Sermon 16: Love of Enemies and Perfection

Love of Enemies and Perfection - Matthew 5:43–48

Part of: The Sermon on the Mount — Lectio 16

Lectio

Matthew 5:43–48: You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.”

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Meditatio

The Lord now brings the whole inward fulfillment of the Law to its summit. For what can be added beyond this, that one should love not only friends, but enemies? In this commandment, all that has been said before is gathered together and crowned, since nothing so fully extinguishes anger, lust, deceit, or retaliation as the perfection of charity.

The saying, “You shall hate your enemy,” was not a command of the Law, but a conclusion drawn by those who limited love to those from whom they expected return. The Lord removes this false boundary and extends charity without measure, commanding that even persecutors be loved. This love is not shown chiefly by feeling, but by will, expressed most perfectly in prayer, whereby one seeks the good of those who inflict harm.

By this love the sons of God are made manifest, not by nature but by imitation. For God does not bestow His gifts only upon the good, but pours out the benefits of creation upon the just and the unjust alike. When a man loves only those who love him, he does nothing beyond natural affection; but when he loves his enemy, he rises to what is divine.

Thus the Lord distinguishes the righteousness of the kingdom from all lesser forms of goodness. Courtesy toward friends, greeting of brethren, and mutual kindness are found even among those who do not know God. But the disciple is called to exceed this measure, to reflect the boundless goodness of the Father.

When He commands, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” He does not require equality with God, but likeness according to measure. The perfection of man is charity brought to fullness; the perfection of God is charity without limit. As far as the creature can approach the Creator, it is by love that refuses to set bounds, loving even where no return is hoped for.

Here the Lord completes the inward exposition of the Law. What began in poverty of spirit now reaches its end in perfect love, where nothing is resisted by hatred, nothing withheld by pride, and nothing feared by injury. Thus the soul, purified step by step, is made ready to live as a child of God.

Source: St. Augustine, On the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount,  Book I, Chapters 18-19

Mark this as complete

My Notes

Log in to add personal notes for this reading.

Continue with Oratio and Contemplatio on your own. (What’s this?)

Praying with the Psalms and Sacred Scripture
in continuity with the tradition of the Roman Breviary

© 2026 PrayWithTheBible.com