Luke 6:27-49

Jesus then said, ‘I say this to you who are listening carefully to me: Love the people who want to hurt you. Do good things to people that hate you. Say good things to people that say bad things against you. Pray for people who give you pain. Someone may slap you on one side of your face. Then you should let him slap the other side of your face too. Someone may take away your coat. If he does, do not stop him from taking your shirt too. When anyone asks you for something, give it to him. Someone may take something that belongs to you. If he does, let him keep it. Do not ask to have it back again. Do the good things for other people that you would want them to do for you. Do you only love people who love you? God will not praise you just for doing that! Even bad people love those people who love them. Do you only do good things to people that do good things to you? God will not praise you just for doing that! Even bad people do the same thing. Do you lend things only to people that will give your things back to you? God will not praise you for doing that! Even bad people lend things to other people when they believe that they will get them back again. No! I am telling you to love people that want to hurt you. Do good things to them. Lend things to people even though you may not receive your things back again. Then God will prepare good things for you. He is kind even to people who do not say “thank you”. He is kind even to very bad people. If you live like this, you will show that you really are children of the powerful God who is over all. You should be kind to other people, as God your Father is kind. Do not say to anyone, “You are a bad person.” Then God will not say to you, “You are a bad person.” Do not say to anyone, “God should punish you because you are bad.” Then God will not say that you are guilty. Forgive other people and God will forgive you. Give to other people and God will give to you. He will give to you even more than you gave. He will fill your pocket until no more will go in. It will be so full that it will come out over the top. Think about how you give to other people. God will give in the same way to you.’ Jesus also used a story to teach the people. He said, ‘A blind person cannot lead another blind person. If he does, then both of them will fall into a deep hole. A student is not more important than his teacher is. But each student who has learned everything will be like his teacher. Perhaps you want to tell a friend about his little mistake. If you want to tell him, first remember your own bigger mistakes. If you do not do that, you will be like a person who has a big piece of wood in his eye. But then he says to his friend, “My friend, you have a little piece of dirt in your eye. Let me take it out for you.” Do not be like that person. You think you are better than your friend. But you are not. First, you must take the big piece of wood out of your eye. After that, your eyes will be clear and you will see well. Then you can take the small piece of dirt out of your friend's eye.’ Jesus said, ‘Good trees only make good fruit. Bad trees only make bad fruit. In this way you can know if a tree is good or bad. You can know this by the fruit that the tree makes. Figs and grapes do not grow on thorn bushes. People are also like that. A good man keeps good things in his mind. In his life, he brings those good things out from there. But a bad man keeps bad things in his mind. He brings those bad thoughts out from there. When a person speaks, his words show what is really in his mind.’ Jesus said, ‘If you refuse to obey me, do not call me, “Master, Master.” Some people come to me. They listen to my message and they obey it. Let me tell you what those people are like. They are like a man who built a house. This man dug down in the ground to the rock. He put the first line of stones on the rock. After that, he built the house on top of the rock. Then a storm came and it brought a lot of water. The water hit the house but it could not move it. The water could not move the house because the man had built it very well. Some other people hear my message but they do not obey it. Those people are like another man who built a house. This man did not dig down deep to the rock. Instead, he put the first line of stones on the top of the ground. Then he built his house on them. A storm came and it brought a lot of water. It hit that house and it fell down immediately. The water completely destroyed it.’