Love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you
You have heard it said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemies.” But I say to you, “Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors, so that you might be sons of your Father in the heavens, because his sun rises upon evil people and good people and it rains upon just people and unjust people. (For if you love those who love you, what reward to you have? Don’t the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what more are you doing? Don’t the Gentiles do the same?) Thus you will be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:43-48
Note to my readers: This post has taken a while to write.
I’m not quite sure why.
In any case, the events of the past days in Israel are a reminder of why what Jesus said mattered so much then, and why it matters so much now.
As a multi-time visitor to Israel and the West Bank over thirty years (I have only driven near Gaza) I have seen the tensions and heard the opinions and the physical ramifications on both sides for this centuries long divide between peoples.
In the face of slaughter and retaliation, we see the unending cycle of violence that characterizes humanity left to its own desires. In the days ahead I will take up this topic as I pivot to the book of Revelation.
In the violence, innocents always get the short end of the stick.
When Jesus said “there will be wars and rumors of wars” he was not affirming war but acknowledging the inherent violence in the human condition from rivalry, greed, and other reasons that results in war.
His very words in the Sermon and elsewhere are the antidote for that very violence if we take it upon ourselves to live out his words.
Pray for peace, pray for all those caught in the cross-fire of war. Come Lord Jesus.
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Be Perfect?
The ending to this section of the Sermon on the Mount often causes a great deal of guilt, theological angst, and debate among individual Christians and Christian groups (aka denominations).
The issue is not with the beginning of the passage—all would agree that Jesus said and meant “love your enemies”—but with the end, usually translated as a command: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Perfection is a tall order.
Especially for the perfectionist, this statement taken as a command weighs heavily to the point of being debilitating.
Even for the non-perfectionist, the attempt at perfection and continually failing at the attempt may lead to resignation and guilt.
I have certainly been in that place at times in my life.
Did Jesus actually command us to be perfect? Is that possible?
Most would argue Jesus did command it (as all the translations), but are divided on whether perfection is possible in this life.
I do not think Jesus commanded perfection here.
He commanded something else that results in perfection: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
There are a number of ways to argue this viewpoint—and as always my desire is for you to understand clearly what Jesus said and so have your mind changed or renewed—so I will pick one way and hope it is best.
Structure
The key to a clear understanding of this passage is its structure and its grammar. I will add more in the Notes on the Greek Text section, but here I’ll give the basics.
Jesus began this section like he did for the other five “antitheses”: “You have heard it said … but I say to you …”
The likeness ends there.
In the previous five sections, Jesus continued with additional explanations or commands. But in this last section he said things differently.
First he added a “so that” or purpose clause: “So that you may become sons of your Father in the heavens.”
Then he added a reason clause: “Because the sun rises … and it rains …”
Then he added a series of supporting sentences in the form of questions.
Finally, he ended with a statement, not a command.
Here is the passage again graphically set out:
1. You have heard it said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemies.”
2. But I say to you, “Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors,”
2a so that you might be sons of your Father in the heavens,
2b because his sun rises upon evil people and good people
and it rains upon just people and unjust people.
2c (For if you love those who love you, what reward to you have? Don’t the tax
collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what more are
you doing? Don’t the Gentiles do the same?)
3. Thus you will be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.
The most important observation to make is that item three follows item 2, not 2a, 2b, or 2c, which are all subordinate statements.
Now let’s take apart each element of this structure to get to Jesus’s main point and to dismantle some misunderstandings.
1. You have heard it said …
Jesus followed the pattern he used in the first and fourth antitheses. He quoted directly from the OT then added a phrase that appears to summarize the intent of multiple passages. In 5:21 he did this (You shall not murder, but whoever murders is liable to the judgment), and kind of in 5:33 (do not swear, but fulfill your oath to the Lord).
Here in 5:43, Jesus quoted Leviticus 19:18, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” then summarized the common understanding of passages like Deuteronomy 7:2 or 23:3-6 or so much in Joshua through Kings with “hate your enemy.”
Jesus set out the common contrast between neighbor and enemy and the normal activity of loving one and hating the other.
