This is a text that has played a prominent role in
the controversy over common grace in Reformed circles. Defenders of common
grace have always appealed to it as one of the clearest, most powerful proofs
of a favor of God to the reprobate wicked … [Defenders of common grace are]
certainly right when [they insist] that the text requires believers to love
their unbelieving enemies. For all we know, they may be reprobates. They hate
us, curse us, and persecute us. They are our enemies on account of our
confession of Christ. They need our prayers, that they be converted and saved …
That we must love our neighbor, whether Christian or non-Christian, is not the
issue. The question is: Does God love His reprobate
enemies? Specifically, the question is: Are the unthankful and evil who are the
objects of God’s kindness in Luke 6:35 reprobate persons?
Defenders
of common grace assume that the unthankful and evil who are the objects of God’s kindness in Luke
6:35 are all men without exception, thus including those whom He
reprobated. Assuming this, they do not bother carefully to explain the last
part of Luke 6:35 in the light of its context. It is enough that they
cite it. But this begs the question. All agree that God is kind to unthankful
and evil people. What needs to be proved is that God is kind to all humans
who are unthankful and evil. More specifically, what needs to be proved is that
God is kind to unthankful and evil reprobates.
What
Manner of Kindness?
Plainly, Luke
6:35 cannot bear the interpretation given it by the defenders of common
grace. This interpretation is that God is kind to reprobate unthankful and evil
men with a non-saving, common grace kindness … God’s kindness in Luke
6:35 is [said to be] a “positive, albeit non-salvific, regard for those
who are not elect.” But the text teaches the saving grace, or kindness, of God toward unthankful and evil
people. The word that is translated “kind” is the Greek word chreestos (χρηστός). This word is used of God elsewhere in the New Testament
in I Peter 2:3 and in Romans 2:4. In I Peter 2:3, where the
King James Version translates the word as “gracious,” the word refers to God’s
kindness in saving His elect. “As newborn babes,” regenerated believers are to
desire the sincere milk of the word, “if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious (Greek: chreestos).” In Romans 2:4, the King James Version translates chreestos as “goodness”: “Or
despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering;
not knowing that the goodness of
God leadeth thee to repentance?” [See footnote below]. Inasmuch as this
goodness, or kindness, of God leads one to repentance, it is a saving kindness, not a “common
grace” kindness.
The one
use of the word to describe the attitude of the saints likewise shows kindness
to be a saving
perfection. Ephesians 4:32 exhorts church members to be “kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another,
even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” The expression of kindness is
forgiveness of sins.
If the
unthankful and evil in Luke 6:35 are reprobate men and women, the
text teaches that God is kind to them with a saving kindness,
or grace. He saves these unthankful and evil people, leading them to repentance
and forgiving their sins.
That the
kindness of verse 35 is saving grace,
not a common grace kindness, is established by verse 36: “Be ye therefore
merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” In the love and kindness that we
must show to our enemies, we are to be merciful. Our mercy reflects the mercy
of our Father. Although the objects of our Father’s mercy are not explicitly
stated in verse 36, there can be no doubt that they are the same unthankful and
evil persons who are mentioned in verse 35. God is merciful to the same persons
to whom He is kind, and His mercy is the supreme manifestation of His kindness.
But the divine mercy is such a pity of God toward sinners as yearns to deliver
them from their sins and from the misery of their sins. Mercy is not a mere
desire to give a wretched sinner some rain on his corn field, or a pork chop on
his plate, or even a happy marriage.
If the
unthankful and evil of Luke 6:35 are all humans without exception,
including especially the reprobate, the text teaches far too much for the
defenders of common grace. It does not teach a meager “positive, albeit
non-salvific, regard for those who are not elect.” It teaches a robust kindness
that wills to save them. It teaches a pity toward them that yearns to redeem
them.
This
understanding of the kindness of God in Luke 6:35 is demanded by the
preceding context, verses 27ff. There is a relation between our love for our
neighbors and God’s love for the unthankful and evil. Our love reflects His
love: “Be ye therefore merciful, as your
Father also is merciful” (v. 36). Like Father, like children: “But love ye your
enemies … and ye shall be the
children of the Highest” (v.
