Luke 6:22
Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.
μακαριοι εϲτε μιϲηϲωϲιν ϋμαϲ οι ανθρωποι και οταν αφοριϲωϲιν ϋμαϲ και ονιδιϲωϲι και
blessed are you when the men shall hate you and when they shall cut you off and shall insult and cast out your name as wicked on account of the son of man
What does it mean?
This an excerpt from the “Beatitudes” at the beginning of the “Sermon on the Plain” (because it was delivered in a “level place”) and recorded as the direct words of Jesus to His disciples. He starts by telling them how the are “Blessed” which doesn’t just mean lucky, but means more along the lines of being morally courageous, spiritually prosperous, happy, and/or to be admired. This is such a great thing that we should all want, to be blessed in this way. In fact this is the fourth description He has given of those who are blessed.
Jesus continues on to say that they are blessed when they are hated. There is no other context to that. That specifically means hated in today’s meaning of the word.
Jesus also says that they are blessed when the are made into societal outcasts, when they are reproached (insulted), and when their name is used as a bad thing. These don’t sound like things that we should be happy about or things that we should look at and hope for. Sure, I want to be blessed, but do I want to be hated and have my name used as an insult to someone else? These two things don’t seem to line up.
Luckily, Jesus had a reason for us to look at those things as good things. He told His disciples that they should consider those things to be a blessing because it would all be because of their association with the “Son of Man”, God incarnate, Jesus Christ Himself. He knew how the end of the story was written and He was trying to tell them early in His ministry that things were not going to end well for any of them. They were going to be ruffling some feathers. They were going to be looked at like they were crazy, or worse yet, evil for their “blasphemous” way of life after they had received the full teaching of Christ.
It is because He knows that world is going to hate Him. The people of this world are going to reject Him and want Him dead. But He also knows that He is speaking to those that He has “chose out of the world” (John 15:19). He knows full well that they are no longer going to be loved because they’ve been separated and will be hated for the same reason He is hated.
We as Christians need to take this into consideration. We won’t always be liked. We may be ridiculed, harassed, or even hated for not conforming to what the world wants us to be or do, but we should remember that the “Son of Man” was hated also, to the point of being crucified by his own people. In fact, He promised us that we would be hated. In John 15:20 He continued on to say, “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you…”
If you are living in the Lord, you should take the hate as a badge of honor. Accept the reproach with joy. Don’t let the people cursing your name take your mind off of the Kingdom of God. Continue being the salt and light to this dark and dying world, and know that you are “Blessed.”
More Context
The “Sermon on the Plain,” is a very similar to the “Sermon on the Mount,” but in a much more condensed version. As could be expected, Jesus spoke daily with different people and would probably have needed to deliver similar messages to different crowds due to high changeover rates of who was listening and our inability to comprehend the message He was trying to convey. As a thought experiment, how many people do you think He told to, “go, and sin no more”?
In Jesus’ beatitudes from the “Sermon on the Plain” Jesus gave four blessings and four woes. Blessed are the poor, the hungry, the ones who weep, and the hated (as covered above). In contrast He says woe to the rich, the well fed, those who laugh, and the well liked among men. This is not to say that God wants us to crybabies who are constantly poor, hungry, and have no friends. Instead, this is saying that the people who are in these positions BECAUSE they are following God’s calling on their lives are blessed.
Paul talks about this a lot in the book of Philippians. He talks about how when he was weak, God was strong. God shined His light into Paul’s life the brightest when he was in his darkest times. “Not that I speak from need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with little, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.” (Philippians 4:11-12 NASB2020)
This is exactly what Jesus was referring to. Being content in the worst of times. Knowing the God is still in full control during the most terrible of times. Also, He warned to not lose sight of God’s goodness during the best of times because true happiness can not be accomplished here, but only in Heaven with Him. It is a stark warning that even when things are good, we should be giving thanks and continue pursuing God and His Kingdom.
As the “Sermon on the Plain” continues he goes on to give another good description of what we are to do as Christians and how we should live our lives for God. For example, “Love your enemy,” “turn the other cheek,” “give and you will receive,” “remove the plank from your own eye,” build your house on “the firm foundation,” and so many more famous lessons that have spread through our society. You can read His whole sermon in Luke 6: 20-49.
Thanks to codex-sinaiticus.net for help with the original Greek and to biblehub.com with the translation tools.
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~Stephen Hanna