I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 6-7.

    Luke’s take on the Beatitudes is slightly different from Matthew’s. The two do not conflict, but they do have a different emphasis. The Beatitudes in Matthew focus more on what you should do, while those in Luke focus more on your attitude toward the circumstances you find yourself in. I like comparing verses 22-23 with verse 25. This runs exactly counter to our human tendency. We want to be loved and exalted by the “beautiful people” and by the crowds, but Jesus warns us that they do not like the people who are righteous and tell them God’s truth. The crowds and the “beautiful people” love those who lie to them and tell them what they want to hear. If you are popular and well-liked you need to look closely at what you are doing and what you are saying because being popular and well-liked may be a sign that you are not doing or saying what God wants you to do or say.

    Of course, there is a qualifier on this. Jesus was popular for a while and sometimes people will dislike you because you are a bad person. Fortunately, a few verses later, Jesus gives us some guidance on how to determine what we are doing. Jesus tells us to focus on fixing what is wrong with ourselves before worrying about what is wrong with someone else. He even tells us how to know if we have gotten it right. The way to judge ourselves is to judge our actions. If we are a good person, we will do good things. If we are an evil person, we will do evil things. This really works better than it seems at first. We can justify to ourselves doing evil things, but we still usually know that they are evil. And even there, Jesus gives us a tool for recognizing evil acts, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” If you would not want someone to do something to you, do not do that something to someone else.