The Sermon on the Mount · Matthew 5:43-48

Love Your Enemies: Be the Children of Your Father

Matthew 5 to 7 · Jesus’ greatest sermon, the manifesto of the kingdom

Jesus gives the command that stands at the summit of the sermon's first half: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you. In doing so, His followers act like their heavenly Father, who sends sun and rain on the just and the unjust alike. To love only those who love us is nothing special; the love that marks the children of God reaches even to the ones who hate them.

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.Matthew 5:43-48 (KJV)

What Jesus said

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. The first half was Scripture; the second was a human addition. Jesus removes it entirely: love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.

The reason is who our Father is. He makes His sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust. If you love only those who love you, even tax collectors do that. Jesus closes with a summons that gathers up the whole section: be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect, that is, be complete in love as He is complete.

What it meant then, and what it means now

To a people occupied by Rome and surrounded by rivals, loving enemies was not an abstraction. Jesus was telling them to love the soldier, the collaborator, the oppressor. This was among the most radical things anyone had ever taught, and it set His followers apart from every faction that defined itself by whom it hated.

It is no less radical now. Our enemies may be the person who wronged us, the group we have been taught to despise, the family member who betrayed us. Jesus does not ask us to feel warm toward them or to pretend the wrong did not happen. He asks us to will their good and to pray for them, which is love as an action of the will before it is ever a feeling.

How it goes to the heart

Anyone can return love for love; that requires no grace at all. The love Jesus commands is supernatural, a love that does not depend on the worthiness or response of the one loved. It can only come from a heart that has itself received such love from God, for we were His enemies when He set His love on us.

This is the family likeness. Children resemble their Father, and our Father loves the undeserving, patiently, generously, without keeping score. To love an enemy is to show that we belong to Him, that His character is becoming ours. Prayer is where it usually begins, because it is nearly impossible to keep hating someone you are genuinely asking God to bless.

How it has been misapplied, and rightly applied

Loving enemies has been misread as denying that wrong is wrong, or as demanding we trust those who have proven dangerous. But love is not the same as blindness. Jesus loved people while telling them the truth, and love can seek someone's good while maintaining wise boundaries and pursuing justice for the harmed.

Rightly applied, this command frees us from the corrosive work of hatred, which poisons the hater more than the hated. It calls us to concrete acts: to bless instead of curse, to pray instead of plot, to do good where we can. And it reframes the goal of our lives, from winning against our enemies to becoming, by grace, like the Father who loves them.

A closer look at the words

Jesus begins by correcting a distortion. The command love thy neighbour comes straight from the law, but the added words, and hate thine enemy, are found nowhere in Scripture. They were a human gloss, a natural narrowing of love to the people we already like. Jesus strips the addition away and throws the door wide open.

His command is remarkably concrete. Love your enemies is unpacked as four actions: bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat and persecute you. This is love as deeds and prayers, an act of the will, not a feeling summoned on demand. You can obey it toward someone you do not yet feel warmly about at all.

The reason He gives reaches to the character of God. The Father makes His sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust, lavishing common kindness on those who defy Him. To love our enemies is to bear the family likeness, to act like the God who loved us while we were still His enemies.

Living this today

The command exposes how thin our love usually is. Loving those who love us, Jesus notes, is nothing special; even the most despised tax collectors managed that. The love that marks a child of God is the love that keeps going when it is not returned, that wills the good of the very person who has wronged us. Only a heart that has itself received such love can give it.

Practically, this love almost always begins in prayer. It is nearly impossible to keep nursing hatred toward someone you are genuinely asking God to bless, and prayer slowly softens what resentment has hardened. From there it grows into concrete good: a kind word, a practical help, a refusal to repay evil with evil.

Loving an enemy does not mean denying that they wronged you, trusting the untrustworthy, or abandoning wise boundaries and the pursuit of justice. Jesus loved people while telling them hard truths. It means releasing the poison of hatred, which harms the hater most, and seeking, however imperfectly, the good of those who have hurt us, because that is what our Father does.

How it points to Christ

Jesus is the only one who has kept this command perfectly, and He kept it toward us. We were the enemies He loved. From the cross, praying for His executioners, He showed the world what enemy-love looks like carried to its end, and by that love He turned enemies into children of God.

So the command is really an invitation into His own life. He does not merely order us to love our enemies; He first loved us when we were His, and He pours His Spirit into our hearts so that the same love can flow through us. Be perfect as your Father is perfect is not a burden to shoulder alone but a likeness He is at work to create in everyone who follows Him.

A note for every tradition: the Sermon on the Mount is honored across the whole church as the heart of Jesus’ teaching. This is faithful, mainstream exposition, holding the hard sayings with both honesty and grace. Above all it points to Christ, who alone lived this sermon perfectly and gives grace to all who follow Him.

Continue in the sermon: Turn the other cheek · Giving to the needy · The Beatitudes · The whole Sermon on the Mount