Loving Enemies Who Reject Rebuke and Correction
The command to love one's enemies stands among the most distinctive and demanding teachings in Christian ethics, particularly when those enemies persist in rejecting correction and refuse to acknowledge their wrongdoing. This tension between love and rebuke runs throughout Scripture, requiring careful attention to both the nature of biblical correction and the character of Christian love.
The Biblical Foundation for Rebuke
Scripture consistently presents correction as an act of love rather than its opposite. Proverbs establishes that "whoever loves correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid" [4], and that "better is open rebuke than hidden love" [3]. The wisdom literature treats the acceptance or rejection of correction as a matter of spiritual life and death: "He who refuses correction despises his own soul, but he who listens to reproof gets understanding" [1]. Matthew Henry observes that those who refuse instruction "show that they have a low and mean opinion of them, and are in little care and concern about them, considered as rational and immortal" [11]. The refusal of correction thus represents not merely stubbornness but a fundamental disregard for one's own spiritual welfare.
This framework establishes that offering rebuke is itself an expression of concern for another's good. The one who rebukes demonstrates greater love than the one who conceals wrongdoing behind a facade of affection. Yet this creates the pastoral dilemma: what posture should the Christian maintain toward the person who not only commits wrong but actively rejects correction?
The Command to Love Enemies
Jesus addresses this question directly in the Sermon on the Mount, where he contrasts the traditional teaching with his own instruction: "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 them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" [10]. This command represents a radical departure from conventional ancient ethics, which "commonly taught in the ancient world to love their family and friends and hate their enemies" [9].
The nature of this love requires clarification. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown note that the Greek term used here "denotes moral love, as distinguished from the other word, which expresses personal affection." Rather than requiring emotional warmth or personal attachment, it describes "the benignant, compassionate outgoings of desire for another's good" [10]. This distinction proves crucial when addressing enemies who reject correction: the Christian need not feel affection for the wrongdoer or approve of their conduct, but must actively will their good and work toward it.
Augustine traces this teaching back to Old Testament roots, arguing that Jesus corrects a misunderstanding rather than introducing an entirely novel ethic. He explains that the Lord's intention is "to correct those who, from knowing without understanding what was said by them of old time, Thou shalt hate thine enemy, hated their fellow-men" [5]. The Pharisees had developed "a certain step [in advance] in the righteousness" by loving those who loved them, yet this fell short because "many men hate even those by whom they are loved; as, for instance, luxurious children hate their parents for restraining them in their luxury" [6].
Tertullian strengthens this continuity argument by pointing to Isaiah's command: "Say, Ye are our brethren, to those who hate you" [8]. Adam Clarke similarly identifies Exodus 23:4-5, which commands returning a straying enemy's ox, as the foundation from which "our blessed Lord has formed" his precept about loving enemies [7]. The command to love enemies thus emerges not as a contradiction of Old Testament ethics but as their proper interpretation and fulfillment.
The Practical Tension
The difficulty intensifies when the enemy in view is precisely the person who has rejected rebuke. The one who "refuses correction despises his own soul" [1] becomes, by that very refusal, harder to love in practical terms. The Christian faces a dual obligation: to continue willing the good of the person (which includes their repentance and restoration) while simultaneously maintaining the moral clarity that their rejection of correction is spiritually destructive.
Psalm 15 describes the righteous person as one "who despises the vile but honors those who fear the LORD" [2]. This suggests that moral discernment—recognizing and rejecting wickedness—coexists with the command to love enemies. The Christian may and must despise the vice while loving the person trapped in it, a distinction easier to articulate than to practice.
The command to "bless them that curse you" and "pray for them which despitefully use you" [10] provides concrete actions that embody this love. Prayer for enemies who reject correction serves multiple purposes: it guards the Christian's own heart against bitterness, it acknowledges God's sovereignty over the situation, and it actively seeks the enemy's transformation rather than their destruction. The act of blessing—speaking well of or seeking good for—those who curse creates an asymmetry that refuses to mirror the enemy's hostility.
The Limits of Human Effort
The Christian who has offered correction and been rebuffed must recognize the limits of human agency in another's repentance. The one who "hates reproof" [4] has made a choice that the rebuker cannot override. Continued love does not require continued attempts at correction when those attempts have been definitively rejected; it may instead take the form of patient waiting, prayer, and readiness to restore relationship should repentance occur. The example of Christ, who "when he was reviled, reviled not again" [10], demonstrates that love for enemies does not demand their agreement or reformation as a precondition, but persists even in the face of ongoing hostility and rejection.
Sources
- Proverbs “He who refuses correction despises his own soul, but he who listens to reproof gets understanding. -- Proverbs 15:32”
- Psalms “Psalms 15:4 (BSB) — who despises the vile but honors those who fear the LORD, who does not revise a costly oath,”
- Proverbs “Better is open rebuke than hidden love. -- Proverbs 27:5”
- Proverbs “Whoever loves correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. -- Proverbs 12:1”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 4: Augustine — Anti-Manichaean, Anti-Donatist — BOOK XIX. (part 22): to be wicked, not by nature, either his own or any other, but by his own will; whereas they think that a man is evil on account of the nature of the race of darkness, which, according to them, was an object of dread to God when he existed entire, and by which also he was partly conquered, so that he cannot be entirely set free. The intention of the Lord, then, is to correct those who, from knowing without understanding what was said by them of old time, Thou shalt hate thine enemy, hated their fellow-men instead of ”
- 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”
- Exodus (Methodist/Wesleyan) “Adam Clarke on Exodus 23:4: If thou meet thine enemy's ox - going astray - From the humane and heavenly maxim in this and the following verse, our blessed Lord has formed the following precept: "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;" Mat 5:44. A precept so plain, wise, benevolent, and useful, can receive no other comment than that which its influence on the heart of a kind and merciful man produces in his life.”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 3: Tertullian — CHAP. XVI.--THE PRECEPT OF LOVING ONE'S ENEMIES. IT IS AS MUCH TAUGHT IN THE CREATOR'S SCRIPTURES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AS IN CHRIST'S SERMON. THE LEX TALIONIS OF MOSES ADMIRABLY EXPLAINED IN CONSISTEN (part 1): "But I say unto you which hear" (displaying here that old injunction, of the Creator: "Speak to the ears of those who lend them to you"(3)), "Love your enemies, and bless(4) those which hate you, and pray for them which calumniate you."(5) These commands the Creator included in one precept by His prophet Isaiah: "Say, Ye are our brethren, to those who hate you."(”
- Luke (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Luke 6:27: 6:27 love your enemies! People were commonly taught in the ancient world to love their family and friends and hate their enemies. Jesus announced a radical new ethic of loving even one’s enemies and overcoming evil through self-sacrificial love for others, not through violence and hatred (cp. Rom 12:14-21).”
- Matthew (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Matthew 5:44: But I say unto you, Love your enemies--The word here used denotes moral love, as distinguished from the other word, which expresses personal affection. Usually, the former denotes "complacency in the character" of the person loved; but here it denotes the benignant, compassionate outgoings of desire for another's good. bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you--The best commentary on these matchless counsels is the bright example of Him who gave them. (See Pe1 2:21-24; a”
- Proverbs (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Proverbs 15:32: See here, 1. The folly of those that will not be taught, that refuse instruction, that will not heed it, but turn their backs upon it, or will not hear it, but turn their hearts against it. They refuse correction (margin); they will not take it, no, not from God himself, but kick against the pricks. Those that do so despise their own souls; they show that they have a low and mean opinion of them, and are in little care and concern about them, considered as rational and immortal, instruction being designed to cultivate reason and prepare for the immortal state. ”