Old/New Testament

Loving your enemies

²⁷ “But this is my word,” Jesus continued, “for those of you who are listening: love your enemies! Do good to people who hate you! ²⁸ Bless people who curse you! Pray for people who treat you badly!

²⁹ “If someone hits you on the cheek—offer him the other one! If someone takes away your coat—don’t stop him taking your shirt! ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and don’t ask for things back when people have taken them.

³¹ “Whatever you want people to do to you, do that to them. ³² If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Think about it: even sinners love people who love them. ³³ Or again, if you do good only to people who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Sinners do that too. ³⁴ If you lend only to people you expect to get things back from, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to get paid back. ³⁵ No: love your enemies, do good and lend without expecting any return. Your reward will be great! You will be children of the Highest! He is generous, you see, to the stingy and wicked. ³⁶ You must be merciful, just as your father is merciful.

³⁷ “Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Forgive, and you’ll be forgiven. ³⁸ Give, and it will be given to you: a good helping, squashed down, shaken in, and overflowing—that’s what will land in your lap. Yes: the ration you give to others is the ration you’ll get back for yourself.”

Judging others and true obedience

³⁹ Jesus told them this riddle. “What do you get when one blind man guides another? Both of them falling in a ditch! ⁴⁰ Students can’t do better than the teacher; when the course is done, they’ll all be just like the teacher.

⁴¹ “Why look at the speck of dust in your brother’s eye, when you haven’t noticed the plank in your own eye? ⁴² How can you say to your brother, ‘Dear brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you can’t see the plank in your own? You’re a fraud! First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you’ll see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

⁴³ “You see, no good tree bears bad fruit; nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. ⁴⁴ Every tree is known by its fruit. You don’t pick figs from thorns; nor do you get grapes from a briar-bush. ⁴⁵ The good person brings good things out of the good treasure of the heart; the evil person brings evil things out of evil. What comes out of the mouth is what’s overflowing in the heart.

⁴⁶ “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do what I say? ⁴⁷ I’ll show you what people are like when they come to me, and hear my words, and do them. ⁴⁸ They are like a wise man building a house: he dug, he went down deep, and he laid a foundation on rock. When a flood came, the river burst its banks all over the house, but it couldn’t shake it because it was well built. ⁴⁹ But when people hear but don’t obey—that’s like a man who built a house on the ground, without a foundation. When the river burst over it, it fell down at once. The ruin of that house was devastating.”