“But love your enemies, do good to them,
and lend, expecting nothing in return.”
“But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who insult you. To the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from the one who takes away your outer cloak, do not withhold your inner garment either. Give to everyone who asks you, and from the one who takes what is yours, do not demand it back. And just as you want people to treat you, treat them in the same way. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good only to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked” (Luke 6:27–35).
While meditating on these words, I seek to receive the lessons they give:
(1) When I read Luke 6:27–35, I became curious as to why verse 27 begins with the conjunction “But.” So, as I read the verses preceding verse 27, I discovered some interesting points:
(a) From verses 20 to 22, Luke, the author of the Gospel of Luke, uses four statements that begin with “Blessed are …” [the Greek word “Μακάριοι” (makarioi)] [a term that refers to a state of being under God’s gracious favor—that is, joy that arises not from external circumstances but from one’s relationship with God (Internet)]: (1) “Blessed are you who are poor …” (v. 20), (2) “Blessed are you who hunger now …” (v. 21), (3) “Blessed are you who weep now …” (v. 21), (4) “Blessed are you when people hate you because of the Son of Man …” (v. 22).
(i) After this, Luke records four statements that begin with “Woe to …” [the Greek “Οὐαὶ” (ouai)] [a Greek interjection that commonly means “woe,” “alas,” or “ah,” expressing deep sorrow, lament, curse, or warning. In the New Testament, Jesus frequently uses this word when pronouncing divine judgment or calamity, especially toward the Pharisees (internet)]: (1) “Woe to you who are rich …” (v. 24), (2) “Woe to you who are well fed now …” (v. 25), (3) “Woe to you who laugh now …” (v. 25), (4) “Woe to you when all people speak well of you …” (v. 26).
· In this context, before delivering the first “Woe to …” statement (v. 24), Luke uses the conjunction “But” [Greek “Πλὴν” (plēn)] to introduce words that stand in contrast to the preceding “Blessed are …” statements (vv. 20–23), thus beginning the opposing “Woe to …” section (vv. 24–26).
- Then Luke begins today’s passage, Luke 6:27, with “But” again. However, this “But” [Greek “Ἀλλὰ” (alla)] is a different Greek word from the “But” [“Πλὴν” (plēn)] used in verse 24. Why did Luke use two different Greek words for “but” in these passages?
n The conjunction “But” [“Πλὴν” (plēn)] used in verse 24 functions adverbially at the beginning of a sentence, serving to limit, develop, or expand the preceding content. In the context of Luke 6:24, it may be translated as “moreover,” “furthermore,” “and yet,” “however,” or “nevertheless” (Internet). An interesting point is that this same conjunction appears in the Greek text of verse 35, but it does not appear in the Korean Modern Bible. Instead, the Modern Korean Living Bible correctly translates it as “But you are to love your enemies …” [A similar case appears in Matthew 11:22 and 24, where the Revised Korean Version omits the conjunction “but,” while the Korean Modern Bible correctly includes it].
n The conjunction “But” [“Ἀλλὰ” (alla)] used in verse 27 contrasts with what precedes it (worldly customs and superficial applications of the Law) and serves as a transition that emphasizes Jesus’ new teaching—namely, the core message, “Love your enemies.” This conjunction goes beyond a simple “however”; it introduces a command that overturns existing value systems. It carries the force of a strong exhortation, urging the hearers not to follow the ways of the world but to accept the new ethic of the Kingdom of God (Internet).
(2) When I read Luke 6:27–35, as I compared it with what Jesus had already said in verses 20–26, I came to notice and meditate on four statements of Jesus that He repeatedly made:
(a) First, the statement “because of the Son of Man people will hate you …” (v. 22)and the statement “do good to those who hate you” (v. 27).
(i) In verse 22, Jesus says that if people hate us, who are His disciples, “because of Me (Jesus)” [thanks to(?)] then we are blessed. We, who are blessed because we believe this blessed word of Jesus, obey His word in verse 27 where He commands us to “do good to those who hate you.”
· Here, the Greek word for “do good” is καλῶς (kalōs), which means to do good, to confer benefit on someone (Ref.: Internet). This word is also used in Matthew 12:11: “People are more valuable than sheep. Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath” (Korean Modern Bible).
