John Calvin Commentary Luke 6:35

"But love your enemies, and do [them] good, and lend, never despairing; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be sons of the Most High: for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil." — Luke 6:35 (ASV)

Lend, expecting nothing again. It is a mistake to confine this statement to usury, as if Christ only forbade his people to be usurers. The preceding part of the discourse shows clearly that it has a wider reference.

After explaining what wicked men are accustomed to do—to love their friends, to assist those from whom they expect some compensations, to lend to people like themselves so that they may afterwards receive the same from them—Christ proceeds to show how much more he demands from his people: to love their enemies, to show disinterested kindness, to lend without expecting a return.

We now see that the word nothing is improperly explained as referring to usury, or to any interest that is added to the principal,⁴¹⁸ whereas Christ only exhorts us to perform our duties freely and tells us that mercenary acts are of no account in the sight of God.⁴¹⁹

Not that he absolutely condemns all acts of kindness which are done in the hope of a reward; but he shows that they are of no weight as a testimony of charity, because he alone is truly beneficent to his neighbors who is led to assist them without any regard to his own advantage, but looks only to the necessities of each.

Whether it is ever lawful for Christians to derive profit from lending money, I will not argue at greater length in this passage, lest I seem to raise the question unseasonably from a false meaning that I have now refuted. Christ’s meaning, as I have already explained, is simply this: when believers lend, they ought to go beyond heathens; or, in other words, they ought to exercise pure liberality.

⁴¹⁸ “ “De l’usure et accroissement qui vient outre le principal;” — “of usury and increase which comes beyond the principal.” On the lawfulnesss of lending money at interest, the most enlightened men, at the time when our author wrote, were strangley divded in sentiment. His own views were unfolded in a small work, which has been admired by competent judges for the purity of French style, and for enlarged views of ;” — “of usury and increase which comes beyond the principal.” On the lawfulnesss of lending money at interest, the most enlightened men, at the time when our author wrote, were strangley divded in sentiment. His own views were unfolded in a small work, which has been admired by competent judges for the purity of French style, and for enlarged views of Political Economy. After suffering not a little obloquy for his manner of applying the law of God to commercial questions, he has been vindicated by the unanimous opinion of posterity; and his performance, having served its purpose, has been quietly laid on the shelf. We allude to it only to account for the rapid and cursory manner in which he disposes here of a question, on which all who wish to know his opinions may satisfy themselves by perusing his own complete and elaborate statement of the argument. — After suffering not a little obloquy for his manner of applying the law of God to commercial questions, he has been vindicated by the unanimous opinion of posterity; and his performance, having served its purpose, has been quietly laid on the shelf. We allude to it only to account for the rapid and cursory manner in which he disposes here of a question, on which all who wish to know his opinions may satisfy themselves by perusing his own complete and elaborate statement of the argument. — Ed.

⁴¹⁹ “Que les plaisirs lesquels les hommes se font les uns aux autres, sous esperance de recompense, ne viennent point en conte devant Dieu.” — “That the gratifications which men give to each other, in expectation of reward, come not into reckoning before God.”.” — “That the gratifications which men give to each other, in expectation of reward, come not into reckoning before God.”