usually named. He goes right to the tribute office and takes him from his work. He does not wait until He can meet him elsewhere, or until he changes his occupation, or has been put on probation. It is evident that He wishes to impress the people with the fact that He came to call the unrighteous and sinners, in order to magnify God's love and mercy rather than His justice.

29-82 Compare Mat_9:10-13 ; Mar_2:15-11 .

31 What subtle irony there is in these words! The Pharisees and scribes were foully diseased within in spite of their pious appearance. Yet their ailment was like some insidious plague that deadens the nerves to its presence. The truth remains, the Lord could not call those who thought themselves whole, however serious their real condition.

33-35 Compare Mat_9:14-15 ; Mar_2:18-20 .

33 How little did they realize the privilege of His presence! Not even John, let alone the Pharisees, could provide a spiritual banquet. Why should they have a physical feast?

36 Compare Mat_9:16 ; Mar_2:21 .

37-39 Compare Mat_9:17 ; Mar_2:22 .

36 The Pharisees were trying to patch up their old cloak by tearing apiece from His new one. Their old skin bottles were empty and decayed. They had no joy and the forms which once contained it had become corrupted and decayed. The wine the Lord gave them was full of cheer and gladness, and could not find expression in fasting and asceticism. All this was said, doubtless, at the reception of Levi, to defend the feasting and the joy, and to dispel the gloom which they sought to cast over it.

1-5 Compare Mat_12:1-8 ; Mar_2:23-28 ; Deu_23:25: .

1 The somewhat enigmatical word second-first in the Greek has proved so inexplicable that many texts have omitted it, and few editors retain it. Many explanations have been offered, but most of them are based on conjecture. The solution seems simple. The Jews had several sabbaths besides the seventh day of the week. The fifteenth and the twenty-first of Nisan were sabbaths, being the first and last days of the festival of Unleavened Bread. When the weekly sabbath came on the sixteenth, two sabbaths would come together, one a "great day" ( Joh_19:31 ) , and the next an ordinary sabbath. To distinguish the fifteenth-sixteenth sabbath from the double sabbath a week later it was called the first, and to distinguish the second day from the first it was called the second-first ( Lev_23:6:8 ). This was probably the day of His resurrection.

2 According to the law ( Deu_23:25 ) , the disciples had a perfect right to pluck the ears and eat them, though this is not legal in the Western world. The Pharisees do not object to that, but to the act of rubbing, which they interpreted as work unlawful on the sabbath day. If we tear off the mask, we shall find that they were breaking the law, not the disciples. It was probably the festival of Unleavened Bread. The disciples eating the grain as it came from the stalks, certainly ate unleavened bread! But, in the spiritual realm, hypocrisy is leaven ( Luk_12:1 ), and they were guilty of hypocrisy, they were using leaven, at the very beginning of the feast, which was unlawful!

3 Though the disciples had committed no breach of the law, what if they had? The priests labor in the temple, David ate before God ( 1Sa_21:1-6 ), and they were in the presence of the Lord of the Sabbath HImself. If He is not offended, why should they be?

6-11 Compare Mat_12:9-14 ; Mar_3:1-6 .

Verses 7-31

6 Jewish tradition carried sabbath observance to ridiculous lengths. They gravely discussed whether it is lawful to put out one's hand to give to a beggar, and how far! They disagreed as to whether it is allowable to comfort the sick on that day! It is striking how many times the Lord is reported as healing on the sabbath. The reason is clear. These instances are signs indicative of the healing of the nation. But when the nation is cured it will enter into the great sabbatism of the day of the Lord, commonly called the millennium. Healing brings relaxation, rest. How fitting that it should be on the sabbath!

12 Communion with God is the only proper and adequate preparation for His work. The apostles were not chosen without God's guidance. They were not chosen for their own excellence, but for their fitness to fulfill the will of God and carry out His purpose. Thus one of them was actually selected from the beginning to betray his Lord.

13-16 Compare Mat_10:1-4 ; Mar_3:13-19 .

13 The name "apostle" is really our "commissioner". They were to be His authoritative representatives, when He was not present. As God had given Him a commission, with authority to enforce it, so He delegated it to them. After His ascension they became the recognized leaders until the increasing apostasy deposed them and put James, the Lord's brother according to the flesh, in their place. In the kingdom they will rule the twelve tribes, with Matthias in the place of Jud_1:14 Simon, or Peter, is always first among the apostles. His name hitherto was Simon, meaning Hearing, but the Lord changes it to Peter, meaning Rock, as he is the first stone in the spiritual edifice He is about to build. His father's name was John, but this is also changed by our Lord to Jonah, meaning Dove, a symbol of the spirit, and of Peter's spiritual paternity. Simon, son of John, is the physical man, Peter, son of Jonah, the spiritual.

17-19 Compare Mat_12:15-21 ; Mar_3:7-12 .

20-23 Compare Mat_5:1-12 .

20 There is no reason for creating a difficulty by insisting that this is Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew's account. Our Lord undoubtedly repeated much of His message to fresh audiences. The variations and differences in detail are intentional and correspond with the character of the account. Matthew takes Him up into a mountain and surrounds Him with His disciples. Luke takes Him down to an even place and surrounds Him with a vast concourse, though He spoke only to the disciples.