This is the way the world worked then and how it works now.
2. But I say to you …
What Jesus did not do in his counter-statement was discount the first part!
He absolutely affirmed over and over again to his listeners to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We are to love our neighbors (and the Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 explores the very definition of “neighbor”).
Jesus did however discount the second part fully.
Instead of hating your enemy (actual or perceived), Jesus said “Love your enemies.”
He went further and showed how to love: “and pray for those who persecute you.”
In two phrases, Jesus turned the history of human relationships on its head.
Revenge, retribution, bitterness, jealousy, enmity, deceit, insidious plotting—and the list goes on—is the way of the world and has been since Cain and Abel. There are certainly contrary examples in the Old Testament (Abraham with Lot, Jacob and Esau meeting after many years, Joseph forgiving his brothers, David with Saul in the cave), but the ordinary contrast was friend or foe.
Love the friend, hate the foe.
Nothing has changed among the unredeemed of the world—especially evident in politics and unfortunately religion.
But Jesus told his listeners (and us) to do the opposite.
Doesn’t that leave us vulnerable to evil?
Yes it does.
But for a reason, a world-changing reason.
Earlier, Jesus said, “Blessed are you when men persecute you and revile you for my sake.” Then he said “turn the other cheek … give him your cloak also … go another mile.”
Allow your opponent to do this to you.
Why?
By loving your enemies and praying for them (God’s game), as opposed to the normal responses of the world (the world’s game), a person forces the opponent to squarely take responsibility for his or her own actions.
To respond to whatever hateful actions an opponent may mete out is to play right into their hands, to actually imitate them in our response—and they can then reciprocate the blame.
Kids do it all the time: It’s his fault! No, it’s his fault, look what he did! But he hit me back harder!
A circle of blame results in increasing violence unless stopped by a stronger authority—who may be using undue force also.
Jesus knew the entire history of humanity and the human condition starting with Adam blaming Eve and Cain blaming Abel. That blame game continues to this very day (see the beginning of this post).
By not responding with blame, but with love, not with curses but with prayer, Jesus implored his followers to break the blame cycle. That might result in persecution or even death, but the outcome would be preferable to the vicious cycle.
At its ideal would be recognition from the enemy that there is no reason for conflict.
And even more ideal is reconciliation between the estranged parties.
Without one side laying down their arms, that will never happen.
Can the opposite happen? Yes: the civil rights movement (and Ghandi before that) certainly showed that non-violence can lead to change.
The rarity of resolve needed to act out Jesus’s words speaks of the radical nature of those words (to Jesus followers) and to the world of their sheer lunacy.
But the lunacy of these words to the world is no reason to reject them: Jesus spoke them as words from God to a broken world that needed a different way.
2a. So that you might be …
What is the outcome of loving your enemy?
You become children of God.
When Jesus used the word for “so that (Greek: opōs)” he expressed the purpose of loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you: “so you might be sons of your Father in the heavens.”
In his letters Paul called this “sonship.” We are adopted into the family of God.
There is an issue though.
Is love for enemies and prayer for our persecutors a prerequisite for sonship?
Yes and no.
If we refuse to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors, we indicate that God has not transformed us into his children.
If we do love our enemies and pray for them, we show that we are already transformed. Without God’s Spirit and presence, we have no capacity to fulfill Jesus’s command to love and pray.
I admit that the transformed life is a mystery—the question of free will and the call of God remains. That question is not at issue here, only the outcome: “sonship.” That status as a child of God is conferred by God and confirmed by our response.
Jesus could have stopped right here. What he said in the final verse, “Therefore you will be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect,” is simply the outcome of being sons of your heavenly Father.
2b. Because …
But Jesus went on to give his reason for the command with a “because (Gr. hoti)” clause.
And what a reason it is: “Because he [your heavenly Father] causes the sun to rise upon wicked people and good people and causes rain upon righteous people and unrighteous people.”
Everyone exists together on the earth that God created.
We exist under God’s grace and care no matter who we are, no matter how good or evil we are, no matter how just or unjust we are.
If God treats everyone equally, so should we.
