Jesus’ Jewish Command to Love

Articles 2 Comments

Jesus' command to "love your enemies" was revolutionary! No one before him dared to raise such a high standard for the life of faith.

Revised:  20-Oct-2013

Jesus’ command to “love your enemies” was revolutionary! No one before him dared to raise such a high standard for the life of faith. Yet, few Christians today realize that Jesus’ ethical charge was a breathtaking culmination of contemporary Jewish thinking. In the difficult days of Roman occupation, the Jewish people found it hard to see evidence of the Old Testament notion that the righteous are rewarded and the wicked are punished.

Instead, the idea gradually took hold that what appeared at first glance like failure on the part of God to act justly, might in fact be a sign of his unfathomable mercy—extended to the undeserving. Or as we hear in the conclusion of one of Jesus’ parables, “Would you deny my generosity? So the last will be first, and the first last” (Matt. 20:15-16). In life it is not always easy to distinguish neatly between the deserving and the undeserving. All are equal and stand as recipients of God’s mercy. As we will see later, the ethical considerations that were drawn from this recognition that “God sends rain upon the just and the unjust” (Matt. 5:45) set the stage for Jesus’ bold challenge to love your enemy. Yet, not everyone in those difficult days saw the events as signs of God’s mercy.

Paid Content
Premium Members and Friends of JP must be logged in to access this content:

If you do not have a paid subscription, please consider registering as a Premium Member starting at $10/month (paid monthly) or only $5/month (paid annually): Register

One Time Purchase Rather Than Membership
Rather than purchasing a membership subscription, you may purchase access to this single page for $1.99 USD. To purchase access we strongly encourage users to first register for a free account with JP (
Register), which will make the process of accessing your purchase much simpler. Once you have registered you may login and purchase access to this page at this link:

Login & Purchase


Comments 2

  1. Jesus here is also elaborating on a wisdom teaching: “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink” (Proverbs 25.21, NIV). This implies a radical disregard for earthly circumstances. This fleshes out the commandment to the church in Smyrna: “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.” I mean, if you give refreshment to your enemies, they may turn around and destroy you. Or they may be won over by your beneficent actions toward them. But these considerations are not foremost for those who follow God’s commands and hold to the testimony of Jesus. They are faithful, even if death may result.

  2. I struggle with some of the implications of this verse (Mt 5.44 Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you). If we take a few hypothetical examples and see how someone in these circumstances should apply this verse.

    1) A Christian in Iraq whose community has just been threatened by ISIS. Apart from escaping, is he/she to pray for ISIS? And if so, what exactly do they pray for? Their salvation?

    2) A Christian in the West hearing about the atrocities committed by ISIS – is he/she to pray for ISIS (those who persecute you) and again, pray for what? Are we to ‘love’ them? The pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury have issued a call for military action against ISIS – how does that fit into this command, and are they actually breaking this command?

    If we take this command to its natural conclusion, there would be no circumstance in which a Christian should take up arms against anyone, no matter how brutal and atrocious their actions; instead we are to pray. That doesn’t sound right to me .

Leave a Reply

  • R. Steven Notley

    R. Steven Notley

    R. Steven Notley is Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the New York City campus of Nyack College. A member and past director of the Jerusalem School of Synoptic Research, Notley earned his Ph.D. in Comparative Religions at the Hebrew University (1993).…
    [Read more about author]

  • JP Content

  • Suggested Reading

  • Hospitality Heritage of the ChurchPetros Petra WordplayHistorical Jesus a Tanna FIDeliver Us From Evil6 Stone Water JarsEnemies of the HarvestWere Women Segregated?Luke 9-51-56—A Hebrew FragmentUnlocking the Synoptic ProblemNew Portrait of SalomeInsulting God's High PriestLoving BothMedieval JargonBeating the (Thorny) Bushes title 2Gergesa, Gerasa, or GadaraPG‘Everything Written…in the Psalms About Me’ (Luke 24-44)And OR In Order To RemarryAnti-Jewish TendenciesScribal ErrorsAllegro to ZeitlinTwena With All Due RespectTorah in the Sermon on the MountBethsaida 002Flusser Times of the GentilesIf Your Eye Be Single cover imageIntro to SynopticStewards of God's KeysBy the Finger of GodPower of ParablesTrees of LifeBest Long-TermFlusser Parables of Ill ReputeNew International JesusReich Design and MaintenanceSafrai Synagogue CenturionNun GergesaSabbath BreakersNeot KedumimWealth of Herod the GreatGood Morning, ElijahMiraculous CatchSalted With FireJewish Laws of Purity in Jesus' DayMidrash in the New TestamentAesop's Fables and the Parables of the SagesJesus’ Temptation and Its Jewish BackgroundOstracon From Qumran FlusserOrigins of Jesus' Dominical TitleDid Jesus Make Food Clean?Evidence of Pro-Roman Leanings in the Gospel of MatthewA Body, Vultures & SoMBinding and Loosingספר פתרון תורהPilgrimage in the Time of Jesus cover