For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
To love only in return for love gains no distinctive reward, for even despised tax-collectors and open sinners love in that merely reciprocal, self-interested way. The saying sets that ordinary affection over against the higher, perfect love required of followers, a love that reaches across national and social divisions to strangers and enemies. Keeping the law means carrying that love beyond courtesy to those who mistreat, oppose, and disappoint, in reflection of God's generous care for both the good and the evil. Only such diffusive, unselfish love makes a person a child of the heavenly Father, shaping words, spirit, and actions into Godlike character and proving Christian perfection by blessing, doing good to, and praying for enemies and persecutors. That benevolence must be worked out in practical relief of temporal need and kindly, forbearing dealing with all, including those who differ in views or seem undeserving, that the way to hearts may be opened.
Setting and Wording
Matthew 5:46 belongs to the Sermon on the Mount, which was given especially to the disciples while the assembled multitude also heard it. Its teaching opposed the self-righteous doctrines and practices of the scribes and Pharisees, corrected their portrayal of God as stern and without compassion, mercy, or love, and revealed God's true character. It stands apart from the repeated sayings of the rabbis as greater and more certain than unstable human wisdom.
Loving only those who love in return earns no special or distinctive reward, because even the publicans do the same. Such love is no more than ordinary human behavior, like that of the tax collectors. The publicans are tax collectors and public sinners whom the Jews despised. Love limited to those who love is no more than the ordinary conduct of sinners and the ordinary response of people who do not know God, showing no higher motive than reciprocal self-interest.
The verse contrasts ordinary reciprocal love with the higher, greater, distinctively perfect love required of followers. Loving only those who return love is what public sinners practice and is not the distinctively perfect love God calls His children to show. That distinctive love extends across national and social divisions and extends care even to enemies, reflecting the generous character of God.
Law and Perfect Love
Matthew 5:46 defines the far-reaching claims of the law and presents them in their proper light as the holy, just, and good standard of righteousness that remains in force as long as heaven and earth remain. That teaching from the mount reaches into every part of life, condemns evil, requires perfect obedience, and was exemplified in a sinless life.
The verse teaches one of the far-reaching principles of the law, that the state of the heart regulates the life and character and that the spirit of the law must be in the heart. Matthew 5 gives the explanation of God's holy law in the pure gospel and sets the holy standard of character, requiring loving God with the whole heart and loving neighbor as God requires. That standard forbids unjustly acquiring means at another's expense or confusing minds by mingling human wisdom with the divine in business, and those who do such things show they have not learned the law and need repentance, conversion, and cleansing and purging of the soul temple. This heart principle must be impressed upon new converts when instructing them in the claims of the law, or labor for them will be lost.
Keeping the law means extending love beyond reciprocity, for loving only those who love brings no distinctive or special reward, since even publicans show that same reciprocal love. God's children must show a greater, higher love and kindness beyond ordinary worldly conduct, ordinary social courtesy, and ordinary self-interest, including toward enemies and those who mistreat them. This reflects God's generous care for both the good and the evil, and calls followers to a wider love including toward those who oppose or disappoint them.
Christ tears away self-love and the dividing prejudice of nationality, lifts men from the narrow circle that selfishness prescribes, and abolishes all territorial lines and artificial distinctions of society, including caste and aristocracy. He makes no difference between neighbors and strangers, friends and enemies, and sweeps away the distinction between who is neighbor and who is enemy. Every needy soul, every man in need of sympathy, assistance, and love, is to be regarded as neighbor, and the world is the field.
Only diffusive, unselfish love makes a person a child of the heavenly Father and a laborer together with God. That love does not center on self or stop with friends and brethren or with people who please or return affection, but seeks the happiness and prosperity of others, loving enemies, blessing those who curse, doing good to those who hate, and praying for those who despitefully use and persecute. Merely greeting brethren only does no more than others do, for loving only those who love shows no higher motive than the publicans and sinners practiced. Such forgiving love, with kindness beyond ordinary social courtesy toward enemies and those who mistreat, marks a spirit beyond ordinary reciprocal affection, reflects the true principle of the law, and shapes words, spirit, and actions into Godlike character as the practical mark of Christian perfection. Those who abide in Christ and bear this fruit prove vital connection with Him, are peacemakers, are to be perfect even as the Father in heaven is perfect, and have their names registered in the Lamb's Book of Life as sons and daughters of God.
