Matthew 5:46 is Jesus pointing out that loving only the people who love you earns no special credit, because even tax collectors, people the crowd often looked down on, do that much. He is challenging his listeners to a love that goes further than mutual affection, one that reaches toward people who cannot or will not return it. Jesus spoke these words in the Sermon on the Mount, addressing his disciples and the large crowds gathered 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 opens with “if you love those who love you,” which describes an ordinary, reciprocal affection: friends who care for each other, family members who look out for one another, neighbors who return a favor. Jesus does not say this kind of love is bad. He simply asks what it proves. The phrase “what reward do you have” points to a kind of wage or recognition that such love naturally earns, but it is not a special reward from God, since people in every culture practice it.
The second question, “Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?”, uses a comparison that would have stung. Tax collectors working for Rome were widely seen as traitors and extortioners, yet they too took care of their own circle. Jesus is saying that the standard he has in mind is higher than what the least admired people already do. The verse does not promise that loving enemies will be rewarded in any particular way here and now, and it does not say the love of friends is worthless. It sets a minimum that is not yet the mark of a child of God.
The Context of Matthew 5:46
The Gospel of Matthew was written for a community that knew Jewish Scripture well and was learning to live out faith in Jesus. Traditionally the author is identified as Matthew, one of the twelve disciples and a former tax collector himself, though scholars debate the exact date and authorship. Its first audience was likely Jewish Christians and others familiar with the law and the prophets, which is why Jesus refers to the common teaching “love your neighbor and hate your enemy” in the verses just before this one.
Verses 43 to 45 set up the contrast. Jesus commands love for enemies, prayer for persecutors, and calls his listeners to be “children of your Father who is in heaven,” because God causes the sun to rise and the rain to fall on both the evil and the good. Verses 47 and 48 then repeat the tax collector comparison and end with the call to be perfect as the Father is perfect. Read in that setting, verse 46 is not an isolated rule about friendship. It is one step in an argument that God’s generosity is the pattern to imitate.
Key Phrases in Matthew 5:46
Luke 6:35
But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back; and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil.
(WEB)
Luke records a parallel teaching in which Jesus tells his hearers to love their enemies and do good without expecting return. Reading it alongside Matthew 5:46 shows that the call to a love that is not transactional appears in more than one Gospel, and it adds the promise that such love reflects the kindness of the Most High.
1 John 4:19
We love him, because he first loved us.
(WEB)
John explains that love begins with God’s love for us, which is the source of our ability to love others. This helps explain why Jesus can ask for love that goes beyond reciprocity: it is meant to flow from a received love rather than from our own calculations of what we will get back.
A Short Prayer From Matthew 5:46
Father, I confess that I often love the people who make it easy to love them, and I keep my distance from those who have hurt me or drained my patience. Show me where my affection has become a bargain, and soften my heart toward the people I would rather avoid. Help me to notice the small ways I can bless someone who has nothing to give me in return, and let my kindness reflect the generosity you show to every person under heaven. Give me courage to take the next step, and trust that you see what I cannot. Amen.
