Sunday Sermon — October 18, 2026
The Kind of Love Jesus’ Disciples Must Practice
Text: Luke 6:27–36
“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”
— Luke 6:27–28 (ESV)
Introduction: The Meaning of Christian Love
People use the word love very frequently, and sometimes they use it rather casually. At times, people even use the word love to justify what they want to do. They may try to excuse morally wrong behavior by saying, “But we love each other.”
However, the love taught in the Bible is different from the kind of love the world often describes. The world’s love frequently begins with our feelings, desires, and personal interests. Christian love, on the other hand, begins with the love God has already shown us.
This is the starting point of Christian faith and Christian love.
Today, through our passage in Luke 6:27–36, we will consider the kind of love that Jesus’ disciples, who have received God’s love, are called to practice.
1. Disciples Must Practice a Love That Turns the World’s Values Upside Down
Jesus says in verse 32:
“If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.”
Loving someone who loves us comes naturally. Doing good to someone who treats us well is not particularly difficult. Lending money to someone when we expect to be paid back is also quite ordinary.
People naturally try to maintain relationships that benefit them. Even sinners do the same.
Jesus challenges His disciples with an important question: If you love only those who love you, what makes your love different from the love of the world? If you do good only to those who do good to you, how will your life demonstrate that you belong to God?
How, then, should the love of Jesus’ disciples differ from the love practiced by the world?
Jesus says:
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”
— Luke 6:27–28
This command turns the world’s values upside down.
The world tells us to treat well those who treat us well and those who can benefit us. But Jesus commands us to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us.
The world tells us to get even with those who hurt us. But Jesus tells us to bless them instead of cursing them and to pray for them instead of seeking revenge.
Why does Jesus command His disciples to practice a kind of love that goes in the opposite direction from the world?
It is because God loved us first. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
First John 4:10–11 says:
“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
The foundation of Christian love is not our own goodness. It is God’s love for us.
God did not wait for us to become righteous before He loved us. He did not wait until we deserved His favor. While we were still sinners, Christ came to save us.
Therefore, the love Jesus’ disciples must practice is not a love that begins by asking, “What can I gain from this person?”
Instead, it is a love that remembers what God has done for us and seeks to extend that same grace to others.
When we remember how much God has forgiven us, we begin to see other people differently. We begin to recognize that the people who have hurt us are also people who need God’s grace.
Christian love, therefore, is not rooted in what we can receive from others. It is rooted in what we have already received from God.
2. God’s People Must Live Distinctive Lives
In the Old Testament, the people of Israel were chosen by God to be His holy people. God gave them various commandments so that their lives would be distinct from those of the surrounding nations.
For example, they were commanded to rest on the Sabbath, demonstrating that they trusted God rather than depending entirely on their own labor. They were also commanded to allow their servants and even their animals to rest.
Certain laws governed their clothing and the planting of their fields. Leviticus 19:19, for example, contains instructions concerning different kinds of fabric and the mixing of seeds.
These commands were part of Israel’s covenant life. They reminded the people that they belonged to God and were called to live according to His instructions.
Their distinctiveness was meant to reflect their identity as God’s covenant people.
What, then, should distinguish God’s people in the New Testament era from the world around them?
We can summarize the answer in one sentence: They must love their enemies.
Those who have received God’s love must respond to their enemies with love, to those who curse them with blessing, and to those who insult them with prayer.
Through this kind of life, the world can see that Christians belong to a different kingdom and follow a different Lord.
Of course, Christians are not distinguished from the world merely by outward religious practices. We are called to reflect the character of God in our relationships and in the way we treat other people.
When everyone else responds to hatred with hatred, Christians are called to respond with love.
When everyone else seeks revenge, Christians are called to pursue what is good.
When everyone else cares only about those who benefit them, Christians are called to show kindness even to those who cannot repay them.
This does not mean that Christians are morally superior to everyone else. Rather, it means that we have received a grace we did not deserve, and that grace should transform the way we live.
The world should be able to see something of God’s character through the lives of His people.
3. God’s Children Must Demonstrate Love Through Actions, Not Words Alone
How far, then, should we go in loving those who harm us?
