From our Sunday service on August 16, 2026, Luke 6:37-7:10. This is part 12 of our Gospel of Luke series. Watch the full message: Training the Twelve: Part II – The Gospel of Luke #12 on YouTube.
Jesus has chosen His twelve apostles, but their preparation is not complete. Before they carry His message into the world, they must learn to live under the authority of the one who sends them. They cannot represent His mercy while refusing to become merciful themselves. Nor can they teach obedience while treating His teaching as something merely interesting to hear. God wants you to obey His authority.
Mercy That Becomes Our Practice
The first part of this teaching showed us that mercy belongs at the center of discipleship because God Himself is merciful. Jesus now brings that truth into the way we deal with people. We often want patience for our own failures while keeping a careful account of everyone else’s. But we cannot ask others to treat us one way while making a habit of treating them another. Jesus connects the mercy we want to receive with the mercy we are willing to give:
Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
Luke 6:37–38
These commands reach into different parts of the same problem. Judgment makes us quick to point out faults; condemnation adds the desire to punish; resentment keeps the wrong alive even after the moment has passed. Jesus calls us instead to mercy and forgiveness. If I spend my time finding fault with coworkers and spreading their mistakes around, I should not be surprised when they do the same to me. The standard I use for others will come back upon me. God also holds the hypocrite accountable for demanding what he refuses to practice himself.
Giving carries that mercy beyond simply refraining from harm. It means investing in someone else’s need, even when that person is unlikely to repay us. Helping people only to help ourselves is vain and selfish. Yet generous lives do not go unnoticed. A community often rallies around someone who has spent years helping others, and even if the community does not respond, God will bless that generosity. The picture of a measure pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing is not the picture of someone reluctantly doing the least he can. It challenges us to give beyond what people expect rather than calculating the bare minimum that will secure a reward.
The Disciple Must First Be Taught
That challenge immediately raises a question about our fitness to help anyone else. These disciples are meant to become teachers, but teaching Christ requires more than knowing the right words. If their conduct contradicts their message, they cannot lead people where they have not learned to go themselves. Jesus asks whether the blind can lead the blind, and the answer is obvious: both will end in the ditch. Hypocrisy destroys ministry. Before we turn our attention to correcting everybody around us, we need to look honestly at ourselves.
The purpose of that examination is not to give up helping people. It is to become able to help them rightly. A student who completes his training becomes like his teacher; he does not become greater in authority than his teacher. So the goal of discipleship is to become like Christ, not to stand above Him or merely borrow His reputation. Think of a carpenter training his son. The son learns the father’s work until people recognize whose teaching has shaped him. In the same way, people ought to see the character of Jesus in those who claim to follow Him.
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.
Luke 6:41–42
The contrast between the speck and the beam is deliberately serious. We can be absorbed in someone else’s small character flaw while overlooking something deadly in our own. Among those who publicly associated themselves with Jesus were people who were not truly His followers at all. They needed to see their own condition before trying to correct their neighbors. I want us to feel the force of that warning. Looking inward is not an optional exercise for unusually thoughtful Christians. It is necessary if we are going to see clearly enough to serve the Lord and help others.
What Comes Out Reveals What Is Within
Jesus next explains why our own condition matters so much. A tree’s fruit does not appear independently of the tree that bears it. Its health and character show themselves in what it produces. In the same way, our actions cannot be separated from our hearts. We may try to arrange how we appear, but people encounter what we actually do. We tend to judge ourselves by our intentions, while others have to judge us by our actions. Jesus will not let discipleship remain a pleasant intention hidden behind conduct that harms people.
For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
Luke 6:43–45
If people regularly encounter thorns when they deal with us, the harm will define their experience of us, whatever other good qualities we wish they would notice. That is why we must attend to the source rather than merely polish the appearance. A heart full of resentment, anger, and frustration will show itself in speech and conduct. We need the Word of God, prayer, the Spirit’s work, and renewal in our hearts if we are to produce what is good. Jesus presents this as cause and effect, not a remote possibility. What fills the heart will eventually come out through the mouth.
That brings us to the searching question at the end of His teaching. Some people are quite willing to call Him their master while refusing His instructions. They approve of His wisdom and identify themselves with His followers, but their lives do not change. Yet His commands are not recommendations offered for our consideration. If He is Lord, what He says is to be done. Hearing becomes fruitful only when it becomes obedience. Otherwise, the very title we give Him exposes the contradiction between what we say about His authority and how we actually treat it.
And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
Luke 6:46–48
The house stands because its builder has done the work of laying a foundation on rock. When the flood comes, the ground around it cannot supply its security; the foundation must already be there. Jesus Himself and His teaching are the foundation for our lives, but building on that foundation means acting on His words, not simply admiring them. The other builder hears without doing and leaves his house without a foundation. It may look impressive until the water undermines it. Then its collapse reveals how little security its appearance ever provided. Jesus says its ruin is great, and He means us to take that failure seriously.
A Man Who Understands Authority
Luke gives us a striking example immediately afterward. In Capernaum a centurion seeks help for his son (in the Greek, pais, which can mean boy or servant), who is sick and near death. Jewish elders come to Jesus on his behalf, describing his love for their nation and the synagogue he has built for them. Here is the earlier teaching about giving and receiving taking visible shape: a man has helped the community, and the community now wants to help him. Though he serves Rome, his generosity has made him their friend. They urge Jesus to come because they regard the man as worthy of help.
The centurion’s own view is different. As Jesus approaches, he sends friends to say that he does not consider himself worthy to receive Him into his house. He does not ask Jesus to prove His power by standing beside the bed. He believes a word will be enough. This soldier knows what authority means because he lives under it and exercises it himself. His soldiers and servants respond when he commands them. He therefore recognizes that Christ’s authority is not a title without effect: what Jesus commands will be done.
When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.
Luke 7:9–10
What a contrast with those who call Jesus Lord but do not obey Him. The centurion is not merely impressed by a wise teacher; he trusts the authority of the one who speaks. Jesus turns to the people who follow Him and holds up that faith before them. We must not miss the connection simply because a chapter division separates the teaching from the event. If we believe God is who He says He is, we will do what He tells us. God wants you to obey His authority. Will His words actually change the way you live? If you call Him Lord, will you let Him be Lord?
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