Matthew 5:43-45a 43You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” 44But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
This passage is the last one where Jesus follows the pattern of quoting the prevailing Jewish thinking, giving the deeper principle, and then illustrating it. It is also the high point of the sermon where Jesus gives the greatest attribute that should guide how disciples live. To be a follower of Jesus is a call to go beyond what we can do on our own. It is an invitation to become part of something bigger than ourselves, something that can radically change our lives and the world around us. What Jesus says here is not something we can do on our own. God provides the way through grace, but we must also respond with faith and obedience. To live out Jesus’ commands requires a re-envisioning of life and an invitation to a genuine life transformation.
Jesus quotes a common understanding among the Jews of his time: hate your enemy. The Old Testament never explicitly says to hate one’s enemies. In many places it says to love one’s neighbors and even enemies (Genesis 45:1; Exodus 23:4; 1 Samuel 24:7; 2 Kings 6:22; Proverbs 25:21). Loving one’s neighbor was a basic belief of the ancient Israelites, but they carefully defined the idea of “neighbor.” A neighbor was a fellow Israelite.
The Jews were under significant pressure and stress from the occupying forces of Romans. The Jews had to pay high taxes and were often asked to do things they did not want to do. Sometimes, they were outright persecuted and abused. Over the centuries of warfare and occupation by foreign forces, many Jews had come to hate their enemies. Jesus challenges them to follow a new way. It was time to stop the religious and racial wars of hatred and to embrace a new way of life. Jesus takes the second greatest commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself, and expands the idea of “who is my neighbor?” As he teaches in Luke 10:25-37, our neighbor is simply someone around us who is in need. Our enemies are those who do not return our love with love, but rather with hatred and harm. Who needs are love the most? Our enemy. Who is the hardest to love? Our enemy.
Jesus links love with prayer. For what should we pray? That our enemy could be killed, harmed, out of the way? No, that is just a form of revenge will a little bit of self-righteousness added in for good measure. We pray for their good. It is hard to hold a grudge against someone you are praying for. We must speak words of blessing about our enemy. We can ask the Holy Spirit to give us these words. The greatest form of love is intercession for our enemies, to come alongside them and lift their needs before God. Our love will increase for them as we pray. Even if we do not feel love in our hearts, we must still pray. From our prayer will come love. When we become believers, God plants deep without us the seed of love. This seed will remain dormant unless we take the step of obedient faith. Our faith turns to action when we love our enemy and pray for those who persecute us. The seed of love begins to sprout and grow. The more we love and the more we pray, the deeper the roots of love grow in our lives. Jesus gives us the example as his enemies pounded spikes into his hands (Luke 23:34). Verse 45 begins with a result clause (marked by hopōs): so that our identity as God’s children will be evident, even to our enemies. Our love will show and confirm we are part of God’s family.
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