Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 5:43-48

"Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy: but I say unto you, love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you; that ye may be sons of your Father who is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. For if ye love them that love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more [than others?] do not even the Gentiles the same? Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." — Matthew 5:43-48 (ASV)

Glossa Ordinaria: The Lord has taught above that we must not resist one who injures us, but must be ready even to suffer more. He now further requires us to show both love and its effects to those who wrong us. And just as the preceding teachings pertain to the completion of the righteousness of the Law, so this last precept must be understood in relation to the completion of the law of love, which, according to the Apostle, is the fulfillment of the Law. ¹

St. Augustine of Hippo: The Lord showed that the command, You shall love your neighbor, was intended for all mankind in the parable of the man who was left half dead. This parable teaches us that our neighbor is anyone who might need our acts of mercy. And who does not see that this mercy must be denied to no one, when the Lord says, Do good to them that hate you? ²

That there were degrees in the righteousness of the Pharisees under the old Law is seen in this: that many hated even those who loved them. Therefore, one who loves his neighbor has ascended one degree, even if he still hates his enemy. This is expressed in the saying, and you shall hate your enemy, which is not to be understood as a command for the justified, but as a concession to the weak. ³

I ask the Manichaeans why they consider this saying from of old—you shall hate your enemy—to be peculiar to the Mosaic Law. Has Paul not said of certain men that they were hateful to God? We must then inquire how we are to understand that our enemies are to be hated, following the example of God (to whom the Apostle affirms some men are hateful), and yet also loved, following the pattern of Him who makes His sun rise on the evil and the good. ⁴

Here, then, is the rule: we may at once hate our enemy for the evil that is in him (that is, his iniquity) and love him for the good that is in him (that is, his rational soul). When this saying from of old was heard but not understood, it hurried people into hating other people, when they should have hated nothing but vice. The Lord corrects such thinking as He proceeds, saying, I say to you, Love your enemies. The one who had just declared that He came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it, brought us to understand, by this command, how we can simultaneously hate the same person for his sins while loving him for his human nature.

Glossa Ordinaria: It should be known, however, that nowhere in the entire body of the Law is it written, You shall hate your enemy. Rather, this should be attributed to the tradition of the Scribes, who saw fit to add this to the Law because the Lord commanded the children of Israel to pursue their enemies and destroy Amalek from under heaven. ⁵

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Just as the command, You shall not lust, was not spoken to the flesh but to the spirit, so it is in this case. Indeed, the flesh is not able to love its enemy, but the spirit is able, for the love and hatred of the flesh are based on feeling, while those of the spirit are based on understanding. If, then, we feel hatred toward someone who has wronged us, yet choose not to act on that feeling, know that our flesh hates our enemy, but our soul loves him.

St. Gregory the Great: Love for an enemy is observed when we are not sorrowful at his success or joyful at his fall. We hate the one we do not wish to see improved, and we wish ill upon the prosperity of the man in whose fall we rejoice. Yet it may often happen that, without any sacrifice of charity, an enemy's fall might gladden us, and his exaltation might make us sorrowful, without any suspicion of envy. This occurs when, by his fall, a deserving person is raised up, or by his success, someone is undeservedly oppressed. ⁶

But in this, a strict measure of discernment must be observed, lest in pursuing our own hatreds, we hide them from ourselves under the specious pretext of another's benefit. We should balance how much we are moved by the fall of the sinner against how much we are moved by the justice of the Judge. For when the Almighty strikes a hardened sinner, we must at once magnify His justice as Judge and also feel for the suffering of the one who perishes.

