Interpreting Luke 6:31-32 on Loving Neighbors
Luke 6:31 states, "Do to others as you would have them do to you" [1], a principle often called the Golden Rule. The following verse sharpens the demand: "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them" [2]. These verses appear in the Sermon on the Plain, Luke's counterpart to Matthew's Sermon on the Mount, delivered to Jesus' disciples and a larger crowd after a night of prayer and the selection of the Twelve (Luke 6:12–20). The immediate context begins with blessings and woes (6:20–26), then moves to radical commands about enemy love (6:27–30), culminating in the Golden Rule and its application to those who offer no reciprocal benefit.
Literary Context and Structure
The Golden Rule in verse 31 functions as a hinge. It summarizes the preceding commands to love enemies, bless persecutors, turn the other cheek, and give without expecting return (6:27–30). Verse 32 then begins a series of rhetorical questions (continuing through 6:33–34) that expose the inadequacy of merely reciprocal love. Jesus contrasts the behavior expected of his followers with that of "sinners"—a term denoting those outside covenant faithfulness. The argument moves from principle (v. 31) to critique (vv. 32–34) to a climactic command: "love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return" (6:35).
Cross-references link this passage to Ephesians 4:32, which urges kindness and forgiveness [4, 5], and to Proverbs 19:17, which promises divine reward for generosity to the poor [6]. These connections suggest early Christian readers understood Luke 6 as foundational for ethics of mercy and non-retaliation.
The Golden Rule in Jewish and Greco-Roman Context
The principle of treating others as one wishes to be treated was not unique to Jesus. Rabbinic tradition records similar maxims, and Greco-Roman philosophers articulated reciprocity norms. What distinguishes Jesus' formulation is its positive construction ("do to others") rather than the negative ("do not do to others what you would not want done to you") and its placement within a framework that extends love beyond natural affinity. The Talmud commends one who "loves his neighbors" and "brings his relatives close" [12], but Jesus presses beyond kinship and friendship to include enemies.
Matthew Henry observes that these lessons are "of universal concern" and addressed to "all you that hear," not only to disciples [7]. The Golden Rule, he notes, is "loving your neighbor" made concrete—a standard of justice in all dealings. The Heidelberg Catechism similarly interprets the command to love one's neighbor as requiring patience, mercy, and active protection from harm, even extending to enemies [8]. This Reformed reading ties Luke 6:31 to the second great commandment, "Have love for your neighbour as for yourself" [3], which Jesus elsewhere identifies as second only to love of God.
The Scandal of Non-Reciprocal Love
Verse 32 introduces a provocative question: what distinguishes Christian love from the natural affection sinners show to those who love them? The term "credit" (Greek charis, often translated "grace" or "thanks") implies divine approval or reward. Jesus suggests that reciprocal love earns no such credit because it mirrors ordinary human behavior. Augustine, reflecting on the love commandments, emphasizes that charity requires loving even enemies "as to their nature," not as enemies per se [9]. Aquinas clarifies that loving enemies does not mean approving their evil but willing their good as fellow creatures [9].
Adam Clarke notes that expecting repayment for assistance "is to profit by [the neighbor's] misery" and increases wretchedness under the guise of relief [13]. This interpretation underscores the radical economic dimension of Jesus' teaching: lending and giving must not function as covert transactions that bind the recipient in obligation.
Patristic and Reformation Readings
Augustine identifies a progression in righteousness: the Pharisaic ethic permitted hating enemies, but Jesus commands love for them [10]. Calvin, in his Institutes, argues that the commandments against theft and adultery are "comprehended" in the rule to love one's neighbor, which necessarily includes enemies [11]. For Calvin, Paul's summary of the law in Romans 13:9 confirms that neighbor-love extends universally, not merely to friends.
The passage has functioned liturgically and catechetically as a test of authentic discipleship. The Heidelberg Catechism uses it to define what it means not to murder: condemning envy and hatred, protecting others from harm, and doing good even to enemies [8]. This tradition reads Luke 6:31–32 as exposing the insufficiency of external compliance and demanding transformation of motive and affection.
