You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? 48 So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Jesus brings the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount to one of its most demanding points. The command to love one’s neighbor was already given in the Law: “Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your own people. You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). In the time of Jesus, some understood “neighbor” mainly as a fellow Israelite or as someone within one’s own community. Jesus expands the meaning of neighbor so that love reaches even the enemy and the persecutor.
The words “hate your enemy” were not a command from God’s Law. They reflected a non-biblical interpretation that limited the command to love one’s neighbor mainly to one’s own people, while treating outsiders or enemies as beyond the reach of that love. Jesus corrects that narrow understanding by saying, “love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you” (v. 44). This is not ordinary human instinct. People naturally find it easier to love those who love them, greet those who belong to their own circle, and care for those who are already kind to them. Jesus calls his disciples to a love that reflects the Father’s own goodness.
The reason Jesus gives is clear. The heavenly Father “makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust” (v. 45). Sun and rain are signs of God’s generous care for the world. God gives these gifts even to those who do not honor him. The disciple is called to imitate this divine generosity by willing the good of others, even when others have acted unjustly.
This love includes prayer. To pray for those who persecute us means to bring them before God and desire their conversion, healing, and salvation. Prayer changes the way the disciple sees the enemy. It places judgment in God’s hands and keeps the heart from being ruled by hatred. St. Paul gives the same Christian direction when he writes, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil” and “overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:17, 21).
Jesus himself shows this love from the Cross when He prays, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Stephen, the first martyr, follows the same path when he prays for those stoning him: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60). These prayers show the mercy Jesus commands. The disciple entrusts justice to God and asks that even the persecutor may receive repentance and salvation.
Jesus then asks, “For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?” (v. 46). Tax collectors and pagans could do the same. In the Gospel setting, tax collectors were often viewed as morally compromised because many collaborated with Roman power and were associated with dishonest gain. Pagans, or Gentiles, were those outside the covenant people of Israel. Jesus uses these examples to show that the love of his disciples must go beyond the ordinary patterns of human loyalty. Christian love must reach farther because it comes from the Father.
The command to “be perfect” (v. 48) gathers the teaching together. In Matthew, this word points to completeness, maturity, and wholehearted obedience to God’s will. It recalls the command in Leviticus, “Be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). Luke’s Gospel expresses the same teaching with the words, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). The perfection Jesus commands is the holiness and mercy of a life shaped by the Father’s love.
No created person can possess God’s infinite perfection. Jesus calls his disciples to take the Father as their model. The children of God are to show the family likeness of God by loving with mercy, patience, and generosity. This love does not excuse evil. It seeks the good of the person, entrusts justice to God, and refuses to let hatred form the heart.
This teaching remains difficult because enemies are real. Persecution, betrayal, cruelty, and injustice wound deeply. Jesus does not speak as though these things are small. He teaches that the disciple’s response must be formed by the Father’s goodness rather than by the enemy’s sin. The Christian begins with prayer, asks for the grace to desire the other person’s good, and takes the next faithful step toward mercy without abandoning truth or justice.
Lord Jesus, teach us to love as children of the heavenly Father. Give us the grace to pray for those who hurt us, to resist hatred, and to seek the good of others with patience and mercy. Amen.
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Sources and References
- The New American Bible, Revised Edition. Matthew 5:43-48 and notes on Matthew 5:43, 5:46, 5:47, and 5:48.
- Hahn, Scott, and Curtis Mitch. The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010. Pages 16-17.
- José María Casciaro, gen. ed. The Navarre Bible: New Testament, Expanded Edition. Dublin: Four Courts Press; New York: Scepter Publishers, 2008. Page 64.
- Brown, Raymond E., Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy, eds. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990. Page 644, paragraphs 35-36.
- Aguilar Chiu, José Enrique, Richard J. Clifford, Carol J. Dempsey, Eileen M. Schuller, Thomas D. Stegman, and Ronald D. Witherup, eds. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. New York: Paulist Press, 2018. Page 921.
- Collins, John J., Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid OP, and Donald Senior CP, eds. The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century. Third Fully Revised Edition, with a Foreword by Pope Francis. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2022. Page 1184.
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