Category Archives: Calvary Chapel

That golden rule – Luke 6:31

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And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

Jesus mentioned this principle in the same breath with “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you,” and so on.  The evidence indicates he meant what he said.  This is extreme stuff.  

It isn’t easy to love enemies.  No matter how hard we try, or what action we take, they can possess the uncanny ability to treat us badly somehow once again.  That is just how it is with enemies, right?  

Yet, love in the truest sense needs to stay focused on others and their needs.  That’s why Jesus made this command a positive one – a “Thou shalt” rather than a “Thou shalt not.”  He didn’t want to give us an easy way out.

There is a story in the Talmud, in Shabbat 31a, that tells of a Gentile who came to a rabbi and said, “Convert me on condition that you teach me the entire Torah while I am standing on one foot.” That rabbi had no good answer.

The same Gentile came to the sage Hillel the Elder, who was grandfather of Gamaliel, the teacher of Paul the Apostle.  Hillel said, “That which is hateful to you do not do to another; that is the entire Torah, and the rest is its interpretation. Go study.” The man was converted.

It’s a great story and it is probably true, but with all due respect to the incomparable Hillel, we might say it is incomplete, based on this teaching of Jesus.  If we don’t do that which is hateful to people and stop there, we might possibly not do much at all – even nothing!  That’s the nature of the “Thou shalt not” in a command.  It is a prohibition rather than a positive task.  

Surely Hillel, if he had more time than the Gentile balancing on one foot was willing to give him at that moment, would choose to elaborate.  Jesus was still young when the aged Hillel finally died and, perhaps while not under time constraints, may have even thought of his improved version of the golden rule based upon the rabbi’s words.  

Again, he has us imagine what we might wish for ourselves in Luke 6:31.  And again our text, 

And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

Let’s leave that just as it is, without further elaboration.

Luke 5 – Verse by Verse

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Photo for LukeWhen Jesus begins calling disciples he does not call those who believe they are righteous, he calls sinners instead.  In this chapter, we will learn a lot about the attitude we need in order to be put right with God.

Luke 05.pdf

Luke 05.mp3

A Prayer Prompted by Luke 5

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Father in Heaven,

We thank you that Jesus did not come to call the righteous, but rather sinners in need of repentance.  If you were looking for righteous people, you would never have chosen us.

We now ask you for your forgiveness, healing, cleansing and complete transformation.  We want to know that we are new creatures in Christ.  

And then, just like those earliest disciples, we want to be used by you to draw others into a relationship with Jesus. We ask that you would help us to “fish for people.”  Like Levi’s friends, let us have the blessing of seeing our friends and family come to know you.

We know that we come to you as sinners, but that you have the ability to make us saints. Make us holy, please.

In Christ,

Amen.

Cleansing a leper – Luke 5:12-14

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12 While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 13 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. 14 And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”

The leprous man expressed his faith by coming to Jesus and falling on his face before him.  In response, Jesus reached out his hand to touch him.  Normally this was prohibited because anyone touching a leper would become unclean.  In this case, the opposite happens, the leper becomes clean.  Christ’s ability to cleanse the leper was greater than any power the leprosy had to make Christ unclean.

Then Jesus sent him to the priest.  There was an offering specified for those cases in which a leper was cured, by which the priest would declare him clean.  The biblical definition of leprosy seems to have been broader than ours, so we need not conclude that people were constantly being healed what of we would call Hansen’s disease today.  The offering, however, is instructive for us regarding the cleansing work of Christ.  We find it in Leviticus 14:3-7.

3 …Then, if the case of leprous disease is healed in the leprous person, 4 the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two live clean birds … 5 And the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh water. 6 He shall take the live bird …, and dip … the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water. 7 And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease. Then he shall pronounce him clean and shall let the living bird go into the open field.

Cyril of Alexandria 376-444

Cyril of Alexandria (376 – 444)

It’s a fascinating parallel. One bird is killed, the other is dipped in the slain bird’s blood and then released.  As Cyril of Alexandria once said it, 

We may see then, in the birds, Christ suffering in the flesh according to the Scriptures … That the one bird was slain, and that the other was baptized indeed in its blood, while itself exempt from slaughter … For Christ died in our place, and we, who have been baptized into his death, he has saved by his own blood. *

Each of us is a lot like this leper.  We are unclean because of our sin.  Jesus touches us, but never becomes unclean or sinful himself; he makes us clean instead.  Christ’s ability to cleanse us is greater than the power of sin, by which we make ourselves unclean.

* Found in Arthur A. Just Jr., Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003, 91.