First, we must remember that genuine love comes at a cost.
Love is not simply a warm feeling in our hearts or a collection of kind words. In a world driven by self-interest, practicing the unconditional love of God can require significant emotional, relational, and material sacrifice.
Jesus gives us concrete examples of what this love looks like.
He says:
“To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.”
— Luke 6:29
He continues:
“Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.”
— Luke 6:30
When someone strikes us, our natural response is to strike back. When someone takes something from us, we want to recover it. When we suffer a loss, we want to find a way to make up for it.
These are natural human reactions.
But Jesus calls His disciples to something more. He tells us not to become so preoccupied with defending our personal rights that we lose sight of the opportunity to demonstrate God’s mercy.
Of course, these commands do not mean that we should tolerate abuse, excuse criminal behavior, or refuse to protect ourselves when we are in danger.
We should call injustice what it is. When necessary, we should seek help, establish appropriate boundaries, and receive legal protection. Nor does Christian love mean enabling someone to continue harming others.
The central point is that we must not seek personal revenge by repaying evil with evil. Rather than trying to destroy the person who has hurt us, we are called to entrust justice to God and continue doing what is good.
This kind of sacrificial love is difficult to practice unless we trust that God will provide for our needs and sustain us through our struggles.
When we consider loving someone who has hurt us, many fears arise within us.
We fear that we may suffer a loss. We worry that someone may take advantage of our kindness. We become anxious about our future and wonder whether we will have enough for ourselves and our families.
These fears can keep us from practicing the love Jesus commands.
That is why sacrificial love cannot be sustained by our own determination alone. We need to trust God’s provision and depend on His grace.
A Personal Story: Learning to Trust God
When I was in college, I once heard the testimony of a church elder who inspired me to become more active in loving my enemies and helping people in need.
After hearing that testimony, I made a decision. I told myself that whenever I encountered someone in need, I would gladly share what I had.
However, when I actually encountered an elderly woman begging on the street, I found it difficult to give her money.
Unfortunately, the only money I had with me was a single 10,000-won bill. It was all the spending money I had at the time.
I could not bring myself to give it to her.
I had failed to put Jesus’ words into practice: “Give to everyone who begs from you.”
Through that experience, I realized something important. I had been moved by the teaching of Jesus, but I had not fully trusted that God would provide for my needs.
There is a difference between knowing God’s Word and obeying God’s Word. There is also a difference between being moved by a sermon and putting what we have heard into practice in our daily lives.
At the time, I thought that once I found a job and began earning money, it would become much easier to practice love.
But as I entered the workforce, got married, and raised children, I discovered that life brought even greater challenges.
After getting married, I could no longer spend all my money or use all my time simply for myself. I had responsibilities toward my family, and I became increasingly concerned about preparing for the future.
I learned that having more money does not automatically make sacrificial love easier.
The more responsibilities we have, the more reasons we may find for holding on tightly to what we have.
My encouragement to our young people is this: Begin practicing God’s love while you are young.
Do not wait until you have accumulated more money or reached a more comfortable stage of life before you begin to love others.
Start with what you have now. Do what you can do today.
Learn to trust God with your time, your resources, and your future. Develop the habit of serving others while you are young.
In this way, as you grow older, you will be better prepared to remain faithful to the words of Jesus and to hear the Lord’s commendation for a faithful servant.
We do not need to wait until we have everything we want before we begin to obey Christ.
We can begin today, trusting that the God who calls us to love others will also sustain us as we follow Him.
4. There Are People Who Have Practiced Love for Their Enemies
Throughout Christian history, we have seen people who took Jesus’ command to love their enemies seriously.
One example is Pastor Son Yang-won (1902–1950), a Korean pastor who became widely known for his extraordinary forgiveness.
During the Yeosu–Suncheon Rebellion in 1948, his two sons, Dong-in and Dong-shin, were killed by Ahn Jae-sun, a young man involved in communist activities.
Pastor Son did something that many people would have found almost impossible to imagine.
Rather than seeking revenge against the young man who had killed his sons, he forgave him and worked to save him from execution. After the young man had served his sentence, Pastor Son accepted him as his adopted son and supported his education at a university.
