One-Pager: Luke 6:27-38
Love Your Enemies
As part of my spiritual practice, I try to write preliminary exegesis on one or more of the lectionary texts each week. I will periodically post them here if anyone finds some of them interesting. Please feel free to use them as you’d like, but be aware that these thoughts are usually preliminary.
Grace and Peace,
Johnie, the Bad Pastor
Introduction: This pericope is part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:20-49), which offers a radical reinterpretation of relationships and ethics: love our enemies. As with the rest of the Beatitudes, the command to "love your enemies" (Luke 6:27) is simple but challenging.
Literary Context: Sunday’s text parallels Matthew's Sermon on the Mount with greater detail, slightly different content, and a greater emphasis concrete acts of love over prayer and intent:
Love for enemies, pray for them, and do good to them (vv27-31) vs. love and pray (Matt 5:44)
Go beyond reciprocity; give to whoever asks (vv 31-35) vs. greeting enemies (Matt 5:46-47)
Imitating God's mercy (verses 35-36) vs. imitating God’s heavenly perfection (Matt5:48)
Refraining from judging others (vv 37-38) vs. practicing righteousness in private (Matt 6:1-4)
Historical and Cultural Context: Luke 6:27-38 is rooted in first-century Roman-occupied Palestine. Jesus' teachings in this passage challenged prevailing attitudes and practices of his time:
Jesus' command to "love your enemies" would have been particularly challenging to Jews living under occupation, particularly in the Honor/Shame cultures prevalent at the time.
Jesus' teachings on non-violence and loving enemies contrasted sharply with the anticipated militant Messiah who would overthrow Roman rule.
Jesus' instructions about giving to those who beg and not demanding back what was taken ignored the extreme economic and social inequality of the times.
Jesus' teachings on turning the other cheek and blessing those who curse you were countercultural and against religious teachings in a society where honor was highly valued.
Translation and Language: “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,” (v27 ESV) is one of the most quoted scriptures by believers and others. Being so well known, it’s easy to gloss over. Some important points:
“But I say to you who listen…” vv17b-19 establishes that people were enthralled with what Jesus was saying: “a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.”
The people have been eager to hear him. The emphatic “to you who listen” suggests a crucial point. As Joel Green says in his commentary on Luke, it’s not too much of a stretch to assume Jesus means something like “listen up!” or even “hear and obey.”
Love (Ἀγαπᾶτε – agapao) your enemies (ἐχθροὺς – echthros). Literally. “Have unconditional affection for those who hate you.” Few concepts in scripture are more counterintuitive.
Structure and Composition: This passage uses parallelism, hyperbole, and aphorisms to convey Jesus' radical ethical teachings. The repetition of key phrases and contrasting examples emphasize the countercultural nature of Jesus' message.
Theological Significance: Jesus isn’t laying out hypotheticals but a different way of living. We will likely fall short, but we must strive for this level of love, giving, mercy, and non-judgmental.
Suggested Application: Jesus’ call to love our enemies and challenges us to extend mercy and kindness even to those who hate us, reflecting God's unconditional love to break cycles of ingrained hate.
Artwork: Love Your Enemies, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58810 [retrieved February 18, 2025]. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/boojee/2929823056/.