Passage

Matthew 5.44

"But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." (Matthew 5:44, NASB95)

Matthew 5:44 is the climactic antithesis of the Sermon on the Mount's first major movement (Matt 5:21-48). Jesus has been re-stating the Mosaic Law six times with the formula "you have heard that it was said... but I say to you," and the sixth and final antithesis inverts the conventional pairing of loving the neighbor with hating the enemy. The verse establishes enemy-love as the distinguishing Christian ethic and is one of the most-cited passages in the codex's defeater-arguments against atheist polemics about Christian morality.

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"42. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. 43. Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy:"

"44. but I say unto you, love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you;"

"45. 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. 46. For if ye love them that love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?" (Matthew 5:42-46, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"42. Give to him who asks you, and don’t turn away him who desires to borrow from you. 43. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’"

"44. But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you,"

"45. that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. 46. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?" (Matthew 5:42-46, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"42. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. 43. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy."

"44. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;"

"45. That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?" (Matthew 5:42-46, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"42. to him who is asking of thee be giving, and him who is willing to borrow from thee thou mayest not turn away. 43. 'Ye heard that it was said: Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and shalt hate thine enemy;"

"44. but I, I say to you, Love your enemies, bless those cursing you, do good to those hating you, and pray for those accusing you falsely, and persecuting you,"

"45. that ye may be sons of your Father in the heavens, because His sun He doth cause to rise on evil and good, and He doth send rain on righteous and unrighteous. 46. 'For, if ye may love those loving you, what reward have ye? do not also the tax-gatherers the same?" (Matthew 5:42-46, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Jesus, teaching the disciples on a mountainside in Galilee while crowds listen.
Audience: the disciples primarily (Matt 5:1-2), with the wider Jewish crowd listening in; behind the disciples sits the Jewish- Christian readership for whom Matthew composes.
Location: a Galilean hillside, traditionally near Capernaum, in the early phase of Jesus' Galilean ministry.
Time period: events c. AD 28 to 30; Matthew composed c. AD 60 to 80.

Theological reading

The antithesis structure of Matthew 5:21-48 is not Jesus correcting the Torah but exposing how popular tradition had partialized it. The "hate your enemy" half of the pairing in v. 43 is not in the Mosaic Law itself. Leviticus 19:18 commands "love your neighbor as yourself," with no corresponding command to hate enemies. The sectarian Qumran community in fact taught members to "love all the sons of light and hate all the sons of darkness" (1QS 1:9-10), and popular Jewish ethics of the period had hardened toward an in-group/ out-group reading of re'a (neighbor). Jesus does not contradict Moses; he overturns the gloss that had attached itself to Moses.

The positive command is striking on three counts. First, the verb used is agapao, deliberate willed love, not philia (affection) or eros (attraction). One can agapao an enemy without sentimentally liking him. Second, the parallel command "pray for those who persecute you" specifies the form this love takes: not inner well-wishing but active intercession. Third, the rationale Jesus gives in v. 45 grounds enemy-love in the character of the Father. God sends rain on the just and the unjust; the disciple who loves only those who love him imitates the tax collector, not the Father. Enemy-love is the family resemblance of the children of God.

This passage is heavily used in two apologetic theaters. (1) Against the "Bible promotes hatred" objection, Matthew 5:44 is the load- bearing text that the New Testament's ethical center is enemy-love, not enemy-hatred; any reading of the Old Testament's harsher material must be brought through this teaching. (2) Against the "why imprecatory psalms" objection, Matthew 5:44 is named as the Christian's present posture (intercession for enemies), while the imprecatory psalms are read either as cries for divine justice (not personal vengeance) or as kept under the old covenant before Christ's explicit teaching here. The verse does not commit to a passive view of justice; Romans 12:19-21 immediately picks up the same logic ("leave room for the wrath of God") and locates vengeance with God, not with the believer.

The harder pastoral point is the asymmetry. Jesus does not say "love your enemy when he stops persecuting you." The love is to be while he persecutes. This is what makes the command costly and what makes it imitable only by grace.

Key words

Pending lexicon expansion. Matthew 5:44 features agapao (the verb form of G0026 - agape) and proseuchomai (to pray); the verbal lexicon entries are not yet curated.

Theological themes

Enemy-love as Christian distinctive. The mark that distinguishes the disciple from the natural in-group / out-group ethic.
Imitation of the Father. The rationale is theological: enemy-love mirrors the indiscriminate kindness of God in nature.
Intercession as concrete form. Love is operationalized as prayer, not as sentiment.
Continuity with Old Testament love-of-neighbor (Lev 19:18). Jesus expands the scope of "neighbor," not the substance of love.
The defeater axis. Matthew 5:44 is the load-bearing text against atheist "Christianity-promotes-hatred" objections.

Cross-references

Luke 6.27-36, the parallel teaching from the Sermon on the Plain.
Romans 12.19-21, Paul's enemy-love command paired with leaving vengeance to God.
Leviticus 19.18, the love-neighbor command Jesus is expanding.
Matthew 22.39, Jesus' second great commandment.

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.