But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Luke 6:35
I saw something sad on the Internet recently, a posting by a man who I had thought was fairly well taught in the Scriptures. This man has come up with a theory that God does not love sinners. Somehow, he has the idea that God’s love is only for those who are believers, and that God’s wrath is upon all unbelievers. Well, he is right about the wrath of God abiding on all those who don’t believe the Son (John 3:36). But that does not negate the truth of John 3:16 that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Nor does it destroy the beauty of Romans 5:8 – But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. These and many other verses tell us of the eternal, unlimited love of God, the theme of the praises of the Lord’s people and the focus of many of our most precious hymns. And our text today points out today some of the demonstration of that love.
God is kind to the unthankful. Are we kind to the unthankful? There may be times when we extend kindness to somebody who expresses no gratitude. But we would be reluctant to do it the second time. And there would be no third time. Of course, that may be why there is so little kindness in this world; nobody bothers to thank anyone anymore. There is a sense of entitlement among many people that eliminates gratitude. A friend of mine was on a business cruise that included both Canadians and Americans. The ship’s staff treated the Canadians like honoured guests and went out of their way to be helpful, because the Canadians always said ‘Thank you’. The staff did as little as possible for the Americans, because the Americans never said ‘Thank you’. We make a difference, depending on people’s attitudes. But not so God! His kindness is unconditional, although it must grieve Him deeply at the ingratitude of humanity toward His manifold blessings.
God is also kind to the evil, as our text declares. The rain that falls on the just also falls on the unjust (Matthew 5:45). You or I take pains to avoid people we consider to be evil, and we would certainly not do them any favours. But God, who knows the depravity of every heart, Who knows just how evil the evil are, does not withhold His hand of blessing. In many temporal ways, God is kind today to people of every stripe. But His kindness is also extended toward the ungodly in offering the message of the Gospel, the greatest kindness of all, the forgiveness of sins. We know this, because we were recipients of this great kindness, we who were unthankful and evil.
Our text tells us to act like the children of the Highest. That means being kind to the unthankful and the evil. – Jim MacIntosh