In time, the young man became a pastor and served the church.
Pastor Son’s response does not make the killing of his sons any less evil. Rather, it demonstrates how the grace of God can enable a person to respond to terrible wrongdoing without allowing hatred and revenge to have the final word.
Another important example is Martin Luther King Jr., the American pastor and civil rights leader.
King did not limit Jesus’ teaching about loving our enemies to the sphere of private relationships. He applied it to the deeply rooted racial discrimination and structural injustice of American society.
He understood Christian love not simply as a feeling of affection toward another person, but as agape love: a commitment to seek another person’s true good, regardless of how that person treats us.
His commitment to nonviolent resistance did not mean surrendering to injustice. He openly challenged racial discrimination and oppression.
But his goal was not to hate or destroy his opponents through revenge. His goal was to transform unjust systems, restore the dignity of those who were oppressed, and help society move toward justice and reconciliation.
His example reminds us that loving our enemies does not mean remaining silent in the face of injustice.
We can oppose evil without becoming consumed by hatred. We can seek justice without pursuing personal vengeance. We can stand firmly for what is right while still desiring the good of those who oppose us.
Above all, we look to our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
As Jesus was being crucified, He prayed for those who were putting Him to death.
Luke 23:34 records His words:
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Jesus did not treat sin as something trivial. On the contrary, He bore the terrible weight of sin upon the cross. Yet even in His suffering, He demonstrated His love for sinners.
Jesus is the supreme example of the love He commands His disciples to practice.
Of course, we cannot produce such perfect love through our own strength. We are sinners who continually need God’s grace.
Nevertheless, as we look to the love Christ has shown us, we are called to follow in His footsteps.
We do not love our enemies because we are naturally capable of doing so. We learn to love because Christ first loved us.
5. Children Should Reflect the Character of Their Father (Luke 6:35–36)
Jesus says in verses 35–36:
“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
— Luke 6:35–36
These verses give us the ultimate reason we must love our enemies: We are called to reflect the character of our heavenly Father.
1) Our Father Is Kind Even to the Ungrateful and the Evil
To be honest, there are times when I want evil people to be punished.
Sometimes I find myself thinking that wherever an evil person goes, heavy rain should fall, and everything that person tries to do should fail.
I have even had the rather ridiculous thought that perhaps a person playing golf might get struck by lightning!
But when I stop and think about it, I realize that I myself do not obey God perfectly.
I, too, am a sinner who needs God’s mercy.
I cannot stand before God on the basis of my own righteousness and demand that He show mercy only to people who deserve it. If God treated me strictly according to my own merits, I would have no grounds for boasting.
Thankfully, God is kind even to the ungrateful and the evil.
That is the character of our heavenly Father. He is merciful.
This does not mean that God approves of evil or that He will never judge the wicked. Scripture clearly teaches that God is righteous and that He will judge sin.
But God’s kindness is not limited to those who have earned His favor. He shows patience and goodness even to those who do not acknowledge Him or respond to Him with gratitude.
And we ourselves are recipients of that mercy.
When we remember how much we need God’s grace, we begin to understand why Jesus commands us to show mercy to others.
We cannot insist that God be merciful to us while refusing to show mercy to those who have wronged us.
2) Children Come to Resemble Their Parents
Why must we love our enemies?
In verse 35, Jesus says that those who love their enemies and do good will be called “sons of the Most High.”
This does not mean that we earn the right to become God’s children by loving our enemies.
Rather, it means that our identity as God’s children becomes evident through the way we live.
We become God’s children by His grace, not by our good works. But those who have received His grace are called to grow in the likeness of their heavenly Father.
Because God is merciful, His children should also become merciful.
Whenever I call Korea, I notice how similar my younger brother’s voice is to my father’s. Their way of speaking sounds very much alike. I imagine that there are similarities in their personalities as well.
When people spend a long time together, listen to each other, and observe each other closely, they often begin to resemble one another.
Married couples who have lived together for many years sometimes develop similar expressions, habits, or ways of speaking. Parents and children also come to resemble one another through years of living together.
Something similar should happen in the lives of God’s children.