Christian benevolence must be enlarged beyond loving only those who love in return and be worked out in practical work that relieves temporal necessities as far as possible to find the way to hearts and present the love of Christ. Such practical benevolence accomplishes far more than sermons, and the only elevation recognized is pure and undefiled religion making true workers who make known the Word of God in this way. Workers must therefore love beyond familiar or friendly circles, making no distinction between neighbor and enemy when people need light and truth.
Living the Teaching
The words in Matthew 5 are to be dwelt upon often as a clear expression of God's will and to be brought constantly into the daily life, for loving only those who love in return is no special virtue. Dwelling on them holds the standard high and corrects the low grade and existing evils in the church. It stops misapprehension, unkindness, retaliation, and words that separate friends, while representing Christ as altogether lovely in words and attitude and actions. Doing the will of God in this way is the way doctrine is known.
Christlike love and courtesy must extend even to people who differ in views, for love limited to those who love in return is no more than the ordinary conduct of sinners and falls short of the distinctive standard required. Believers must not mistreat, ridicule, condemn, accuse, or find fault with others because their views differ, but should deal with them kindly and fairly and learn the wider lesson of unity, love, and Christian fellowship that forms Christlike character. Acting like open sinners by accusing others and finding fault contradicts that lesson and brings condemnation. Those in positions of responsibility are especially bound to show a forbearing, courteous spirit, because others follow their example.
It is easy to show respect and sympathy to those thought deserving, but that is not the love of Christ. The love of Jesus must be a living, acting, controlling influence over human nature that sanctifies the affections and brings actions into conformity to His will. It leads to exercising love not to a few only but to all who are needy, manifesting the principles of love and compassion by showing sympathy toward the erring and reaching a helping hand to the needy who do not seem deserving. This work cannot be done suddenly by merely professing to keep the commandments without practicing them from the heart. Its lesson applies to treating unreasonable and unjust people with special kindness and consideration rather than answering provocation with rebuke, for such kindness shows genuine Christian care and may help them recognize their own wrongdoing.
To love only in return for love gains no distinctive reward, for even despised tax-collectors and open sinners love in that merely reciprocal, self-interested way. The saying sets that ordinary affection over against the higher, perfect love required of followers, a love that reaches across national and social divisions to strangers and enemies. Keeping the law means carrying that love beyond courtesy to those who mistreat, oppose, and disappoint, in reflection of God's generous care for both the good and the evil. Only such diffusive, unselfish love makes a person a child of the heavenly Father, shaping words, spirit, and actions into Godlike character and proving Christian perfection by blessing, doing good to, and praying for enemies and persecutors. That benevolence must be worked out in practical relief of temporal need and kindly, forbearing dealing with all, including those who differ in views or seem undeserving, that the way to hearts may be opened.
Setting and Wording
Matthew 5:46 belongs to the Sermon on the Mount, which was given especially to the disciples while the assembled multitude also heard it. Its teaching opposed the self-righteous doctrines and practices of the scribes and Pharisees, corrected their portrayal of God as stern and without compassion, mercy, or love, and revealed God's true character. It stands apart from the repeated sayings of the rabbis as greater and more certain than unstable human wisdom.
Loving only those who love in return earns no special or distinctive reward, because even the publicans do the same. Such love is no more than ordinary human behavior, like that of the tax collectors. The publicans are tax collectors and public sinners whom the Jews despised. Love limited to those who love is no more than the ordinary conduct of sinners and the ordinary response of people who do not know God, showing no higher motive than reciprocal self-interest.
The verse contrasts ordinary reciprocal love with the higher, greater, distinctively perfect love required of followers. Loving only those who return love is what public sinners practice and is not the distinctively perfect love God calls His children to show. That distinctive love extends across national and social divisions and extends care even to enemies, reflecting the generous character of God.
Law and Perfect Love
Matthew 5:46 defines the far-reaching claims of the law and presents them in their proper light as the holy, just, and good standard of righteousness that remains in force as long as heaven and earth remain. That teaching from the mount reaches into every part of life, condemns evil, requires perfect obedience, and was exemplified in a sinless life.
