Love Your Enemies
Even the Tax Collectors Love Those Who Love Them
Matthew 5:38–48Jesus is sitting on a hillside with His disciples gathered close around Him. A crowd has followed them up the slope, and everyone is quiet, leaning in to hear what He will say. Jesus has already said surprising things today — but what comes next surprises them most of all.
'You have heard it said,' Jesus begins, His voice steady and clear, 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' Everyone knows this rule. If someone hurts you, you get to hurt them back the same amount. That seems fair, doesn't it? But Jesus says something new — something that could only come from God.
'Do not resist an evil person,' He tells them. 'If someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other cheek to him also.' The people look at each other. Turn the other cheek? Let someone be unkind to you and not fight back?
Then Jesus goes even further. 'You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you and treat you badly.'
Love your enemies? The crowd is full of people who live under the rule of Roman soldiers. Some of those soldiers are rough and unkind. How could anyone love a person like that?
Jesus explains why. 'If you love only the people who love you back, what reward is there in that? Even the tax collectors do that.' Everyone knows tax collectors. They work for Rome and often take more money than they should. Even they love their friends. But God is calling His people to something much higher than that.
'You must be perfect,' Jesus says, 'just as your heavenly Father is perfect.' God does not only send rain and sunshine to people who obey Him. He sends good gifts to everyone — even people who turn away from Him. That is grace — a gift that nobody earns and nobody deserves.
This is the way God has always loved His people inside the covenant — not because they were the best or the strongest, but because He chose to love them freely. Now Jesus is showing the crowds what that love looks like when it walks around in human skin.
Love that only loves back is easy. But love that reaches toward enemies, prays for people who are unkind, and gives without keeping score — that kind of love comes from God alone. And Jesus is not just teaching it. He is the One who will live it out completely, all the way to a cross.
Christ in This Story
Jesus is not just teaching a new rule — He is describing the love He Himself will show. When His enemies arrest Him, mock Him, and crucify Him, Jesus prays, 'Father, forgive them' (Luke 23:34), fulfilling every word He speaks on this hillside. His perfect, enemy-loving obedience is exactly what the covenant required, and what we could never provide for ourselves. Jesus earns the righteousness God demands and then freely gives it to His people through grace — the same boundless grace He describes when He speaks of a Father who sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.
Historical Context
The phrase 'an eye for an eye' (lex talionis) comes from the Mosaic Law (Exodus 21:24) and was actually a limit on vengeance — courts could not punish more than the crime deserved. By Jesus's day, many Jewish teachers had turned it into personal permission for retaliation. Jesus is not abolishing the Law but fulfilling and deepening it, pointing to the heart behind the command. Roman soldiers had the legal right to compel Jewish civilians to carry their equipment for one mile (a practice called 'impressment' or angareia). When Jesus says to go two miles, He is telling listeners to go beyond what is legally forced — a stunning act of freedom in an occupied land.
Tax collectors (Greek: telōnai) in first-century Judea were Jewish men who collected tolls and taxes on behalf of Rome. Because they often overcharged and profited from their own people's misery, they were deeply despised and considered social and religious outcasts. Jesus choosing them as the comparison point — 'even tax collectors love those who love them' — would have landed with sharp irony on His audience, and it underscores that the standard He is setting goes far above ordinary human affection.
Let's Pray
Heavenly Father, thank You for loving us even when we turned away from You. Help us to love others the way You love us — not just our friends, but everyone. Thank You that Jesus showed us what that love really looks like. Amen.