Love Your Enemy (5:43–47)
(Luke 6:27-36)
To properly study this antithesis in Matthew we must also look at Luke’s version of the
same material.
““But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes
you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak
do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from
one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.” (Luke 6:27–30,
ESV)
One of the first things you notice is that the last two antithesis in Matthew are in Luke
reversed. Luke’s presentation makes it clear that the object of this love of enemies are
the persecutors that are slapping and stealing one’s property. The greater context
makes it clear that these are the Romans.
So, building on the last antithesis of enduring the evil of your enemy, Jesus now
concludes at the apex of his moral commands—love those enemies. As the material
develops, the enemies are identified as “persecutors,” (5:44) and in context the
persecutors are identified as “tax collectors” (5:46) and “Gentiles” (5:47). The tax
collectors could be Gentiles or Jews but if Jews, they were considered now to be
outside the pale of Judaism. These are the ones Jesus so recently identified as
slapping you on the cheek, suing you, impressing your labor, and borrowing your
wealth. Enduring these people seemed to be a hard enough thing to require, but love
them? Is that even possible?
Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and
hate your enemy.’
The passage quoted was found in Leviticus 19.
“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with
your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance
or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your
neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 19:17–18, ESV)
neighbor
“Neighbor” is a frequent OT term for a fellow-member of the covenant community, and
the associated terms in Lev 19:17–18 (“your kin,” “one of your people”)….”1 People
outside that covenant community would not be considered a neighbor and would
therefore not need to be loved.
hate your enemy
1
France, R. T. (2007). The Gospel of Matthew (p. 224). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co.
“Jesus appears to be summarizing the way the interpreters of his day saw the teaching
about enemies rather than citing Scripture itself, for the Old Testament nowhere says,
“you shall hate your enemy.””2
Although the Bible does not command one to hate their enemies, such hatred would be
felt by many to be a patriotic duty. They would find scriptural support for such behavior
in passages like these:
“The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.” (Psalm
5:5, ESV)
“Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me!
They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in
vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who
rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my
enemies.” (Psalm 139:19–22, ESV)
“Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said,
“Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations!” O daughter of Babylon,
doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have
done to us! Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them
against the rock!” (Psalm 137:7–9, ESV)
“I hate the double-minded, but I love your law. You are my hiding place and my
shield; I hope in your word. Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the
commandments of my God.” (Psalm 119:113–115, ESV)
These are known as the Imprecatory Psalms: Psalm 7, 35, 52, 55, 58, 59, 69, 79, 83,
94, 109, 129, 137, and 140.
So, we have a tension here, the propriety of hating some people in some circumstance
and the command not to hate in others. Attempts have been made to resolve this by
saying that when Israel was at war they were allowed to hate but not otherwise. Yet, as
Jesus spoke, Israel was at war with Rome and what Jesus has to say here is directed at
how Jews relate to the Roman enemy. So that effort to harmonize the love and hate
dilemma fails.
Matthew 5:44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you,
The verb love3 is in the imperative mood, which means that love is not simply
recommended but commanded.
The apostle Paul sums up love of neighbor this way:
2
Morris, L. (1992). The Gospel according to Matthew. The Pillar New Testament Commentary (129). Grand Rapids,
MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.
3
ἀγαπάω “To esteem, love, indicating a direction of the will and finding one’s joy in something or someone.”
Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG
Publishers.
“Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
(Romans 13:10, ESV)
This love of neighbor mentioned by Paul is passive, it “does no wrong to a neighbor.” It
does not spell out what “right” you should do to a neighbor. However, others verses do
give us positive ideas on how to do this.
“If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water
to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward
you.” (Proverbs 25:21–22, ESV) (see Romans 12:20–21, ESV)
These Biblical illustrations do make a point, we can do acts of love a lot easier than we
can feel love. So even though the feeling might not yet be there, the acts must be
there.
“Agapē does not mean a feeling of the heart, which we cannot help, and which comes
unbidden and unsought; it means a determination of the mind, whereby we achieve this
unconquerable goodwill even to those who hurt and injure us. Agapē, someone has
said, is the power to love those whom we do not like and who may not like us.”4 This is
illustrated in Exodus 23.
““If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back
to him. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden,
you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him.” (Exodus
23:4–5, ESV)
And likewise “for Matthew loving the enemy means a concrete deed.”5 So, when Jesus
tells us to love our enemies, he is not telling us we must have a warm feeling toward
them; he is telling us we must act in a certain way toward them.
enemies
When Jesus said this, I don’t believe that those sitting on that Mount listening to this
sermon turned to one another and starting whispering “I wonder who these enemies are
that he is referring to?” That has been clear from the beginning. It is those that were
slapping, suing, borrowing and forcing the Jews to do their service in first century Israel.