Glossa Ordinaria: Those who stand against the Church oppose her in three ways: with hatred, with words, and with bodily tortures. The Church, on the other hand, loves them, as it is written here, Love your enemies; does good to them, as it says, Do good to them that hate you; and prays for them, as it says, Pray for them that persecute you and accuse you falsely. ⁷

St. Jerome: Many people, measuring God's commandments by their own weakness rather than by the strength of the saints, consider these commands impossible. They say that it is virtue enough not to hate our enemies, but that loving them is a command beyond what human nature can obey. It must be understood, however, that Christ does not command impossibilities, but perfection. Such was the disposition of David toward Saul and Absalom. The martyr Stephen also prayed for his enemies while they stoned him, and Paul wished himself to be anathema for the sake of his persecutors (Romans 9:3). Jesus both taught and did the same, saying, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34).

St. Augustine of Hippo: These are indeed examples of the perfect sons of God. Yet every believer should aim for this and seek, through prayer to God and struggles with himself, to raise his human spirit to this disposition. Still, this great blessing is not given to all the multitudes who we believe are heard when they pray, Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. ⁸

A question arises here: this commandment from the Lord, by which He bids us pray for our enemies, seems to be opposed by many other parts of Scripture. In the Prophets, many imprecations against enemies are found, such as the one in Psalm 109: Let his children be orphans (Psalm 109:9). It should be known, however, that the Prophets are accustomed to foretelling future events in the form of a prayer or wish. ⁹

A more significant difficulty is that John says, There is a sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that (1 John 5:16), plainly showing that there are some brothers for whom he does not bid us to pray. Yet the Lord bids us pray for our persecutors. This question can only be resolved if we admit that some sins committed by our brothers are more grievous than the sin of persecution committed by our enemies.

For example, Stephen prayed for those who stoned him because they had not yet believed in Christ. The Apostle Paul, however, does not pray for Alexander, even though he was a brother, because he had sinned by attacking the brotherhood out of jealousy (2 Timothy 4:14). But when you do not pray for someone, you are not thereby praying against him.

What, then, must we say about those against whom we know the saints have prayed—not for their correction (for that would be to pray for them), but for their eternal damnation? This is not like the Prophet's prayer against the Lord's betrayer, for that is a prophecy of the future, not a curse of punishment. Rather, it is like what we read in the Apocalypse: the martyrs' prayer that they may be avenged (Revelation 6:10).

But we ought not to let this trouble us. For who would dare to affirm that they prayed against those persons themselves, and not against the kingdom of sin? To overthrow that kingdom of sin, under whose continuance they endured all those evils, would be a just and merciful avenging of the martyrs. And it is overthrown by the correction of some and the damnation of those who persist in sin. Does it not seem to you that Paul avenged Stephen on his own body, when he says, I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection (1 Corinthians 9:27)?

Pseudo-Augustine: And the souls of those who are slain cry out to be avenged, just as Abel's blood cried out from the ground—not with a voice, but in spiritⁱ. This is like how a work is said to praise its maker when he delights in seeing it. For the saints are not so impatient as to urge on what they know will happen at the appointed time. ¹⁰

St. John Chrysostom: Note the steps by which we have now ascended here, and how He has set us on the very pinnacle of virtue. The first step is not to begin to wrong anyone. The second, when avenging a wrong done to us, is to be content with equal retaliation. The third is to return none of the harm we have suffered. The fourth is to offer oneself to the endurance of evil. The fifth is to be ready to suffer even more evil than the oppressor desires to inflict. The sixth is not to hate the one from whom we suffer such things. The seventh is to love him; the eighth, to do him good; the ninth, to pray for him. And because the command is great, the proposed reward is also great: namely, to be made like God, You will be the sons of your Father who is in heaven.

St. Jerome: For whoever keeps the commandments of God is thereby made a son of God. The one of whom He speaks here, then, is not His son by nature, but by his own will.

