Matthew 5:46 is Jesus asking a plain question: if you only love the people who love you, what credit do you deserve? Even tax collectors, a group many Jews despised, do that much, so loving only those who already love you does not set you apart. Jesus says this during the Sermon on the Mount, speaking to his disciples and the crowds who had gathered to hear him on a hillside in Galilee.
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?
Matthew 5:46 (WEB)
What Matthew 5:46 Means
The verse begins with “For if you love those who love you,” which points back to the command in the previous verses to love your enemies. Jesus is setting up a contrast. Loving people who love you is natural, pleasant, and returns something to you in the form of affection, loyalty, or help. The word “reward” here refers to the return you receive or expect. Jesus is not saying such love is bad, only that it earns no special credit.
The second sentence asks whether even tax collectors do the same. Tax collectors were Jewish men employed by Rome to collect taxes, often seen as traitors and extortioners. Jesus uses them as the lowest common example: if people with a poor reputation can love their friends and family, then that alone shows nothing unusual. The verse does not promise that loving your enemies will bring a reward from people, and it does not say that loving friends is wrong. It says that real distinctiveness begins where natural affection ends.
The Context of Matthew 5:46
Matthew’s Gospel was written for a community that included many Jewish believers, likely in the later first century, and it presents Jesus as the teacher who fulfills and deepens the law of Moses. The Sermon on the Mount, which runs through chapters 5 to 7, is his longest recorded teaching. Traditionally the author is identified as Matthew, one of the twelve disciples, though scholars debate that point.
Just before verse 46, Jesus quotes a popular saying that you should love your neighbor and hate your enemy. He rejects the second half and calls for love even toward those who mistreat you. Verse 46 gives the first reason for that counterintuitive command. Right after it, in verse 47, Jesus repeats the tax collector point about greeting only friends. Read in this setting, verse 46 is not a stand-alone rule about generosity but part of a sustained argument that God’s people should reflect a love that goes beyond the ordinary human pattern.
Key Phrases in Matthew 5:46
Romans 12:20
Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head.”
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Paul gives a concrete picture of how to treat an enemy by meeting a need, which shows what love beyond reciprocity looks like in practice. It continues the same theme that Jesus introduces in Matthew 5, moving from principle to daily action.
1 John 4:19
We love him, because he first loved us.
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John explains that our love is a response to God’s prior love for us, which helps explain why Christian love can extend beyond what people deserve. It places the source of love in God’s character rather than in our own capacity to earn affection.
A Short Prayer From Matthew 5:46
Father, I confess that I often love the people who make it easy for me and then feel I have done enough. Show me where my affection is tied to how I am treated, and soften my heart toward those who are hard to love. Help me see the people in my life the way you see them, and let my kindness reflect your generosity rather than my own comfort. Work in me the kind of love that does not keep score, so that I may be known as your child. Amen.
