Love ye your enemies - This is the most sublime precept ever delivered to man: a false religion durst not give a precept of this nature, because, with out supernatural influence, it must be for ever impracticable. In these words of our blessed Lord we see the tenderness, sincerity, extent, disinterestedness, pattern, and issue of the love of God dwelling in man: a religion which has for its foundation the union of God and man in the same person, and the death of this august being for his enemies; which consists on earth in a reconciliation of the Creator with his creatures, and which is to subsist in heaven only in the union of the members with the head: could such a religion as this ever tolerate hatred in the soul of man, even to his most inveterate foe?

Lend, hoping for nothing again - Μηδεν απελπιζοντες. The rabbins say, he who lends without usury, God shall consider him as having observed every precept. Bishop Pearce thinks that, instead of μηδεν we should read μηδενα with the Syriac, later Arabic, and later Persic; and as απελπιζειν signifies to despair, or cause to despair, the meaning is, not cutting off the hope (of longer life) of any man, neminis spem amputantes, by denying him those things which he requests now to preserve him from perishing.

But love ye your enemies,.... As before urged in Luke 6:27

and do good and lend; not to your friends only, but to your enemies;

hoping for nothing again; either principal or interest, despairing of seeing either; lending to such persons, from whom, in all appearance, it is never to be expected again. The Persic version renders it, "that ye may not cause any to despair": and the Syriac version, "that ye may not cut off", or "cause to cease the hope of men"; and the Arabic version, "that ye do not deceive the hope of any" that is, by sending such away, without lending to them, who come big with expectations of succeeding:

and your reward shall be great: God will bless you in your worldly substance here, and will not forget your beneficence hereafter:

and ye shall be the children of the Highest: that is of God; one of whose names is "the Most High"; Psalm 82:6 the meaning is, that such who from principles of grace, and with right views do such acts of kindness and beneficence to their fellow creatures and Christians, shall be, made manifest, and declared to be the children of God; since they will appear to be born of him, and made partakers of the divine nature, and bear a resemblance to him, by their imitating him:

for he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil; by causing his sun to rise, and his rain to fall on them, as on the righteous and the good; for as Jews (w) observe,

"there is no difference with him, whether on the right hand or the left; for he is gracious, and does good, even to the ungodly.''

And elsewhere they say (x), that

"he does good, and feeds the righteous and the ungodly.''

(w) R. Abraham ben Dior in Sepher Jetzira, p. 19. (x) Zohar in Exod. fol. 69. 2, 3.

Hoping for nothing again (μηδὲν ἀπελπίζοντες)

A later Greek word, only here in New Testament, and meaning originally to give up in despair, a sense which is adopted by some high authorities, and by Rev., never despairing. Luke was familiar with this sense in the Septuagint. Thus Isaiah 29:19, "The poor among men (οἱ ἀπηλπισμένοι τῶν ἀνθρώπων) shall rejoice." So in Apocrypha, 2 Maccabees 9:18, "despairing of his health;" Judith 9:11, "A saviour of them that are without hope (ἀπηλπισμένων). According to this, the sense here is, "do good as those who consider nothing as lost." The verb and its kindred adjective are used by medical writers to describe desperate cases of disease.

Children of the Highest (υἱοὶ ὑψίστου)

Rev., rightly, sons. Compare Matthew 5:45, Matthew 5:48.

Kind (χρηστός)

See on Matthew 11:30.

But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, {h} hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.

(h) When you will lend, do it only to benefit and please with it, and not with the hope of receiving the principal again.

6:35 Love ye your enemies. See PNT Mt 5:44.

Ye shall be the children of the Highest. See PNT Mt 5:45.

6:27-36 These are hard lessons to flesh and blood. But if we are thoroughly grounded in the faith of Christ's love, this will make his commands easy to us. Every one that comes to him for washing in his blood, and knows the greatness of the mercy and the love there is in him, can say, in truth and sincerity, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Let us then aim to be merciful, even according to the mercy of our heavenly Father to us.