Luke 6:35: love your enemies and lend hoping for nothing back
35So truly, love your enemies. Do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return. And then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and to the wicked.
Three practical orders and one reason. The reason is not the effect this will have on the enemy, but the way God already treats people who do not repay.
Short answer
Luke 6:35 commands loving enemies, doing good and lending without hoping for return, and ties to that a great reward and the standing of children of the Most High. The reason given is God’s own conduct: his kindness reaches the ungrateful and the wicked alike.
- Written by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 2 min read
The line arrives after three consecutive questions that dismantle reciprocity. And the most concrete of the commands is the one least quoted: lending without counting on repayment. It is the one with a measurable price, which is why it tests the rest.
Where this verse appears
This is the Sermon on the Plain, Luke’s version of the great discourse. In the preceding verses Jesus asks three times what credit there is in loving people who already love you, returning favours to whoever did you one, and lending where repayment is certain — and answers that even sinners do that.
Straight afterwards comes the conclusion that ties it together: be merciful, as your Father is merciful. The next verse moves into not judging and not condemning.
What it says
The three commands climb in difficulty. Loving enemies is interior; doing good requires action; lending without hope of return costs money. The progression is not accidental — the teaching descends from feeling to the bank account, which is where most convictions stop.
The reward is mentioned, and it is worth reading carefully what it is. The text does not say the enemy will change, or that the loan will come back by another route. It says the reward is great and ties that to a family likeness: acting this way is resembling someone who already acts this way.
The final line is the most uncomfortable in the verse, and it is what grounds the commands: God treats ingratitude and wickedness with kindness anyway. The generosity asked for does not rest on the merit of the person receiving it. If it did, there would be no command to give at all.
What to do with it today
The part that applies today is the most material one. Before debating whether you can love the person who hurt you, the verse asks whether you would lend without chasing repayment and without calculating. That is a question answered by a concrete decision rather than a feeling — and the text does not promise the decision will be repaid by whoever received it.
A prayer to carry with you
Lord, I still run the numbers when I help. Teach me to give without expecting return, the way you gave to me before I had thanked you for anything. Amen.