St. Augustine of Hippo: We must understand this according to the rule of which John speaks: He gave them power to become sons of God. One is His Son by nature; we are made sons by the power we have received—that is, insofar as we fulfill what we are commanded. So He does not say, "Do these things because you are sons," but, "Do these things that you may become sons." ¹¹

In calling us to this, then, He calls us to His likeness, for He says, He makes His sun rise on the righteous and the unrighteous. By the "sun" we may understand not this visible sun, but the one of which it is said, To you that fear the name of the Lord, the Sun of righteousness shall arise (Malachi 4:2). And by the "rain," we may understand the water of the doctrine of truth, for Christ was seen and was preached to the good as well as to the bad.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Or, the sun and rain refer to the baptism with water and the Spirit.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Or we may take it to mean this visible sun, and the rain by which the fruits are nourished, as the wicked mourn in the book of Wisdom, The Sun has not risen for us (Wisdom 5:6). And of the rain it is said, I will command the clouds that they rain not on it (Isaiah 5:6). But whether it means this or that, it is a matter of the great goodness of God, which is set forth for our imitation. He does not say "the sun," but "His sun"—that is, the sun which He Himself has made. From this, we may be admonished with what great liberality we ought to supply those things that we have not created, but have received as a gift from Him.

But as we praise Him for His gifts, let us also consider how He chastises those whom He loves. For not everyone who spares is a friend, nor is everyone who chastises an enemy. It is better to love with severity than to use leniency to deceiveⁱ. ¹²

Pseudo-Chrysostom: He was careful to say, "on the righteous and the unrighteous," for God gives all good gifts not for the sake of mankind, but for the sake of the saints, just as He gives chastisements for the sake of sinners. In bestowing His good gifts, He does not separate sinners from the righteous, so that sinners should not despair. Likewise, in His inflictions, He does not separate the righteous from sinners, so that the righteous should not become proud. This is all the more true since the wicked are not profited by the good things they receive but turn them to their own harm through their evil lives. Nor are the good harmed by evil things; rather, they profit from them for an increase in righteousness.

St. Augustine of Hippo: For the good man is not puffed up by worldly goods, nor is he broken by worldly calamity. The bad man, however, is punished by temporal losses because he is corrupted by temporal gains. Or, for another reason, He would have good and evil be common to both sorts of people: so that good things might not be sought with vehement desire, since they are enjoyed even by the wicked, and so that evil things might not be shamefully avoided, since even the righteous are afflicted by them. ¹³

Glossa Ordinaria: To love someone who loves us is natural, but to love our enemy is an act of charity. If you love those who love you, what reward do you have?—that is, in heaven. Truly none, for of such people it is said, You have received your reward. But we ought to do these things and not leave the others undone. ¹⁴

Rabanus Maurus: If, then, sinners are led by nature to show kindness to those who love them, with how much greater a show of affection ought you to embrace even those who do not love you?

For it follows, Do not even the tax collectors do the same? "The publicans" are those who collect the public taxes, or perhaps those who pursue public business or the gain of this world.

Glossa Ordinaria: But if you only greet your relatives, what more is your benevolence than that of the unbeliever? A salutation is a kind of prayer. ¹⁵

Rabanus Maurus: Ethnici, that is, the Gentiles—for the Greek word is translated "gens" in Latin—are those who remain as they were born: namely, under sin.

Remigius of Auxerre: Because the utmost perfection of love cannot go beyond loving one's enemies, the Lord, as soon as He has commanded us to love our enemies, proceeds, You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. He is indeed perfect, being omnipotent; man is perfect by being aided by the Omnipotent. For the word "as" is used in Scripture sometimes for identity and equality, as in, As I was with Moses, so I will be with you (Joshua 1:5), and sometimes to express likeness only, as it does here.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: For just as our sons in the flesh resemble their fathers in some part of their physical form, so do spiritual sons resemble their Father, God, in holiness.

1. non occ.
2. de Doctr. Christ., i, 30
3. Serm. in Mont., i, 21
4. cont. Faust., xix, 24
5. ord.
6. Mor., xxii, 11
7. ord.
8. Enchir., 73
9. Serm. in Mont., i, 21
10. Hil. Quaest. V. and N. Test. q. 68
11. Serm. in Mont., i, 23
12. Epist., 93, 2
13. City of God, book 1, ch. 8
14. non occ.
15. non occ.