It is the hated Romans. This message probably did not go over any better in that day
than it often goes over in ours. It was simply outrageous.
So, when it’s all said and done there are two ways to deal with such an enemy. Hate,
anger, rebellion and possible destruction to your own life. Or better, to actually love
such people. Clearly, here love is not used of having warm feelings toward them.
Instead, Jesus is asking his followers to do things that are in the best interest of such
people. To a large degree love is an act of “giving.” So, instead of attacking when
slapped, countersuing when sued and resisting when impressed, Jesus is demanding a
love response, doing something in the best interest of the other person. For a bone
weary soldier it would be something like going the extra mile—carrying his burden. So,
4
The Gospel of Matthew: Volume 1. 1976 (W. Barclay, Ed.). The Daily Study Bible Series (174). Philadelphia, PA: The
Westminster John Knox Press.
5
Ulrich Luz, Matthew 1–7: A Commentary on Matthew 1–7 (ed. Helmut Koester; Rev. ed.; Hermeneia—a Critical
and Historical Commentary on the Bible; Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2007), 291.
this extended passage does not simply deal with wisdom in the face of tyranny, it also
deals with love toward enemies.
In the place of pray,6 Luke says “do good.” This behavior, to “do good,” is a description
on how one is to love while praying.
“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,”
(Luke 6:27, ESV)
Luke’s “do good” would correspond to Proverbs 25:
“If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water
to drink,” (Proverbs 25:21, ESV)
“We cannot go on hating another man in the presence of God. The surest way of killing
bitterness is to pray for the man we are tempted to hate.”7 This is the Christian
response in the Jewish world. The Jews responded with hate and murder. The
Christian is to respond with love and prayer.
Of course, Jesus provided the example, he prayed for his enemies.
“And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And
they cast lots to divide his garments.” (Luke 23:34, ESV)
“If the cruel torture of crucifixion could not silence our Lord’s prayer for his enemies,
what pain, pride, prejudice or sloth could justify the silencing of ours? (Stott, p. 119).”8
This is Jesus’ answer to the Roman problem.
Later, Stephen responded to his persecutors in prayer as well.
“And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin
against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” (Acts 7:60, ESV)
Of course, ultimately Israel did not respond to Jesus’ teaching and was in fact destroyed
by the Romans in A.D. 70. Destruction is the common outcome of disobeying God.
The word persecute9 in this passage gives us some insight into its meaning. These
particular enemies are not simply next door neighbors that you have some beef with.
These are people with power and authority over you, and because they have this power
they can and will use it to hurt you. Jesus has earlier addressed persecution and now
again does the same. It is not far from his mind and he does not want it far from ours
either.
6
προσεύχομαι “…to wish, pray. To pray to God, offer prayer.” Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study
dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.
7
The Gospel of Matthew: Volume 1. 1976 (W. Barclay, Ed.). The Daily Study Bible Series (175). Philadelphia, PA: The
Westminster John Knox Press.
8
Carson, D. A. (1984). Matthew. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke
(Vol. 8, p. 158). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
9
διώκω “…to systematically organize a program to oppress and harass people—‘to persecute, to harass,
persecution.’” Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Vol. 1: Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: Based on
semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition.) (498). New York: United Bible Societies.
““Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:10, ESV)
The Romans were certainly persecuting the Jews. What are Christians to do? They
can rise up in revolt—or they can go along, get along and pray for such people. This
antithesis is a continuation of the one that came before, slapping, impressing labor and
stealing outright or by using the courts to do so. This is persecution.
Matthew 5:45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he
makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on
the unjust.
so that you may be sons of your Father
“The point of the passage is not to state the means of becoming sons but the necessity
of pursuing a certain kind of sonship patterned after the Father’s character.”10 Jesus is
not saying do this and you become sons; he is saying do this that you may be sons in
the behavior and character of your life. This behavior demonstrates that you are a son
of God. “By loving enemies you will be acting in the proper family manner (like father,
like son).”11
Such love characterizes God himself:
sun rise…sends rain
“The call to love one’s enemies is grounded in a vision of God as beneficent to all
because of creation: he does not withdraw his creational kindness from the wicked.”12
“The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.” (Psalm
145:9, ESV)
Here is the point: God’s love is indiscriminate; he sends sun and rain on all. So our love
must also be indiscriminate. We must love family, we must love enemies. We must
love Christians, we must love tyrants. God demonstrates this love in the rising of the
sun on the evil and the rain on the unjust. He has set the example, so we too must love
this way; we must love our enemies. “To love one’s enemies is, then, to treat them as
God treats those who have rebelled against him.”13 “…to love those who do not love
you is not offered as a piece of pragmatic wisdom, but as a reflection of the character of
God himself….”14
Matthew 5:46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do
not even the tax collectors do the same?
