But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 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. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. 32 For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. 34 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. 35 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. 36 Be merciful, just as [also] your Father is merciful.
37 “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. 38 Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”
Jesus now turns from the Beatitudes and Woes to a series of commands that describe how His disciples are to live. He begins with one of the most demanding teachings in the Gospel: “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (vv. 27–28). Jesus does not merely tell His followers to avoid hatred or revenge. He commands them to respond to hostility with active goodness.
This teaching extends the command, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18), beyond those who are close to us or who treat us well. Jesus Himself will show what this means when, from the cross, He prays for those who crucify Him: “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34). The early Christians would continue the same teaching: “Bless those who persecute [you], bless and do not curse them” (Rom 12:14).
Jesus then gives striking examples of nonretaliation: turning the other cheek, giving up one’s tunic as well as one’s cloak, giving to those who ask, and not demanding back what has been taken (vv. 29–30). These sayings do not mean that evil becomes good or that injustice should be approved. They teach that the disciple must refuse personal revenge and must not allow another person’s wrongdoing to determine his own conduct. As Paul later writes, “Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good” (Rom 12:21).
Jesus summarizes this way of life in the Golden Rule: “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (v. 31). The command is positive. It does not merely tell us to avoid harming others; it tells us to take the initiative in doing good. Nor is that goodness to depend on whether the other person will return it.
Jesus makes that clear in the next verses. Loving only those who love us, doing good only to those who do good to us, or lending only when we expect repayment remains within ordinary human reciprocity. Jesus calls His disciples beyond that. They are to love, do good, and give even when nothing is expected in return (vv. 32–35).
The reason is found in the words, “you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked” (v. 35). Children are expected to reflect the character of their father. The disciple therefore loves in this way because God Himself is the model. God’s goodness is not limited to those who deserve it, and His children are called to imitate that generosity.
Jesus then states the principle at the heart of the passage: “Be merciful, just as [also] your Father is merciful” (v. 36). Matthew records the parallel teaching as, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48). Luke emphasizes the divine attribute of mercy. To become more like God is therefore to become more merciful.
Jesus immediately shows what this mercy looks like in practice: “Stop judging … Stop condemning … Forgive … Give” (vv. 37–38). “Stop judging” does not mean that Christians may never recognize whether an action is right or wrong. Jesus is forbidding the kind of judgment that presumes to condemn the moral worth of another person before God. We may judge actions, but we do not know another person’s heart as God does.
The passage ends with the image of an overflowing measure: “a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap” (v. 38). The picture is of grain measured generously until the container can hold no more. Jesus uses the image to describe the abundance of God’s response to human generosity. The mercy, forgiveness, and generosity we extend to others are therefore not losses. They conform us more closely to the Father, whose mercy exceeds our own.
Lord Jesus, teach us to love those who are difficult to love, to refuse retaliation, to forgive as we hope to be forgiven, and to become more merciful in imitation of our heavenly Father. Amen.
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Sources and References
- The New American Bible, Revised Edition. Washington, DC: Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 2011. Notes on Luke 6:27–38; Matthew 5:43–48; Matthew 7:1–12.
- Hahn, Scott, and Curtis Mitch. The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010, 118–119.
- Casciaro, Jose Maria, gen. ed. The Navarre Bible: New Testament, Expanded Edition. Dublin: Four Courts Press; New York: Scepter Publishers, 2008, 272–273.
- Brown, Raymond E., Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy, eds. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990, 695, para. 91.
- Gadenz, Pablo T. The Gospel of Luke. Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018, 133–134.
- Aguilar Chiu, José Enrique, et al., eds. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. New York: Paulist Press, 2018, 1054–1055.
- Collins, John J., Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid, OP, and Donald Senior, CP, eds. The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century. 3rd fully rev. ed. London: T&T Clark, 2022, 1314.
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