- As I meditated on this word, I was reminded of David, who did good to King Saul, who hated him and persistently sought to kill him. This is found in 1 Samuel 24:17: “You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me with good, whereas I have repaid you with evil.” These were words spoken by King Saul to David. Although God had delivered Saul into David’s hand, David did not kill him (v. 18). Knowing this, Saul raised his voice and wept before David (v. 16) and spoke these words. Clearly, Saul was seeking David’s life to destroy it (v. 11), yet David spared Saul’s life and did not raise his hand against him (v. 10). Therefore, Saul said to David, “I have treated you badly, but you have treated me well; you are more righteous than I” (v. 17). Then Saul said to David, “May the LORD reward you with good for what you have done for me today” (v. 19). How was David able to do good to King Saul, who was trying to take his life?
n The reason David was able to do good to Saul, who was trying to kill him, was that David had tasted the goodness of God (Ps. 34:8; cf. Gen. 50:20). David tasted God’s goodness when he defeated Goliath, the Philistine commander, and he also tasted God’s goodness even when King Saul envied him and tried to kill him. David tasted God’s salvation from his enemy and from the hand of Saul, who hated him [μισέω (miseō): “to hate, to detest,” a verb expressing hostility toward an enemy or adversary. In Scripture, it is used of the wicked who oppose God, enemies, and those who persecute us (Internet)] (cf. Luke 1:71). Therefore, although Saul mistreated him, David was able to do good to him.
(ii) We also must imitate David [and Joseph as well (Gen. 50:20)] and, by tasting the goodness of God, do good to those who hate us because of Jesus.
· Truly, if we believe that God is good (Ps. 34:8), that God’s will toward us is good (Rom. 12:2), and that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28), then by tasting the goodness of God (Ps. 34:8), we must also do good even to those who hate us (Lk. 6:27).
- If we do good only to those who love us and do not do good to those who hate us, then we are not obeying Jesus’ word. That is why Jesus says in Luke 6:33: “If you do good only to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same.”
(b) Second, the statement “because of Me people will … insult you …” (Lk. 6:22) and the statement “pray for those who insult you” (v. 28).
(i) I would like to share again a portion of a short meditation I wrote centered on the word “insult” in Luke 6:22: “… As I meditated on this truth, I first came to think that we Christians must obey God even to the point of death, just as Jesus did, and that when we obey God’s word, we may certainly be insulted by those who disobey. In other words, those who obey the Lord may be insulted by those who disobey Him. And I believe this is something entirely natural and expected for those who obey God’s word. Yet in reality, when we are insulted not only by unbelievers of the world but even by brothers and sisters in the Lord while obeying God’s word, we do not regard it as natural, nor are we accustomed to such insults. What we are accustomed to is being insulted by both the world and fellow believers because we disobey God’s word. Because we have so often broken God’s word and committed sin, being insulted by the world has become something quite natural, and even being insulted by fellow Christians has become familiar. Being insulted for doing such things is truly shameful and something that calls for repentance. However, being insulted while doing nothing worthy of insult and instead living in obedience to God’s word can actually be evidence that we are obeying God’s word. I think this way because when Jesus obeyed God the Father’s will even to the point of being nailed to the cross, He was insulted not only by passersby but even by the criminals who were crucified with Him (vv. 39, 44).”
· I was reminded once again of Jesus being insulted on the cross: “Those who passed by hurled insults at Him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself and come down from the cross!’ In the same way the chief priests and the scribes mocked Him among themselves and said, ‘He saved others, but He cannot save Himself! Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe!’ Those who were crucified with Him also reviled Him” (Mk. 15:29–32). From this passage we see that three groups of people insulted, mocked, and reviled Jesus on the cross: (1) those who passed by (v. 39), (2) the chief priests and the scribes (v. 31), and (3) those who were crucified with Him (v. 32).
- The passersby insulted Jesus nonverbally by “shaking their heads,” and verbally by saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself and come down from the cross” (vv. 29–30). Shaking the head was a symbolic Jewish gesture expressing extreme contempt and mockery (Ps. 109:25; Lam. 2:15) (Hochma). In addition, the criminal who reviled Jesus said, “Are You not the Christ?” (Lk. 23:39), showing that as a Jew he insulted Jesus in a religious sense (Hochma).
n Jesus, who was insulted in this way on the cross, prayed to God the Father: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk. 23:34).
# This same Jesus says to us, His disciples, in Luke 6:28: “… pray for those who insult you.”
(c) Third, the statement “Woe to you when all people speak well of you” (Lk. 6:26), and the statements “If you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you? … If you do good only to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? … If you lend to people expecting to receive back, what credit is that to you?” (vv. 32, 33, 34).
(i) After meditating on Luke 6:26, I had already written and shared in various places a devotional reflection under the title “Woe to False Pastors Addicted to Praise!”
· In that meditation, I wrote the following: “Brothers and sisters, rather than liking to be praised by people, we should like to be praised by the Lord. One day, all of us will stand before the Lord to give an account, and at that time, should we not receive the praise, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant’ (Mt. 18:23–24; 25:14–30)? In order to do so, what should we do, and how should we live? We must become faithful and wise servants (Mt. 24:45).”