10
Carson, D. A. (1984). Matthew. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke
(Vol. 8, p. 159). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
11
Nolland, J. (2005). The Gospel of Matthew: A commentary on the Greek text. New International Greek Testament
Commentary (268). Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press.
12
Nolland, J. (2005). The Gospel of Matthew: A commentary on the Greek text. New International Greek Testament
Commentary (268). Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press.
13
Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 1–13 (vol. 33A; Word Biblical Commentary; Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1998), 134.
14
R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew (The New International Commentary on the New Testament; Grand Rapids,
MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co., 2007), 224.
love those who love you
Is there an element of impropriety here? Is it wrong to love those that love you? No, it
is not. Then what is the problem? The problem is that this love is simply inadequate. It
is good so far as it goes, but it does not go far enough.
Those that love you would be friends and family; you should love them. But your
enemies? Yes, here is where the reward is found—in doing the hard thing.
the tax collectors
The hated tax collectors remind us one more time of our first century Roman context. It
is these despised traitors to the Jewish nation that must also be loved.
Matthew 5:47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than
others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
“The act of greeting is a concrete expression of the fact that the other person has
personal significance for the one doing the greeting. Those not greeted are excluded
from significance.”15 Tax collectors, bureaucrats, solders, all these would be passed by
without a word of acknowledgement. It is these that Jesus is demanding we greet with
kindness.
what more16 are you doing than others? This loving of neighbor or family “lacks the
element of the “extraordinary” that would qualify it as ethically superior and that would
conform to the greater righteousness of SM/Matt 5:20.”17
the Gentiles
This is another reminder of the hated oppressor. How outrageous that Jesus would
hold up Gentiles as being just as righteous as the Jews. Gentiles loved their own as did
Jews. But Jesus requires more.
Believers have always struggled with love, even love of other Christians. Clement, an
early Christian pastor says this: “For when they hear from us that God says, “It is no
credit to you if you love those who love you, but it is a credit to you if you love your
enemies and those who hate you,” when they hear these things, they marvel at such
extraordinary goodness. But when they see that we not only do not love those who
hate us, but do not even love those who love us, they scornfully laugh at us and the
Name is blasphemed.”18 It is a wonder that Christianity has survived 2,000 years.
15
Nolland, J. (2005). The Gospel of Matthew: A commentary on the Greek text. New International Greek Testament
Commentary (269). Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press.
16
περισσός “…pertaining to that which is exceptional in the sense of being more than what is expected—
‘exceptional, outstanding, remarkable, unusual.’” Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon
of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 591.
17
Hans Dieter Betz, The Sermon on the Mount: A Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, Including the Sermon
on the Plain (Matthew 5:3-7:27 and Luke 6:20-49) (ed. Adela Yarbro Collins; Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical
Commentary on the Bible; Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1995), 320.
18
Michael William Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations (Updated ed.; Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 119–121.
So, it has never been an easy thing to love enemies.
A Call to Evil Against One’s Enemies
Notwithstanding Jesus’ call to love enemies, he and others in the New Testament
continue to call for evil against the enemies of God. Apparently the two are not mutually
exclusive.
“An instance of imprecation19 from Jesus’ lips is recorded in Mark 11:14. On the way to
the temple courts He cursed a fig tree that had all the appearance of vitality but no fruit.
As both the near context and the larger development of the Gospel make clear (Mark
11–13), this cursing of the fig tree was an imprecation against faithless and fruitless
Israel, who had so stubbornly rejected Him. This rejection culminated in the Crucifixion,
and Christ’s imprecation climaxed in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
….
In addition, in Galatians 1:8–9 (cf. 1 Cor. 16:22) Paul uttered what is unquestionably
a curse of the severest magnitude: that of eternal damnation. “But even if we, or an
angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached
to you, he is to be accursed [ἀνάθεμα ἔστω]. As we have said before, so I say again
now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be
accursed!”
….
Furthermore when Simon the Sorcerer sought to purchase from Peter the power of
the Holy Spirit, Peter uttered the caustic curse, “May your silver perish with you” (Acts
8:20). ….
