Matthew 5:42 tells you to give to the person who asks you for something and not to turn away someone who wants to borrow from you. Jesus is calling his followers to a generosity that does not hoard what it has or keep score of who deserves help. He spoke these words in the Sermon on the Mount, addressing the crowds and his disciples gathered on a hillside in Galilee.
Give to him who asks you, and don’t turn away him who desires to borrow from you.
Matthew 5:42 (WEB)
What Matthew 5:42 Means
The verse begins with “Give to him who asks you.” The instruction is direct: when someone asks for help, your first posture is to respond with a gift rather than a refusal. Jesus does not say to give to every person who wants anything at all, and he does not say to hand over whatever is demanded. The focus is on a readiness of heart that answers a genuine request for help.
The second clause, “don’t turn away him who desires to borrow from you,” widens the picture. Borrowing was a common need in an agricultural village where a bad harvest or a sick animal could leave a family without seed or food. Jesus asks his listeners not to close the door on people who come to them in that kind of need. The verse does not promise that every loan will be repaid or that generosity will never be taken advantage of. It describes the kind of person a follower of Jesus is meant to become.
The Context of Matthew 5:42
Matthew wrote his Gospel for a Jewish-Christian audience, and the Sermon on the Mount is his longest collection of Jesus’ teaching. Chapters 5 through 7 describe the character and values of the kingdom of heaven. In verses 39 through 41, Jesus has just described responses to insult, lawsuit and forced labor that refuse to answer evil with more evil. Verse 42 sits in that same stream of teaching about costly, non-retaliatory love.
The verses that follow move directly to the command to love enemies and pray for those who persecute you (verses 43 to 44). Seen this way, Matthew 5:42 is one more example of the self-giving love Jesus expects from his followers, extended even to people who may not deserve it. The generosity is rooted in the character of God, who sends sun and rain on both the evil and the good (verse 45).
Key Phrases in Matthew 5:42
Luke 6:30
Give to everyone who asks you, and don’t ask him who takes away your goods to give them back again.
(WEB)
Luke records a parallel teaching in which Jesus says to give to everyone who asks of you. Reading it alongside Matthew 5:42 shows that the call to open-handed generosity appears in more than one Gospel and reflects a consistent emphasis in Jesus’ teaching.
Deuteronomy 15:7-8
7 If a poor man, one of your brothers, is with you within any of your gates in your land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother; 8 but you shall surely open your hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need, which he lacks.
(WEB)
This passage from the Law of Moses instructs Israel not to harden their hearts or shut their hands against a poor brother in need. It gives the Old Testament background for the generosity Jesus describes, showing that open-handed care for those who lack was already central to God’s people.
A Short Prayer From Matthew 5:42
Father, you have given me far more than I have ever needed. Make my hands open and my heart soft toward the people who come to me asking for help. Where I am tempted to turn away out of fear, selfishness or weariness, remind me of your generosity toward me. Give me wisdom to help well and the courage to say yes when love calls for it. Amen.