- A faithful and wise servant knows that it is far better to have one’s heart humbled by God’s rebuke through His word than to become proud through praise and recognition from people. Therefore, he (or she) longs more for a single word of loving correction spoken by one person than for ten thousand insincere words of praise from others.
n For this reason, he (or she) humbly receives the warning Jesus gives in Luke 6:26 and does not pursue the praise of people.
(ii) In today’s passage, Luke 6:32, 33, and 34, Jesus uses the word “credit” (or “praise”) three times, saying: “If you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you? … If you do good only to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? … If you lend to people expecting to receive back, what credit is that to you?” Before saying these things, Jesus first said: “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you” (v. 31).
· As we well know, the saying “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you” (v. 31) is known as the Golden Rule. It means that one should first extend to others the respect, love, and help that one wishes to receive. This is a core ethical principle of Scripture, and it is Jesus’ teaching that emphasizes “love that gives first” and a “reversal of relationships” that goes beyond the world’s common sense of reciprocity. It does not merely mean imitating actions, but rather thinking from the other person’s perspective, empathizing, and extending love and understanding even at personal cost (Internet).
- Here, I learned for the first time that the idea of thinking from another person’s perspective is expressed in the Sino-Korean idiom “yeokji-saji (易地思之).” This idiom means “to change places and think from another person’s position,” emphasizing empathy and consideration of another’s circumstances. It originates from Mencius’ phrase “If one changes places, everyone would act the same way” (易地則皆然), conveying the idea that if we were in another’s position, we would likely act as they do (Internet).
n Although the world we live in operates on the principle of returning what one has received, this teaching of yeokji-saji demands a relational reversal in which one must give first. In other words, instead of waiting to receive what we desire, we must first give love, respect, patience, and help to others (Internet).
· Jesus’ teaching is clear: If we love only those who love us, we cannot receive credit. If we do good only to those who do good to us, we cannot receive credit. If we lend to people expecting to receive something back, we cannot receive credit. This is the first half of Luke 6:35: “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.”
- While meditating on Jesus’ command “love” (v. 32), I also reflected on Matthew 5:46–47 (Korean Modern Bible): “If you love only those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even unbelievers do that?”
n Jesus tells us that we must practice complete love—not only loving those who love us, but also loving even our enemies who hate us (Lk. 6:27), curse and insult us (v. 28), and even strike us on the cheek (v. 29) (vv. 27, 35) (Ref.: Internet).
- While meditating on Jesus’ command “do good” (v. 33), I revisited a short devotional reflection I wrote on February 9, 2023, titled “Without God’s Grace, We Cannot Do Good to the Wicked.” It reads: “David said to King Saul the old proverb, ‘Wickedness comes from the wicked,’ and Saul said to David, ‘You are better than I, for you repaid me good for evil’ (1 Sam. 24:13, 17). From this, it seems that Saul acknowledged that he himself was a wicked man. Seeing that David did good to such a wicked person teaches us, in accordance with Jesus’ words, that we must love our enemies and do good to those who hate us (Lk. 6:27). Jesus says, ‘If you do good only to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same’ (v. 33).”
n I also reread a short devotional reflection written on April 11, 2021, titled “David Who Did Good, and His Young Men.” It reads: “David did good to King Saul, who mistreated him (1 Sam. 24:17), and David’s young men (25:12) did great good to the servants of Nabal, a foolish man (v. 25) and a worthless man (v. 17), who had insulted them (v. 14) (v. 15). Only those who have tasted the goodness of God (Ps. 34:8), who turns mistreatment and insult into good (Gen. 50:20) and causes all things to work together for good (Rom. 8:28), can do good even to those who mistreat and insult them.”
# These are the words of Jesus: “But love your enemies, and do good …” (Luke 6:35)
- While meditating on Jesus’ words “lend without expecting anything back” (v. 34), I was led to reflect on Luke 6:30: “Give to everyone who asks you, and from the one who takes what is yours, do not demand it back.”
n This passage calls us to live a life of generous sharing, and when connected with Luke 6:29—“to the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from the one who takes your cloak, do not withhold your tunic”—it means that we are to give generously, without holding back, and be willing to accept loss (Internet).
