Luke 6:35

35 No! Love your enemies and do good to them; lend and expect nothing back. You will then have a great reward, and you will be children of the Most High God. For he is good to the ungrateful and the wicked. ¹

Luke 6:35 Meaning and Commentary

Luke 6:35

But love ye your enemies
As before urged in ( Luke 6:27 )

and do good and lend;
not to your friends only, but to your enemies;

hoping for nothing again;
either principal or interest, despairing of seeing either; lending to such persons, from whom, in all appearance, it is never to be expected again. The Persic version renders it, "that ye may not cause any to despair": and the Syriac version, "that ye may not cut off", or "cause to cease the hope of men"; and the Arabic version, "that ye do not deceive the hope of any" that is, by sending such away, without lending to them, who come big with expectations of succeeding:

and your reward shall be great:
God will bless you in your worldly substance here, and will not forget your beneficence hereafter:

and ye shall be the children of the Highest:
that is of God; one of whose names is (Nwyle) "the Most High"; ( Psalms 82:6 ) the meaning is, that such who from principles of grace, and with right views do such acts of kindness and beneficence to their fellow creatures and Christians, shall be, made manifest, and declared to be the children of God; since they will appear to be born of him, and made partakers of the divine nature, and bear a resemblance to him, by their imitating him:

for he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil;
by causing his sun to rise, and his rain to fall on them, as on the righteous and the good; for as Jews ^F23 observe,

``there is no difference with him, whether on the right hand or the left; for he is gracious, and does good, even to the ungodly.''

And elsewhere they say ^F24, that

``he does good, and feeds the righteous and the ungodly.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 R. Abraham ben Dior in Sepher Jetzira, p. 19.
F24 Zohar in Exod. fol. 69. 2, 3.

Luke 6:35 In-Context

33 And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you receive a blessing? Even sinners do that!

34 And if you lend only to those from whom you hope to get it back, why should you receive a blessing? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount!

35 No! Love your enemies and do good to them; lend and expect nothing back. You will then have a great reward, and you will be children of the Most High God. For he is good to the ungrateful and the wicked.

36 Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.

37 "Do not judge others, and God will not judge you; do not condemn others, and God will not condemn you; forgive others, and God will forgive you.

Cross References

• 1. +26.35Ben Sira 4.10, 11.