Luke 6:32 MEANING

(32) For if ye love them which love you.--See Note on Matthew 5:46, and note St. Luke's use, as writing for Gentiles, of the wider term "sinners," instead of the more specific "publicans," which pointed the maxim, perhaps, for those who originally heard it, and certainly for St. Matthew's Jewish readers. There is also a slight variation in the form of the closing questions--St. Luke's "what thank have ye" pointing to the expectation of gratitude in return for good offices, St. Matthew's "what reward" to a more concrete and solid payment.

Verses 32, 33. - For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. There are three manners of return, as Augustine - quoted by Archbishop Trench in his 'Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount' - observes, which men may make one to another: the returning good for good and evil for evil, - this is the ordinary rule of man; then beneath this there is the returning of evil for good, which is devilish; while above it there is the returning of good for evil, which is Divine, - and this is what is commanded for the followers of Jesus here. On the words, "sinners also love those that love them," Augustine's words are singularly terse and quaint: "Amas amantes te filios et parentes. Amat et latro, amat et draco, amant et lupi, amant et ursi" (quoted by Archbishop Trench, 'Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount,' p. 234, note).

6:27-36 These are hard lessons to flesh and blood. But if we are thoroughly grounded in the faith of Christ's love, this will make his commands easy to us. Every one that comes to him for washing in his blood, and knows the greatness of the mercy and the love there is in him, can say, in truth and sincerity, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Let us then aim to be merciful, even according to the mercy of our heavenly Father to us.For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye?.... Or, "what grace have ye?" this is no fruit, nor evidence of grace, nor any exercise of the true grace of love; nor is it any favour conferred upon the object loved, which deserves the respect shown, nor can any reward be expected for such treatment: and thus it is expressed in Matthew, "what reward have ye?" and the Arabic version renders it so here:

for sinners also love those who love them: men that are destitute of the grace of God, profligate sinners, even the worst of them, such as publicans, do this; See Gill on Matthew 5:46.