# When I read the phrase “be willing to accept loss,” I was reminded of Boaz in the book of Ruth. The reason is this: although there was a redeemer who was closer than Boaz (Ruth 3:12), when that man saw the field belonging to his brother Elimelech (v. 3) and said, “I will redeem it” (v. 4), once he learned that he would have to buy it from Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the deceased, in order to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance (v. 5), he feared “damage to his own inheritance” [What would that loss be? Imagine it. How could a redeemer marry a Moabite woman, a foreigner and not a Jewish woman, and live in the land of Judah? This would clearly violate the Law of Moses. If he were to break the Law and marry a foreign Moabite woman and live in the land of Judah, how great would that loss be to him? Moreover, marrying a foreign widow and living in Judah—how much loss would that be? And when considering that he would bear not a child of pure Jewish blood but a mixed-blood child, he judged that it would indeed be a loss to himself. Therefore, he gave up his right of redemption]. Thus, he said that he could not redeem it for himself (v. 6). In contrast, Boaz, seeing that Ruth was “a woman of noble character” (vv. 11, 13), said that he would fulfill the responsibility of the redeemer for her [Unlike the closer relative, Boaz did not consider redeeming the inheritance and marrying Ruth the Moabite to be a loss. Why did he think this way? In short, it was because Boaz knew that Ruth was “a woman of excellence” (3:11). He knew clearly all that Ruth had done for her mother-in-law after her husband’s death—especially her obedience to her (2:22–23; 3:4–5)—and how she had left her homeland of Moab and come to a people she had not known before (2:11). Furthermore, he knew that Ruth had come to seek refuge under the wings of the LORD, the God of Israel (v. 12). Rather than seeing with physical eyes that Ruth was a foreign woman and not a Jewish woman, Boaz saw with spiritual eyes her faith: that she had chosen Naomi’s God (1:16) and had come under His wings for protection (2:12). Having experienced that Ruth’s kindness toward him was greater in the end than at the beginning (3:10), he chose Ruth. In the end, Boaz chose Ruth—whom the closer redeemer did not choose—married her, and she gave birth to Obed, the grandfather of David. Obed became the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of David, and through the lineage of David came Jesus Christ. What an astonishing blessing this is!]
& These are the words of Jesus: “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return …” (Lk. 6:35).
(d) Finally, fourth, the statement “Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven” (Lk. 6:23), and the statement “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; then your reward will be great” (v. 35).
(i) Jesus’ words are clear: “… your reward will be great in heaven” (vv. 23, 35).
· When people hate us because of Jesus—when they distance themselves from us, exclude us (ostracize us), insult us (mock and humiliate us), call us “evil” or “wrong,” criticize us, despise us, and reject us (cf. internet) (v. 22)—the reason we can rejoice and be glad is that Jesus has clearly told us as well, “your reward is great in heaven” (v. 23).
· Moreover, when we obey Jesus’ words by loving our enemies, doing good to them, and lending without expecting anything in return, Jesus says that “your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High” (v. 35). Here, “the Most High” God is a God who is kind even to the ungrateful and the wicked (v. 35).
- In the same way, believing in this God who is kind to wicked people who do not know grace, we too must imitate Jesus, the Son of God, by loving our enemies, doing good to them, and lending without expecting anything in return. When we do so, our reward will be great, and we will be sons of the Most High God (v. 35).
n Then what is the “great reward” spoken of here? In other words, after obeying Jesus’ words and going to the kingdom of heaven, what is the great reward we will receive from the Lord? Based on Genesis 15:1—“… I am … your very great reward”—the great reward we will receive in heaven is God Himself; that is, an intimate relationship (fellowship) with God is the greatest reward. In addition, becoming children of God is itself a great reward. Romans 8:17 says: “And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.” Entering the kingdom of God and enjoying the glory and joy granted to us as God’s people is a great reward (Ref.: Internet).
# Present suffering cannot be compared with future glory! I would like to conclude this meditation by sharing a portion of a writing I composed on July 10, 2024, under the title “Suffering and the Glory That Will Be Revealed to Us (Romans 8:18)”: “The exceedingly great and eternal glory that will be revealed to us—one that cannot be compared with our present suffering (Rom. 8:18; 2 Cor. 4:17)—is precisely the redemption of our bodies. Romans 8:23 says: ‘Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.’ On the day Jesus returns to this earth, on the day the final trumpet sounds (1 Cor. 15:52), our perishable bodies will surely be raised imperishable and transformed (v. 52). Our bodies will be transformed to be like the glorious body of Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:21). Beyond this, the glory of the age to come includes enjoying eternal life in heaven, seeing the Lord face to face (1 Cor. 13:12; Rev. 22:4), and reigning together with Christ (Rev. 22:5). We will live lives that shine forever (v. 5). Therefore, with the assurance of the glory that will be revealed to us, we must patiently endure suffering and quietly carry out the mission entrusted to us.”