Then the Lord says: "And if you love those who love you, what thanks are you for this? for even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what gratitude do you have for that? for sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive it back, what gratitude do you have for that? for sinners also lend to sinners in order to get back as much. This means that if you wait for good to be done to you in order to repay it with good, then you are not doing anything good. Does God wait for people to deserve the warmth of the sun, and only after that does He command the sun to warm? Or is He the first to show His mercy and His love? Mercy is an active virtue, not a wait-and-see one. God has clearly shown this since the creation of the world. From day to day since the creation of the world, God with His generous hand has scattered rich gifts to all His creatures. For if He had waited for His creatures to be the first to give Him anything, there would have been no world, not a single creature in the world. If we love those who love us, then we are merchants who make an exchange. If we do good only to our benefactors, then we are debtors who pay our debt. And mercy is not a virtue that only repays debts, but a virtue that constantly lends. And love is a virtue that constantly lends and does not wait for repayment. If we lend to those from whom we hope to receive back, what do we do? We move our money from one cash register to another. For what we have lent we consider our own, just as we did when we had it in our hands.

But it would be madness to think that with the words quoted above, the Lord teaches us not to love those who love us and not to do good to those who do good to us. God forbid! He only wants to say that this is a lower level of virtue, to which sinners easily rise. This is the smallest measure of good, which makes this world poor, and people slavishly constrained and callous. The Lord wants to raise people to the highest level of virtue, from which all the riches of God and all the worlds of God are visible, and on which the cramped and frightened heart of the servant becomes the broad and free heart of the son and heir. Love for those who love us is only the first lesson in the infinite subject of love; and doing good to those who do good to us is only an elementary school in a long series of exercises in good deeds; and lending to him who gives to us is not evil, but good, but it is only the first and tiny step towards the majestic good, giving and not waiting for return.

Whom does the Lord call sinners here? First, the pagans, to whom the mystery of the truth and the love of God is not fully revealed. They are sinners because they have departed from the original truth and love of God, and instead of God they have made this world their lawgiver, which has taught them to love only those who love them, and to do good only to those who do good to them. than at the beginning of creation, it is revealed first through the Jewish people, not only for the Jewish people, but for all the peoples of the earth. And since God for thousands of years, through the law and the prophets, prepared the Jews to understand and accept the fullest revelation of the mystery, the Lord calls the rest of the nations mired in paganism sinners. But by sinners, and even worse than the Gentiles, He means all those to whom the mystery of truth and love is revealed, but who have not kept it, returning like a dog to his vomit, to the lowest step of goodness. Among them are many, many of us: Christians by name, and the most primitive pagans in deeds.

For what gratitude are we for this, if we love those who love us and do good to our benefactors? Do we not thereby return what we have taken to its place? Indeed, we have received our reward. Only that deed deserves gratitude that is at least somewhat similar to the work of God's love.

But you love your enemies, and do good, and lend without expecting anything; and you will have a great reward, and you will be the sons of the Most High; for He is good to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, therefore, even as your Father is merciful. This is the highest height to which Christ wants to raise man! This is a teaching unheard of before Him! And here is the radiance of human dignity, and not dreamed of by the greatest sages in history! And here is the love of God, which melts the whole human heart into one great tear!

Love your enemies. It is not said: Do not return evil for evil, for this is not enough; this is only patience. And it is not said, Love those who love you, for this is the expectation of love; but it is said, "Love your enemies"; do not tolerate them, and do not wait, but love them. Love is a toiling, active virtue; an offensive virtue.

But isn't love for one's enemies unnatural? This is the objection raised by non-Christians. Do we not see that nowhere in nature are there examples of love for enemies, but only for friends? This is how they object to us. What can we say to this? First of all, that our faith knows of two natures: one, undamaged, undarkened, and not embittered by sin, which Adam knew in Paradise; and about the other, damaged by sin, darkened and embittered, which we constantly see in this world. In the circle of first nature, love for enemies is quite natural, for in that nature love is like the air with which all creatures breathe and live. This is the true nature created by God. From that nature Divine love shines into this nature of ours, like sunlight through clouds. And all the true love that's on earth comes from that nature. In the circle of another, earthly nature, love for enemies could be called unnatural because of its rarity. Yet it is not unnatural, but, in relation to earthly nature, it is supernatural, or rather, supernatural, for love in general comes to this sinful nature from another, primordial, sinless and immortal nature, which is higher than ours.

"But love for enemies is so rare that it cannot be called natural," others object. Well, if so, then pearls are unnatural, and diamond, and gold too. After all, they are rare, but who can call them unnatural? Indeed, the Church of Christ alone knows numerous examples of this love. Just as there are herbs that grow only in one place of the earth, so this unusual plant, this extraordinary love, grows and flourishes only within the fence of the Church of Christ. Anyone who wants to be convinced of the existence of numerous specimens of this plant and of its beauty should read the lives of the Apostles of Christ, the holy fathers and confessors of the faith in Christ, the champions and martyrs of the great truth and love of Christ.