As disciples of Jesus, we read and meditate on God’s Word. We approach Him in prayer. We learn to listen to His voice and to walk in fellowship with Him.
Through this ongoing relationship with God, our thoughts, attitudes, and actions gradually begin to change.
More specifically, we grow to become more like Jesus Christ.
Of course, reading the Bible and praying do not automatically make us loving toward everyone. Spiritual growth is not mechanical.
We must continually depend on God’s grace and the help of the Holy Spirit as we struggle against sin and learn to obey God’s Word.
But as we remain in fellowship with God, the Holy Spirit works in us, transforming our hearts and enabling us to reflect more of our Father’s character.
Little by little, we learn to respond to hostility with patience, to insults with grace, and to wrongdoing without giving ourselves over to hatred and revenge.
In this way, the merciful character of our heavenly Father becomes visible in the lives of His children.
The goal is not merely to become nicer people. The goal is to become more like Jesus.
6. Conclusion: Let Love Begin in the Church and Flow Out into the World
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Jesus is not simply telling us to become good people.
He is calling us to live as children of our merciful heavenly Father and to make His character visible to the world.
Where, then, should we begin demonstrating God’s mercy?
We should begin in the church, the community of God’s children.
Loving one another within the church is extremely important.
Even though we belong to the same congregation, we may have different opinions. We may disagree with one another. We may hurt one another through our mistakes. Sometimes another person’s attitude or words may leave us feeling offended or wounded.
It is precisely in those moments that we must learn to demonstrate God’s love toward one another.
We do not love one another because the other person is always right. We do not love one another because the other person is always kind to us.
We love one another because God has loved us and made us His children.
That is evidence that we belong to our merciful heavenly Father.
In John 13:35, Jesus says:
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
But loving one another within the church is not the end of our calling. It is the beginning.
When we learn to love our brothers and sisters in Christ, we are being prepared to extend that love to people outside the church as well.
Think of a rice seedling nursery. Farmers first sow rice seeds in a seedbed and allow the seedlings to grow strong in a protected environment. Once the seedlings are ready, they transplant them into the rice fields, where they continue to grow and eventually produce a harvest.
In a similar way, the church is a community in which we learn to practice Christian love.
As we love and serve one another, we grow in our ability to demonstrate that same love in a world that often operates according to self-interest.
The love we practice within the church should bear fruit in our homes, workplaces, neighborhoods, and communities.
But if we fail to practice love within the church—if we continually quarrel with one another and refuse to forgive one another—then our teaching about loving our enemies will become an empty message.
Therefore, we must not limit our fellowship to people who agree with us or share our preferences.
Do not do good only to those who treat you well.
If you have disagreed with someone in the church, look for an opportunity to serve that person. If someone has challenged your opinion, respond with patience and kindness. If someone’s words have hurt you, seek God’s help to respond in a way that reflects His mercy.
This does not mean that we must pretend our disagreements do not exist. Nor does it mean that we should ignore wrongdoing. Rather, even when we address disagreements and confront wrongdoing, we must do so with humility, truth, and love.
Let the mercy of God be seen in your heart, your words, and your attitude toward others.
As we learn to practice this kind of love in the church, that love will flow into our families, our workplaces, and the wider world.
And through the love we demonstrate, people may begin to see how merciful our heavenly Father truly is.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us remember that we love because God first loved us.
Let us seek to become more like our merciful heavenly Father. Let us love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who mistreat us.
May the love of Jesus Christ be reflected in our lives, so that the world may recognize us as His disciples.
May God help us to live as His beloved children, reflecting His mercy in the church and throughout the world.
I pray this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for loving us when we were still sinners and for sending Your Son, Jesus Christ, to save us.
Forgive us for the times we have loved only those who love us, helped only those who can benefit us, and responded to hurt with anger and resentment.
Teach us to remember the mercy You have shown us. By the power of Your Holy Spirit, help us to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who mistreat us.
Begin Your work of transformation in our hearts and in our church. Help us to love one another faithfully, even when we disagree, and to carry Your love into our homes, workplaces, and communities.
May our lives reflect the character of our merciful heavenly Father, so that others may see the love of Christ through us.
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Amen.