The Hard Sayings: Luke 6:27

But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

This article is part of a series explaining the sayings of Jesus that are hard to understand. This list was put together by the Lord's Library. To see the list an access earlier articles, go to this page.

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Jesus spoke this verse near the beginning of the “Sermon on the Plains” in Luke. This is a section of Luke which echoes some of the topics and catchphrases of Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. At the time, Jesus was teaching on a plain surrounded by a crowd from the entire region, many of whom were healed by touching him. This verse comes after a short series of three Beatitudes and three “Woe to You” verses. We discussed the first “woe to you” verse in this earlier article about Luke 6:24.

The verse before this one is not about love. It expressed sorrow to those who have others speak well of them. Luke 6:27 is a change of topic.

NIV: But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

The introductory “but” here is a mistranslation. It is not the common Greek word usually translated as “but.” Instead, it is another word that means “instead” or “except.” The problem is that we don’t know what is being excepted here. The previous verse is too unrelated. This is different than the similar verse in Matthew 5:44, (NIV: “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” see this article) where the previous verse was the Old Testament teaching regarding loving our neighbors.

Loving Enemies

The heart of both these verses is “love your enemies.” The Greek of this phrase is identical in both verses. The “I tell you” of that verse is also the same Greek as the “to you…I say” in this one. This verse has the phrase “who are listening” added. This seems like a friendly poke at his audience, which may not have been paying attention to his words.

I hesitate to call either this section of Luke or the earlier one in Matthew a "sermon.” The flow of these verses appears to indicate that Jesus was answering unrecorded questions and comments from the crowd that would shift the subject. Here, the shift is to love.

There are two different verbs always translated as "love" in the Gospels. The most common verb is the “love” Jesus uses as a command here. All its shades of meaning are more action-oriented than the other verb for “love.” When Jesus uses it, this “love” is almost always associated with an action that is a responsibility and sacrifice. The noun form means "love of a spouse" "love of God" and "charity.” Both loving God and a spouse have duties attached to them, certain specific responsibilities by which we show our love. The word “charity” means the duty of giving alms, giving to the poor, which was also a duty under Old Testament law. The sense of this verb is more “care for” which expresses the feeling, the action, and the responsibilities of the verb.

The word translated as "enemies" primarily means "hated," "hater," "hateful," and "hating." It is an adjective used as a noun. The use of this word is very specific in Greek literature. It describes one who was a friend, but who has been alienated and refuses to be reconciled. It is from a rare Greek verb meaning "hate," but it is not from the Greek word that Jesus commonly uses for “hate.” Jesus uses that word later in this verse. This adjective is usually translated as "enemy" in the KJV. From Jesus's point of view, however, "the enemies" seems to be those "hating" others.

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