35). In our love for our enemies, we are to pray for them, that is, pray for
their salvation: “Pray for them which despitefully use you” (v. 28). This
implies a sincere desire on our part for their repentance and salvation. If now
the kindness of God that we reflect is a kindness toward all without exception,
including reprobate men and women, God too must sincerely desire the repentance
and salvation of all without exception. But such a kindness, or grace, is not
common grace, “a non-salvific regard for those who are not elect.” It is saving grace.
Who Are
the Unthankful and Evil?
Scripture
denies that God is kind and merciful to unthankful and evil reprobates, having
compassion on them in their misery, willing their salvation, leading them to
repentance, and forgiving their sins: “For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have
compassion … Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he
will he hardeneth” (Rom. 9:15, 18). Scripture teaches that the Christ of God,
carrying out the will of God who sent Him, refused to pray for all men without
exception. Thus, He showed that He did not sincerely desire the salvation of
all without exception. He prayed only for those whom the Father had given Him
out of the world. “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them
which thou hast given me; for they are thine” (John 17:9).
The
meaning of Luke 6:35 is that we Christians are to love our neighbors,
including our enemies. These enemies are unbelievers, non-Christians, who are
hostile toward us because of our confession and discipleship of Christ. They
may well be reprobate enemies, although we hope that our prayers and kind
behavior may be useful to win them to Christ.
In loving
our enemies, we reflect the character of our Father. Like Father, like
children. For God is kind to unthankful and evil people. He is not kind to all unthankful
and evil people. Nor does Luke 6:35 say this. But He is kind to
people who are unthankful and evil. These are the elect in Christ, “the
children of the Highest,” who now are called and privileged to show the
marvelous goodness of their heavenly Father in their own attitude and behavior
toward their enemies.
We were the unthankful and evil
when in kindness He set His love upon us in the eternal decree of election.
We were the unthankful and evil
when in kindness He gave up His own Son for us in the redeeming death of the
cross.
We were the unthankful and evil
when in kindness He translated us by the regenerating Spirit into the kingdom
of His dear Son.
And still
we are the unthankful and evil when daily, in kindness, He brings us to
repentance, forgives our sins, preserves us in the faith, and shows us a
fatherly face in Jesus Christ. For, although by His grace we are also thankful
and holy, we have only a very small beginning of this thankfulness and
holiness. How unthankful we are for the love of God to us in Jesus Christ! And
this is evil! This is a great evil!
[Luke
6:35] does not teach a common grace of God. It teaches a saving kindness of
God. If the unthankful and evil in the text are all humans without exception,
the text teaches that the saving grace of God is universal, a doctrine that the
rest of Scripture denies, a doctrine that the Reformed confessions condemn, and
a doctrine that [all Calvinists] repudiate.
Since
this is a text that all defenders of common grace thoughtlessly appeal to,
others as well, it may be hoped, will now reconsider their use of it in defense
of common grace and, perhaps, their defense of common grace itself.
A
Particular “Common Grace”
I idly
wonder whether the defenders of common grace ever recognize that their
interpretation of Luke 6:35 fails even on the assumptions of the
theory of common grace. Suppose that the kindness of the text is a common grace
kindness of God. In this imaginary case, God’s kindness is His loving desire to
give everybody a comfortable physical life, nice material things, and earthly
happiness, as well as His actual bestowal of all this upon everybody.
God is
not kind in this way to all unthankful and evil people. What about the millions
of children born into poverty, famine, sickness, and abuse? What about the
hundreds of thousands born with dreadful handicaps of body and mind? What about
the millions wracked with pain, crushed with burdens, broken with
disappointments, desolate with despair, terrified by fears, destroyed by war?
Is God
kind with a common grace kindness to all unthankful and evil people? Is He thus
kind even to most unthankful and evil
people?
I do not
see it.
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