bless those that curse you; pray for those who use you despitefully.
This command speaks to people who are being cursed and mistreated, and tells them what to say and what to pray. Is it only a hard rule to obey, or does it come from what God Himself is like toward His enemies?
Spoken to "you who hear"
Luke does not frame these words as a contrast with the law of Israel, the way Matthew's account does. That difference matters, because it opens the teaching to anyone.
All that Luke says is, "But I say to you who hear." The disciples He spoke to were Jews. But the teaching by its own nature goes out to anyone, and is useful for all believers, to the Gentile as much as to the Jew… The Gentile believer has the same heart as the Jewish one, lives in the same world, and has to deal with enemies and with people who hate. So such a word is valuable… This goes right against nature. It is the revelation of what God is, applied to govern the heart of His children. This is what He was doing, and showing in Christ, and the children are called to imitate their Father.
Activity, not mood
Both halves of the verse call for something done. A kind feeling that never reaches your words or your prayers falls short.
The Lord looks for active good, and for looking to God on behalf of those who might treat them spitefully. So it is not only kindness and pity; there is earnest and sincere pleading with God for their blessing.
The content of the prayer
Prayer for someone who abuses you could turn into a prayer that God deal with him. The verse points the other way, and one writer links it to the call to pray for all people.
So we are to pray for "all men" — not only for those who govern well, but also for those who treat God's people spitefully (Luke 6:28). We are to pray, not that judgment will fall on those who persecute God's people, but that in sovereign grace they will be saved.
Higher than any rule of duty
A law can command you to love your neighbour as yourself. Blessing the person who curses you is something else, and it exposes what is inside us.
And here I find what is entirely beyond law. Law tells me to love others as myself; grace tells me to give myself up entirely for my neighbour or for anybody. Did not God forgive you? You go and forgive your enemies. Is He kind to the unthankful and the evil? You go and be the same. It tests all the fibres of our hearts, all the pride and vanity and selfishness that are in us.
Where the strength comes from
This runs against instinct, so what makes it possible? One writer points to two things: true faith, and the Holy Spirit at work in us.
Doing good in return for evil represents God rightly. It also sets an example that should touch the hearts and consciences of others. This, and returning blessing for cursing, needs the lowly dignity of true faith. So do the things that follow, such as praying for someone who treats you spitefully (v.28). The power of the Holy Spirit greatly changes our natural resentment, when we let Him work in us without grieving Him or quenching Him.
An honour given to the Christian
Praying for your enemies can sound like a burden. It is also a place of honour: through you, good reaches people who have earned none of it.
The repeating of this command adds greatly to its divine force and importance. We must face it honestly, however hard it is to obey in its true sense. It is the special privilege of the Christian to pray for all men, friends and enemies. God has given him this place of honour — to bless others by his prayers. He should be like a vessel from which the precious blessings of Christ flow out to enrich many around him. Nature would return evil for evil and hold on to feelings of revenge. But grace says, following the example of the blessed Lord and His martyr Stephen, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
The verse lived out
Stephen, the first Christian killed for his faith, prayed for the men stoning him. His example shows the verse is not an ideal beyond reach.
His urgent, pleading earnestness was for others — divine love for his enemies, the very men murdering him. It also reproduced the spirit of Christ… It stands before us as the pattern for a believer today: practical grace rising above all injury and malice.
Summary
- Source. This is not a rule invented for hard cases. It reveals what God is, and it governs the hearts of His children.
- Gift. Law could never command this; grace supplies it. You forgive enemies because God forgave you, and the Spirit changes your natural resentment.
- Speech. Bless the one who curses you. That means active good, not just a warmer feeling.
- Prayer. Never ask God for judgment on the persecutor. Ask Him to pardon and save the man.
- Reach. The Christian becomes a vessel through whom blessing flows out to others. Stephen showed that honour while his enemies stoned him.