20 The weal and woe pronounced on the poor and rich, the hungry and the full, the lamenting and the laughing, those who are hated and those who are flattered, is strictly limited by the word now . Conditions on earth preceding the coming of the kingdom involve the true disciple in poverty, hunger, distress, and hatred. The same conditions will prevail again just before the kingdom actually appears. These beatitudes will be fulfilled in the vast throng who come out of the great affliction ( Rev_7:13-17 ). Of them it is said "They shall be hungering no longer. . . and every tear shall God be brushing away from their eyes." The woes are equally applicable in the same period to the apostates in great Babylon. The rich apostate Jews represented by the false woman of the apocalypse (Rev.17, 18) who indulge themselves and have no sorrow-these shall suffer death and mourning and famine. And those who see their judgment will repeat our Lord's words: " Woe ! Woe !" ( Rev_18:10 ). In the present interval of God's transcendent grace, while blessing comes to the nations because of Israel's rejection of the kingdom, there is no woe pronounced on the rich, but they are charged to use their riches for God ( 1Ti_6:17-19 ).

24 Compare Jam_5:1-6 .

25 Compare Pro_14:13 .

26 Compare Joh_15:19 ; Jam_4:4 .

27-31 Compare Mat_5:38-44 ; Mat_7:12 ; Exo_23:4 ; Pro_25:21 ; Rom_12:20 .

27-31 These precepts reflect the persecutions preceding the kingdom, and give the conduct proper to those who enter it.

28 Compare Luk_23:34 ; Act_7:60 .

29 Compare 1Co_6:7 .

30 Compare Deu_15:7-8 ; Deu_15:10 .

31 Compare Gal_5:14 ; Gal_5:10 .

Verses 32-49

32-36 Compare Mat_5:44-48 .

35 We have here the substance of the new covenant which the Lord will make with Israel when He restores them to their land and to His favor ( Jer_31:27-34 ). After those days, He says I put My law within them, And I wIll write It on their hearts. The second greatest commandment, to love your associate as yourself, never had more than a superficial and perfunctory observance. But Ezekiel declares that in that day He will give them a new heart and a new spirit, and will take away the stony heart and give them a heart of flesh ( Eze_36:26 ). This is the essential basis of the kingdom in Israel. The law will not be enforced from without but by a vital power within. They will actually care for the welfare of others rather than their own. So long as each one is concerned for himself alone, the best that government can do is to restrain the resultant evil. This happy form of rule will not extend beyond the people of the covenant. The nations will be ruled with an iron club ( Rev_19:15 ). Their obedience will not be from the heart but compulsory, so that, when Satan is loosed, they are ready to rebel against the most beneficent form of government the world has ever seen ( Rev_20:7-10 ) .

36 The principle underlying these precepts is quite applicable in this day of grace, but a literal fulfillment of the promises is out of the question. Indeed, grace goes far beyond the spirit of this passage, for it gives freely without the promise of a recompense.

37-38 Compare Mat_7:1-2 ; Pro_19:17 ; Jam_2:13 .

38 The figure is very expressive to one who has seen grain measured in the East. By squeezing down, shaking together and piling high until it runs over, the quantity of grain in a given measure is vastly increased. Grain was carried in the loose folds of the bosom of their garments.

39 Compare Mat_15:14 .

39 Besides its general application, the Lord undoubtedly referred especially to the religious leaders in Israel. On several occasions He characterized the scribes and Pharisees as blind guides ( Mat_15:14 ; Mat_23:16 ; Mat_23:24 ). The light that was in them was darkness, hence it was very dense.

40 Compare Mat_10:24-25 ; Joh_12:36 .

41-42 Compare Mat_7:3-5 .

41 Even those who are not blind should distrust their own eyesight. We can all see the obstructions in the discernment of others. Heredity, environment, religious associations, all intrude into our perception of things divine. If each one were more anxious to discover his own defects, he would be more fitted to help others. But how shall we extract the beam in our own eye? By carefully comparing our conclusions with evidences of revelation. Too many of us stereotype "truth" rather than hold to the facts on which all truth depends. Truth that does not bear a microscopic comparison with the minutest fact of the inspired Scriptures has no right to the name. A careful presentation of all the facts in available form should be the most efficient of all aids to remove our prejudices and reveal the truth.

43-45 Compare Mat_7:16-20 ; Mat_12:33-37 .

43 In the kingdom "they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree" ( Mic_4:4 ), The fig tree figures their righteous government, hence the prophet adds, "and none shall make them afraid", The vine portrays the gladness and joy that ensue. The nation of Israel will never produce figs or grapes so long as they are thorns and thorn bushes. Far less can the nations of the world who have not received the cultivation accorded the people of the covenant. Good government and happy homes come from the heart and cannot be imposed on the unregenerate by penal laws.

46-48 Compare Mat_7:21-25 ; Isa_26:3-4 ; Isa_28:16 ; 1Co_3:10-11 .

46 This parable presents the permanent character of the kingdom. Its foundation is laid deep in the solid stratum of God's purpose rather than the insecure sand of human expedience. The superstructure may look safe, but the stress of political storms will wreck every state but the one which will displace them and have no end. So, also, are those who are allied with these ingdoms. Those who heard and obeyed Him built a house whose foundations would last for the eon. Those who do not obey are caught in the crash preceding the kingdom.

1-10 Compare Mat_8:5-13 .