The verse teaches one of the far-reaching principles of the law, that the state of the heart regulates the life and character and that the spirit of the law must be in the heart. Matthew 5 gives the explanation of God's holy law in the pure gospel and sets the holy standard of character, requiring loving God with the whole heart and loving neighbor as God requires. That standard forbids unjustly acquiring means at another's expense or confusing minds by mingling human wisdom with the divine in business, and those who do such things show they have not learned the law and need repentance, conversion, and cleansing and purging of the soul temple. This heart principle must be impressed upon new converts when instructing them in the claims of the law, or labor for them will be lost.
Keeping the law means extending love beyond reciprocity, for loving only those who love brings no distinctive or special reward, since even publicans show that same reciprocal love. God's children must show a greater, higher love and kindness beyond ordinary worldly conduct, ordinary social courtesy, and ordinary self-interest, including toward enemies and those who mistreat them. This reflects God's generous care for both the good and the evil, and calls followers to a wider love including toward those who oppose or disappoint them.
Christ tears away self-love and the dividing prejudice of nationality, lifts men from the narrow circle that selfishness prescribes, and abolishes all territorial lines and artificial distinctions of society, including caste and aristocracy. He makes no difference between neighbors and strangers, friends and enemies, and sweeps away the distinction between who is neighbor and who is enemy. Every needy soul, every man in need of sympathy, assistance, and love, is to be regarded as neighbor, and the world is the field.
Only diffusive, unselfish love makes a person a child of the heavenly Father and a laborer together with God. That love does not center on self or stop with friends and brethren or with people who please or return affection, but seeks the happiness and prosperity of others, loving enemies, blessing those who curse, doing good to those who hate, and praying for those who despitefully use and persecute. Merely greeting brethren only does no more than others do, for loving only those who love shows no higher motive than the publicans and sinners practiced. Such forgiving love, with kindness beyond ordinary social courtesy toward enemies and those who mistreat, marks a spirit beyond ordinary reciprocal affection, reflects the true principle of the law, and shapes words, spirit, and actions into Godlike character as the practical mark of Christian perfection. Those who abide in Christ and bear this fruit prove vital connection with Him, are peacemakers, are to be perfect even as the Father in heaven is perfect, and have their names registered in the Lamb's Book of Life as sons and daughters of God.
Christian benevolence must be enlarged beyond loving only those who love in return and be worked out in practical work that relieves temporal necessities as far as possible to find the way to hearts and present the love of Christ. Such practical benevolence accomplishes far more than sermons, and the only elevation recognized is pure and undefiled religion making true workers who make known the Word of God in this way. Workers must therefore love beyond familiar or friendly circles, making no distinction between neighbor and enemy when people need light and truth.
Living the Teaching
The words in Matthew 5 are to be dwelt upon often as a clear expression of God's will and to be brought constantly into the daily life, for loving only those who love in return is no special virtue. Dwelling on them holds the standard high and corrects the low grade and existing evils in the church. It stops misapprehension, unkindness, retaliation, and words that separate friends, while representing Christ as altogether lovely in words and attitude and actions. Doing the will of God in this way is the way doctrine is known.
Christlike love and courtesy must extend even to people who differ in views, for love limited to those who love in return is no more than the ordinary conduct of sinners and falls short of the distinctive standard required. Believers must not mistreat, ridicule, condemn, accuse, or find fault with others because their views differ, but should deal with them kindly and fairly and learn the wider lesson of unity, love, and Christian fellowship that forms Christlike character. Acting like open sinners by accusing others and finding fault contradicts that lesson and brings condemnation. Those in positions of responsibility are especially bound to show a forbearing, courteous spirit, because others follow their example.
It is easy to show respect and sympathy to those thought deserving, but that is not the love of Christ. The love of Jesus must be a living, acting, controlling influence over human nature that sanctifies the affections and brings actions into conformity to His will. It leads to exercising love not to a few only but to all who are needy, manifesting the principles of love and compassion by showing sympathy toward the erring and reaching a helping hand to the needy who do not seem deserving. This work cannot be done suddenly by merely professing to keep the commandments without practicing them from the heart. Its lesson applies to treating unreasonable and unjust people with special kindness and consideration rather than answering provocation with rebuke, for such kindness shows genuine Christian care and may help them recognize their own wrongdoing.