The same list of sayings shows up almost word for word in Matthew, but Luke frames it in a way that changes what the sermon is actually claiming. Where Matthew’s crowd hears eight blessings and nothing else, Luke’s crowd hears four blessings paired with four warnings — pronounced on exactly the people, the rich, the full, the laughing, the well-thought-of, who assumed a sermon on a mountain was for someone else. And the whole scene opens with a detail no other Gospel bothers to record: before he picked the twelve men who would carry his message after he was gone, Jesus stayed up all night, alone, praying about exactly who to choose.
A study in Luke 6 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 24 min read
Lord Also Of The Sabbath
This site’s own studies of Matthew 12 and Mark’s own third chapter already told these two Sabbath controversies in full.
“And it came to pass on the second sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days?”
Luke 6:1-2
“If it was right for David to satisfy his hunger by eating of the bread that had been set apart to a holy use, then it was right for the disciples to supply their need by plucking the grain upon the sacred hours of the Sabbath.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 285
“And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered.… But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst.”
Luke 6:6-8
“When questioned, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days?’ Jesus answered, ‘What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep?’”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 286
“And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other. And they were filled with madness; and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus.”
Luke 6:10-11
A sheep worth rescuing on the Sabbath, but a man worth leaving to suffer — that was the logic Jesus exposed in front of the very people who prided themselves on knowing the law best.
He Chose Twelve, Whom Also He Named Apostles
“And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles.”
Luke 6:12-13
“Alone upon a mountain near the Sea of Galilee, Jesus had spent all night in prayer for these chosen ones. At the dawn He called them to Him, and, with words of prayer and instruction, laid His hands upon their heads in benediction, setting them apart to the gospel work.”
Ellen G. White · Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 4
Luke alone among the Gospel writers records this all-night vigil. The men whose names would be remembered for the rest of church history were not chosen in a moment — they were chosen after a full night in which their Master had nothing else to do but think of them by name before God.
“And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judæa and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases.”
Luke 6:17
“Then, as the narrow beach did not afford even standing room within reach of His voice for all who desired to hear Him, Jesus led the way back to the mountainside. Reaching a level space that afforded a pleasant gathering place for the vast assembly, He seated Himself upon the grass, and His disciples and the multitude followed His example.”
Ellen G. White · Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 4
This is the same level place Luke has just described — the setting for everything that follows.
Blessed Be Ye Poor
“As they sat upon the green hillside, awaiting the words of the divine Teacher, their hearts were filled with thoughts of future glory. … The poor peasants and fishermen hoped to hear the assurance that their wretched hovels, the scanty food, the life of toil, and fear of want, were to be exchanged for mansions of plenty and days of ease.”
Ellen G. White · Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 5
That expectation — that blessing meant an exchange of poverty for wealth — is exactly what makes what Jesus actually says next so startling.
“And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.”
Luke 6:20-21
This site’s own study of Matthew 5 already covered Matthew’s own version of these same sayings, where Jesus speaks of the “poor in spirit” and those who “hunger and thirst after righteousness” — inward, spiritual conditions available to anyone regardless of income. Luke’s version keeps the blunter, plainer wording: the poor, the hungry, the weeping, full stop. The two are not contradictions but companions — Matthew names the heart condition the blessing depends on, and Luke names the hard circumstances in which that heart condition is most often found. But only Luke records what comes next.
“But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.”
Luke 6:24-26
No other Gospel records these four woes. They are not a separate sermon, and not an afterthought — in Luke’s own account they are spoken in the same breath as the blessings, to the very people in the crowd who, as the passage above describes, had shown up hoping for exactly the reversal Jesus just refused to promise them. The rich already have what they came for. The full are already satisfied. The comfortable already have their reward, paid in full, with nothing left to collect. It is the poor, the hungry, and the weeping — the ones with nothing left to lose by trusting God for everything — who are told they are blessed.
“In the days of Christ the religious leaders of the people felt that they were rich in spiritual treasure. … But in the throng that surrounded Jesus there were some who had a sense of their spiritual poverty. … Those who are rich and honorable in their own eyes do not ask in faith, and receive the blessing of God. They feel that they are full, therefore they go away empty.”
Ellen G. White · Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 7
The woes are not a curse pronounced on money itself. They are a warning about what a full stomach and a comfortable life so easily produce: the quiet, dangerous conviction that nothing more is needed. It is the same warning the risen Christ would later send to a wealthy, self-satisfied church in Laodicea — “thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17). The poor in this crowd had no illusions left to lose. That is precisely why they, and not the rich, were the ones who could hear.
Love Your Enemies
The rest of the sermon on the plain runs closely parallel to the Sermon on the Mount, already covered in depth in this site’s own studies of Matthew 6 and Matthew 7.
“But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.”
Luke 6:27-28
“And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. … Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.”
Luke 6:31, 36-37
The Golden Rule and the call to mercy stand at the center of Luke’s version exactly as they do in Matthew’s, framed here as the practical shape that love for one’s enemies actually takes day to day.
“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.… 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
“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 6:47-48
Luke’s own version adds one small, telling detail Matthew’s does not include — the wise builder “digged deep” before laying his foundation. The safety was never in the storm missing that house. It was in the unseen, unglamorous work done long before the storm ever arrived, on a foundation nobody watching from the outside could see.
