Luke 6: 27 – 38 Love of One’s Enemy

Luke 6: 27 – 38 Love of One’s Enemy

"But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit (is) that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, and get back the same amount. But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

Jesus lays out a new ethic of how we should treat others. He not only uses the word love repeatedly, but at an entirely new level. You should not love only those who love you – your family, your friends, your admirers. There is nothing extraordinary about that – even sinners do so. Think about how devoted to family the “Godfather” was in that series of movies.

Jesus asks us to do much more. To love our enemy, and do good not only to those who have no ties to you, i.e. the stranger, but also to your enemy, to the one who takes from you, who seeks to hurt you. What is this all about? Who does that? Jesus does that as “a son of the most high” and he says that we should do so as well if we want to be “sons and daughters of God”. For God himself is good beyond deserving to the ungrateful and the wicked.