Additionally Revelation 6:10 records the cry of martyred saints. “How long, O Lord,
holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell
on the earth?” This harks back to the divine promise in the Song of Moses to “avenge
the blood of His servants” (Deut. 32:43), and is a plea characteristic of the imprecatory
psalms (cf. Pss. 58:10–11; 79:5, 10; 94:1, 3). Moreover much that follows in the Book
of Revelation is God’s response to the martyrs’ cry (e.g., Rev. 15:3, “the Song of
Moses”; 16:6; 18:20, 24; and 19:1–2, “Hallelujah!… He has avenged the blood of His
bondservants”).”20
In Conclusion
In context, the enemy is the Roman oppressor. Jesus’ audience was told to love and
pray for those who hated them. Jesus then gave examples on how God loves his
enemies, sun on the evil and rain on the unjust. Interestingly, these illustrations of love
are impersonal and general in nature, they are not redemptive. In addition to the sun
and rain, there was only one practical illustration of love given; it was simply a respectful
greeting of an enemy.
One issue that stands out is the question of justice. How can this love of God to bad
and unjust people be reconciled with justice? “Is it not rather evidence of injustice?”21
Some years ago there was an incident in Northern Ireland whereby the IRA bomb killed
19
To call on God to curse.
John N. Day, “The Imprecatory Psalms and Christian Ethics,” Bibliotheca Sacra 159 (2002): 183–185.
21
Hans Dieter Betz, The Sermon on the Mount: A Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, Including the Sermon
on the Plain (Matthew 5:3-7:27 and Luke 6:20-49) (ed. Adela Yarbro Collins; Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical
Commentary on the Bible; Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1995), 317.
20
several people. The father of one the children killed went on TV and announced that he
had forgiven them for killing his daughter. Is this person an example on how to love
your enemy? Shouldn’t the good be rewarded and the evil punished?
And in fact, isn’t this exactly what happens, eventually? There have been periods in
which God has withheld rain and even the shinning of the sun. These have occurred
briefly in time but in eternity these enemies with be thrown into “outer darkness” without
sun and rain for all eternity. The point is not clear. God loves—until he doesn’t?
But as it is commonly understood, the nature of God’s love does not allow justice. And
for that reason one commentator observed that “The theological core of verses 43–48 is
in some tension with the theme of eternal condemnation found in the First Gospel. If
God is truly gracious and provident toward all, and if God is consistent, then I believe
God’s providence and grace should extend for all into the complete manifestation of the
realm of God.”22 In other words, for this author the love of God for his enemies
eliminates the possibility of a “eternal condemnation” or hell. But, the teaching of Jesus
on hell in Matthew’s gospel eliminates this possibility.
What do we make of this? The demonstration of God’s love in sun and rain does not
have an eternal significance; that love did not result in their salvation. The greatest
illustration of love that Jesus could have given, the substitutionary sacrifice for the sins
of the lost, is not one of his examples. That love is reserved for his family.
God’s love for his enemies is not redemptive and eternal. It loves enemies casually and
briefly. At the proper time, he withdraws the sun and the rain and instead rains fire and
brimstone. In some holy balance he sustains both love and hatred. Are we to do the
same? How?
How Do We Love Enemies?
1) Pray for them Matthew 5:44
2) Do them good Matthew 5:45, Proverbs 25:21
3) Be respectful Matthew 5:47
We are to love our enemies in the demonstration of respect, kindness and goodness.
Instead of looking with hate at an enemy, snarling, mumbling a curse and plotting his
murder, we are instead to smile, great the person warmly, pray for them and in fact to
be a good neighbor. And if possible, seek justice.
There were people then, and no doubt now, that stew in the evil juices of their hatred of
the oppressor. They rot their soul with malice and become centers of influence for hate
in their family and community. When given a chance, they will put in a bad word. Few
conversations are safe from their maliciousness, they will find a way to inject an hateful
comment about the “evil government”. Jesus forbids this.
No one is saying that this love of enemy is easy, it certainly is not. What is being said is
that it is an imperative, it is an order, it is required of the follower of Jesus. That’s all
22
Ronald J. Allen, “Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A,” in The Lectionary Commentary: Theological
Exegesis for Sunday’s Texts, Volume Three (ed. Roger E. Van Harn; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 41.
that needs to be said. “Loving the enemy is surely a rough road to travel (cf. 7:13–14),
but it is the road to the greater righteousness required at the last judgment (5:20).”23
23
Hans Dieter Betz, The Sermon on the Mount: A Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, Including the Sermon
on the Plain (Matthew 5:3-7:27 and Luke 6:20-49) (ed. Adela Yarbro Collins; Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical
Commentary on the Bible; Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1995), 324–325.