But *I* say unto you, Love your enemies, [bless those who curse you,] do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who [insult you and] persecute you,
Jesus takes a saying His hearers knew by heart and turns it inside out. Instead of marking off who deserves love, He points to the two hardest people to love: the enemy and the persecutor.
The command to love your neighbour comes from the law, but the words attached to it here do not. Commentators point out that religious teachers added the second half themselves:
The rabbis first narrowed the word "neighbour" wrongly. Then they went further. If you must love your neighbour, they said, you must hate your enemies — and by "enemies" they meant everyone else: the other nations, Jews without religious training, and personal enemies too... Love fulfils the law, as Romans 13:10 says. Out of that command they had made its exact opposite. You only had to love the few who shared your views. Everyone else you could meet with pride, contempt and hatred.
Loving an enemy is not a harder version of law-keeping. Christ asks for something the law never asked for:
To love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us is far above the law, and far above what the law asked of people in their natural state... But Christ brought in grace and truth. In the light of the Son of Man all were lost, even the sheep of Israel. He came to seek and to save the lost, so those who belonged to Him were to love their enemies and pray for those who persecuted them. It was the mind of heaven for His saints on earth.
This love is not a warm feeling towards someone who hurts you. It is an active interest in their real good, and their hostility is the very reason to care:
Love is not just a kind feeling. It is real concern for another person's true welfare. If that person returns hatred, that is all the more reason to care for him, because he needs special help. When you return good for evil, you represent God rightly. You also set an example that should reach the hearts and consciences of others.
This is not justice, and it is not just staying clean of evil. It is good sent out into a hostile place:
He takes up the principle of the law, which deals with evil in order to hold it down... Then He brings in a vast principle, made known when Christ came into the middle of evil: good that is entirely above evil, yet acts inside it... It is not righteousness, in the sense of justice; it is not what presents us to God... it is goodness in the middle of evil.
The command is not a theory. Christ Himself prayed for the men who were killing Him:
The Lord Jesus showed this love of God to us. "But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). While He hung on the cross He prayed for His tormentors: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). So the Lord Himself is the perfect example of the command He gave.
The verse links this behaviour to being sons of the Father. Writers stress that the point is family likeness, not how someone becomes God's child:
When it is a question of "sons" it refers to our position... while here it is a question of character... God calls us to have the family character and to show the same grace, as sons of such a Father. The person who loves his enemies and does good to those who hate him shows the character of a son. His Father makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good. Think how people treat Him and blaspheme His name... Yet He still treats them this way, and He is "your Father."
These words sound beyond anyone's reach. Commentators answer that the command still stands, and that God supplies what it asks for:
If we are His sons, it is not arrogance to hold feelings higher than human nature can reach. This is our new standing, and it should be our delight. Grace alone can make it real. But Christ has obtained everything we need for this. The Holy Spirit is here to see it through and to guide us to Christ's glory.
- Distortion. "Hate your enemy" was never God's word. Religious teachers added it, shrinking the circle of "neighbour" until it held only a favoured few.
- Elevation. Loving enemies and praying for persecutors stands above the law. It is the mind of heaven, brought down to earth by Christ.
- Definition. This love means caring about someone's real welfare. Their hostility becomes the reason to care, not a reason to stop. It is goodness working inside evil, not justice measured out.
- Pattern. The Father makes His sun rise on evil and good alike. The Son prayed for the men crucifying Him. The command asks only for the family likeness.
- Power. The standard is not lowered for us. Grace alone makes it work. Christ has secured all we need, and the Holy Spirit is here to carry it through.
that ye may be [the] sons of your Father who is in [the] heavens; for he makes his sun rise on evil and good, and sends rain on just and unjust.
Sunrise and rain fall on people who have earned nothing. That is the pattern Jesus sets for disciples He calls to love their enemies, and it raises a question: what does that family likeness look like day by day?
The phrase "sons of your Father" here is not describing how someone enters God's family. Commentators note that the people He spoke to already belonged to Him.
The Lord here presents a high standard. In the Sermon on the Mount the word "son" has a practical meaning. The Lord Jesus is not speaking of the gospel here, or of how to become a child or son of God. He shows His disciples, who were already born again, how they could copy their Father in heaven by loving their enemies. In that way they would show in practice that they were His sons.
An everyday comparison makes the same point about resemblance:
Some think this passage teaches that a person can gain the relationship of children by a certain line of action. It does not. It is a question of moral conformity or suitability to the character and ways of our Father. In everyday life we sometimes hear the saying, "You would not be your father's son if you acted like that." It is as though our Lord had said, "If you want to be the sons of your heavenly Father, you must act in grace to all; for that is what He is doing."
Loving enemies is not a stricter version of an old rule. It goes past anything the law required of Israel.
To love our enemies, and to pray for those who persecute us, is far above the law or the duty of a people in the flesh. Israel was not to hate an Edomite or an Egyptian, and their children could enter the assembly of the LORD in the third generation. An Ammonite or a Moabite had to wait until the tenth generation. But Christ brought in grace and truth… In receiving Him they receive life, His life, and they are to show it this way.
The two halves of the verse are not saying the same thing twice.
Such love and devotion, to be worth anything, must be no mere form but a living reality — so that they might be sons of their Father in the heavens. That is their place of dignity. And what a pattern He sets! For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. What rich grace in the first comparison, and what faithful goodness in the second!
God gives this daily kindness to people He has every right to condemn.
He has the right to condemn the evil and the unjust. Instead of doing so, He shows them His goodness during their life on earth in the same way that He does to the good and the just. Nothing shows the love of the eternal Creator-God for His enemies more movingly.
Jesus does not point to a distant Ruler. He points to your Father, whose family has its own character.
When it is a question of "sons" it refers to our position… here it is a question of character. "The sons of your Father", "your Father who makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good" — not simply God, but your Father. He calls us to have the family character and show the same grace, as sons of such a Father… Think how people treat Him and blaspheme Him, and what man's character is! Yet He treats them so, and He is "your Father."
The sun that teaches disciples to give also leaves ungrateful people without excuse.
Out of His own goodness, as our Lord put it, He causes His sun to shine on the evil as well as on the good. He sends His rain on the just as well as on the unjust. Yet the man who profits by all these benefits and never thinks of God is a most wicked man, the greatest enemy of God alive on the earth… He shows less gratitude than even the poor animal that knows its master's kindness and care.
Loving enemies sounds impossible. The answer is not effort but grace.
Let us therefore be in earnest to keep up the family character… If we are His sons, it is no presumption to cherish feelings above human nature. This is our new status, and it should be our delight. Grace alone can make it good. But Christ has obtained all that is needed and effective for this. And the Holy Spirit is here to see to it, and to guide us to Christ's glory.
- Family character — the verse is about resembling the Father, not joining His family. Those He spoke to were already His.
- Family generosity — sunrise is rich grace to the undeserving. Rain is steady, faithful goodness. Neither one sorts people first.
- Family reach — the family standard goes past neighbours to enemies. The law never asked that of a nation.
- Family power — this life is above human nature, so grace alone makes it real. Christ's work and the Holy Spirit supply what is needed.
- Family witness — living this way puts the Father's ways on public display. Those who take His gifts and never think of Him show less gratitude than an animal.