This statement of Jesus echoes the Old Testament: God shows no preference (Deuteronomy 10:17, 2 Chronicles 19:7)!
And neither should we (Leviticus 19:15; Proverbs 18:5).
That makes our enemy our neighbor, our brother, our sister.
Later in the Sermon when Jesus gave the “golden rule” he implied the same: “Whatever you would have people do for you, do for them also” (Matthew 7:12). And multiple times Jesus quoted “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
God sees all people the same and so should we.
Therefore love all and pray for all.
2c. For if …
This act of loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us is not normal.
Jesus posed a series of questions to make this point
It is normal to love and pray for family and friend, but not enemies.
Doing what is normal leads to no reward at all (in this case “sonship”).
The abnormal is what Jesus called for: Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors.
Once again Jesus contrasted the world’s game (in this case take care of your own and despise everyone else—the other is your enemy) with God’s game (see all people from God’s perspective—he created and loves each and every person).
In perceiving every person from this perspective we learn to love all people as God loves them, not according to our sin-filled proclivity to judge and differentiate.
3. Therefore …
Jesus ended this section with a statement not a command: “Thus you will be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
It is a promise rather than a command.
If it were a command, this would be the only case in the entire Bible where a future tense is used as a command after “therefore (or thus)”—all other times (almost 300) the normal form for a command is used (the imperative mood).
At the end of his speech, Jesus affirmed the status of those who love their enemies and pray for their persecutors: they are already sons of the Father, they also will be perfect by acting out God’s love for all humans, no matter their sin.
The result of love is divine perfection.
Jesus our model
With this said, we are still faced with the stark reality that none of us loves our enemies (or our neighbors) as God does with no partiality. We are not perfect lovers.
Only Jesus is.
The only human to ever love everyone as God loves them, no matter how evil, wicked, unjust, or otherwise (as we all are to some degree) was Jesus.
He loved by speaking absolute truth to everyone in his life.
He loved by allowing evil people to crush him and place him on a cross.
He loved by forgiving those same people (and us) on that cross.
He loved by showing God’s power to redeem in the resurrection.
He continues loving by offering a radically different way of living that leads to eternal life (exemplified in the Beatitudes and the Antitheses—God’s game of life).
He continues loving by empowering us to live the life he lived by trust in him.
My perfection is only found in Jesus as I repent daily, as I forgive daily, as I seek to love daily with truth and compassion through Jesus’ name and power.
Apart from him I can do nothing.
Notes on the Greek Text
ἔσεσθε οὖν ὑμεῖς τέλειοι ὡς ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ οὐράνιος τέλειός ἐστιν (Matthew 5:48).
Why do the translations make this verse a command: “Therefore be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”?
Technically the future tense in Greek can be translated as a command.
The Ten Commandments do exactly that: You shall not … and in the very command in Matt 5:43 “You shall love your neighbor.”
The Greek grammars call this use the “imperatival future” or the future tense used as a formal command.
In Matthew and the rest of the New Testament this use is extremely rare except when quoting from the Greek OT, primarily the Ten Commandments, or mimicking OT Greek. Matthew 1:21 has the imperatival future “You shall call his name Jesus,” but Matthew himself is using the language of the Greek OT (Genesis 16:11; 17:9; most importantly Isaiah 7:14). Actual quotations from the Greek OT with imperatival future occur in Matthew 4:7; 4:10; 5:21; 5:27; 5:43; 19:18, 19; 22:37, 39.
One more departure is Matthew 5:33: “You shall not swear … you shall repay” which mimics OT commands (“You have heard it was said from old …”).
Otherwise, positive commands use the imperative mood in Matthew. Especially when a command follows “Therefore (Greek oun).”
As I said previously, if v. 48 were a command, this would be the only case in the entire Bible where a future tense is used as a command after οὖν “therefore (or thus)”—all other times (almost 300) the normal form for a command is used (the imperative mood).
Again: If this were an imperatival future following οὖν then it would be the only instance in the Greek Old Testament or New Testament.
Instead, we need to take the future indicative at face value: “You will be perfect” is a promissory statement for those to love their enemies.
1 John 4 :)