Luke 6:22-23 Blessed are you, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you… I. FROM WHOM CHRIST'S DISCIPLES SUFFER. II. WHAT IT IS WHICH THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST SUFFER. 1. Hatred. 2. Separation. 3. Reproach. 4. The casting out of their names. III. THE CAUSE OF THE SUFFERING OF CHRIST'S DISCIPLES. And here we meet — 1. The pretended cause. "They shall cast out your name as evil"; they shall fasten, as much as in them lies, all manner of calumnies upon you; and report of you, not as indeed you are, but as they who hate you would have you thought to be. But as to others, the supposed evil in the matter that Christ's followers are charged with, is but a pretended cause of their being so evilly dealt withal. 2. The real cause for which they suffer. This is that which is at the bottom of all — it is for Christ's sake, for their respect unto Him and His institutions, His truths and ordinances, that His disciples suffer. And this we may deduce from the following scheme. I. It is for the truths of Christ, the doctrine owned, preached, and recommended by Him, that they thus deal with us. II. It is for the purity of His worship, because we would serve God according to His own will, and not according to their will-worship, that they thus abhor us. III. It is for His authority's sake, because we dare not take the government from off His shoulders (Isaiah 9:6), nor pay that respect to any frail man which is only due unto Him who is "God blessed for evermore" (Romans 9:5) — or, if you will, it is because we dare not worship the beast — that they serve us thus. To sum up all in one — it is for the vindication of Christ in all His offices that we endure these indignities at their hands. Three consolatory inferences. 1. In that it is but from men — "When men shall hate you" (Matthew 10:28). 2. It is "for the Son of Man's sake" that we thus suffer. And if He had required greater matters of us, would we not have done them? 3. Christ has pronounced such sufferers blessed — "Blessed are ye"(1) It is Christ's judgment on our case and condition. And He, we may truly say then, sees not as man sees. (2) It is not a bare opinion (though His could not be erroneous) that we are blessed, but it is Christ's effective sentence. His dicere is facere. Christ doth "make" them blessed whom He "pronounces" to be so; and He can make a blessed persecution. If He bless, who can curse? (Numbers 23:8). "Lord, let them curse, but bless Thou" (Psalm 109:28). (P. Finke, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. |
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