Matthew 5:44
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.
Jesus' Teachings
Love Your Enemies
The hardest command in the Sermon on the Mount, and why Jesus refused to soften it
Introduction
What do you actually owe the person who has genuinely wronged you? In the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus answers a question nobody was comfortable asking out loud — and gives an answer harder than almost anything else he taught.
Love your enemies. Not tolerate them, not merely refrain from retaliating — love them, the same active, willing-their-good love God shows the people who have wronged him.
This isn't a throwaway line buried in a longer teaching. Jesus places it as the climax of a section that's been steadily raising the bar — from not murdering, to not hating; from not committing adultery, to not lusting. This is where the sermon's whole trajectory lands.
Scripture
Matthew 5:45
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.
Romans 5:8
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Translation note: Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV). The King James Version is in the public domain.
Key insights
- Love here is agape — willed action, not warm feeling
- It means blessing and doing good, not just tolerating
- God's own kindness already reaches both the just and unjust
- This command is the climax the whole sermon builds toward
Related resources
Continue in the Grounded app
Continue the full study — teaching, context, reflection, and prayer — in the Grounded app.
Free on iPhone · Includes a free trial