Sources
- Luke “Luke 6:31 (BSB) — Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
- Luke “Luke 6:32 (NASB) — "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.”
- Mark “Mark 12:31 (BBE) — The second is this, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself. There is no other law greater than these.”
- OpenBible.info “Cross-reference: Eph.4.32 → Luke.6.35 (confidence: 31 votes)”
- OpenBible.info “Cross-reference: Eph.4.32 → Luke.6.37 (confidence: 28 votes)”
- OpenBible.info “Cross-reference: Prov.19.17 → Luke.6.38 (confidence: 31 votes)”
- Luke (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Luke 6:27: These verses agree with Mat 5:38, to the end of that chapter: I say unto you that hear (Luk 6:27), to all you that hear, and not to disciples only, for these are lessons of universal concern. He that has an ear, let him hear. Those that diligently hearken to Christ shall find he has something to say to them well worth their hearing. Now the lessons Christ here teacheth us are, I. That we must render to all their due, and be honest and just in all our dealings (Luk 6:31): As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise; for this is loving your neig”
- Heidelberg Catechism (Reformed) “Heidelberg Catechism (Reformed, 1563), Q. Is it enough then: Q. Is it enough then that we do not murder our neighbor in any such way? A. No. By condemning envy, hatred, and anger God wants us to love our neighbors as ourselves,1 to be patient, peace-loving, gentle, merciful, and friendly toward them,2 to protect them from harm as much as we can, and to do good even to our enemies.3 1 Matt. 7:12; 22:39; Rom. 12:10 2 Matt. 5:3-12; Luke 6:36; Rom. 12:10, 18; Gal. 6:1-2; Eph. 4:2; Col. 3:12; 1 Pet. 3:8 3 Ex. 23:4-5; Matt. 5:44-45; Rom. 12:20-21 (Prov. 25:21-22) Lord’s Day 41 Q & A 108”
- theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Second Part of the Second Part (Secunda Secundae), Of the Object of Charity, Art. 8: Article: Whether charity requires that we should love our enemies? I answer that, Love of one's enemies may be understood in three ways. First, as though we were to love our enemies as such: this is perverse, and contrary to charity, since it implies love of that which is evil in another. Secondly love of one's enemies may mean that we love them as to their nature, but in general: and in this sense charity requires that we should love our enemies, namely, that in loving God and our n”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 6: Augustine — Homilies on the Gospels — CHAP. XXI.--69. In the next place, He goes on to say, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy: But I say unto you, Love your enemies, do good to t (part 1): 70. That there is, however, a certain step [in advance] in the righteousness of the Pharisees, which belongs to the old law, is perceived from this consideration, that many men hate even those by whom they are loved; as, for instance, luxurious children hate their parents for restraining them in their luxury. That than therefore rises a”
- CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 44: allow stealing of any description, whether from a friend or an enemy,” (August. Lib. de Doctr. Christ). Now, these two commandments, “Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not commit adultery,” Paul brings under the rule of love; nay, he says that they are briefly comprehended in this saying, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” ( Rom. 13:9 ). Therefore, Paul must either be a false interpreter of the Law, or we must necessarily conclude, that under this precept we are bound to love our enemies just as our friends. Those, then, sh”
- Babylonian Talmud (Jewish (Rabbinic)) “Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 76b.4: The Sages taught: One who loves his neighbors, and one who brings his relatives close, and one who marries the daughter of his sister, an example of a woman that he knows and likes before taking her as his wife, and one who lends a sela to a poor man at his time of need, when he has no alternative source of funds, with regard to each of them the verse states: “Break your bread for the hungry, and the poor that are cast out bring to your house; when you see the naked, you shall clothe him, and hide not yourself from your own flesh… then shall you call, and th”
- Luke (Methodist/Wesleyan) “Adam Clarke on Luke 6:34: Of whom ye hope to receive - Or, whom ye expect to return it. "To make our neighbor purchase, in any way, the assistance which we give him, is to profit by his misery; and, by laying him under obligations which we expect him in some way or other to discharge, we increase his wretchedness under the pretense of relieving it."”