"If this love is not impossible, it is at least extraordinarily difficult," is the third objection. Truly, it is not easy, especially for the student of this love far away, and not near God, Who alone gives it strength and nourishment. How can we not love those whom God loves? God does not love us any more than he loves our enemies, especially if we ourselves are enemies of other people. And who among us can say that no one in the world calls him his enemy? If the sun of God shone and the rain fell only for those whom no one considers his enemy, it would really be difficult for a ray of sunlight to fall on the ground and a drop of rain on the dust of the earth. What a scarecrow people make out of hostility towards themselves! Sin has infected people with fear, and out of fear they see enemies in all the creatures around them. And God is sinless and fearless, and therefore He does not suspect anyone, but loves everyone. He loves us so much that even when we are surrounded by enemies through no fault of our own, we must trust that He knows about it and allows it to happen for our good. Let us be fair and say that our enemies are our great helpers in spiritual perfection. If it were not for the enmity on the part of people, many, many saints of God would not have become God's friends. Even the enmity of Satan himself is useful to those who are zealous for the holiness of God and for the salvation of their souls. Who was a greater zealot for the holiness of God, and who loved Christ more than the Apostle Paul? And yet this holy apostle tells us that, having revealed to him many mysteries, God allowed the demon to be near him and annoy him. And so that I should not be exalted by the exceedingly high of revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan, to afflict me, that I should not be exalted (2 Corinthians 12:7). And if even a demon against his will benefits a person, then how can people who are incomparably less dangerous enemies than demons not benefit him? It could be safely said that often a man's friends do much more harm to his soul than his enemies. And the Lord Himself said: "And a man's enemies are his own household" (Matt. 10:36; Micah 7:6). Often those who live with us under the same roof, and who are so busy caring for our bodies and pleasing us, are the fiercest enemies of our salvation. For their love and care do not belong to our soul, but to our body. How many parents have destroyed the soul of their son, how many brothers have destroyed the soul of their brother, how many sisters have destroyed the soul of their sister, how many wives have destroyed the souls of their husbands! And all this is out of love for them! This understanding, which is daily confirmed, is another weighty argument in favor of not giving oneself up too much to love one's relatives and friends, as well as to refuse love to enemies. Need I emphasize again that often, very often, our enemies are our true friends? The troubles they cause are for our benefit; their rebukes contribute to our salvation; and the fact that they oppress us in the external, carnal life helps us to go deeper into ourselves, to find our soul and to cry out to the Living God for its salvation. Truly, our enemies often save us from the destruction that our relatives prepare for us, unwittingly weakening our character and nourishing our body at the expense of our soul.

Do good, and lend without expecting anything, says the Lord. That is: do good to every man, regardless of whether he loves you or not; follow the example of God, who does good to everyone, both openly and secretly. If your good deeds do not cure your enemy of his hostility, your evil deeds will heal him even less. Do good also to those who do not demand or expect good from you, and lend to everyone who asks, but give as if you were giving, as if you were giving back someone else's and not giving your own. ("Merciful is he who has mercy on his neighbor with what he himself has received from God: either with money, or food, or power, or instruction, or prayer - considering himself a debtor, because he has received more than he needs. Through his brother God asks him for mercy and makes Himself a debtor." Peter of Damascus). If your enemy does not accept any good from you, you can still do him a lot of good. Did not the Lord say: "Pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you" (Matt. 5:44)? Therefore, pray for your enemies and thus do good to them. If your enemy does not accept any alms or service from you, God will accept your prayer for him. And God will soften his heart and turn him to a good disposition towards you. It is not at all so difficult to make an enemy a friend as it seems to people. If this is impossible for people, then it is possible for God. He Who turns the icy earth into a warm meadow on which flowers grow, can melt the ice of enmity in the human heart and grow in it the fragrant flower of friendship. But, of course, the most important thing is not that your enemy should turn to you through the good done to him and become your friend, the most important thing is that he should not destroy his soul because of hatred for you. For this last one must pray to God, and not for the former. For your salvation it does not matter at all whether you have more friends or enemies in this life, but it is very, very important that you should not be an enemy to anyone, but all friends in your hearts, in your prayers, and in your thoughts.

If you do this, you will have a great reward. From whom? Perhaps partly from people, but most importantly - from God. What is the reward? You will be sons of the Most High, and you will be able to call God your Father. And thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly" (Matt. 6). If not today, then tomorrow; if not tomorrow, then at the end of time, before all angels and men. But what greater reward could we expect than the right to be called sons of the Most High, and to call the Most High our Father? Behold, the Only-begotten Son of the Most High is the One Lord Jesus Christ, and He alone has hitherto called God His Father. And now we, lost and sinners, are promised the same honor! What does this honor mean? It means that we will be in eternity where He is (John 14:3), in the glory in which He will be, in joy that has no end. It means that the love of God the Father constantly accompanies us in all the troubles and sufferings of this life and turns everything around and arranges it for our ultimate good. This means that when we die, we will not remain in the tomb, but will be resurrected, just as He was resurrected. Ah, this means that we are only temporarily on this earth, as on the island of the dead, but honor and glory and immortal beauty await us in the house of the Heavenly Father. However, is it necessary to enumerate all the blessings that await an orphan when he is adopted by an earthly king? It is enough simply to say: so-and-so was adopted by the king, and everyone can immediately guess what treasures await this orphan. And our adoption is not human, but God's, for we will be the sons of the Most High, Whose Son is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the sons of the Immortal King, the King of kings. God adopts us not for our merits, but for the merits of His Only-begotten Son, as the Apostle says: "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26; John 1:12). Christ accepts us as His brothers, and therefore God the Father receives us as His children.

In fact, we can in no way deserve the right to be called sons of the Living God. It would be ridiculous to think that by any deed, even with the greatest love for our enemies, we can deserve and pay for what our Lord Jesus Christ promised to His faithful servants.

There is no mercy on earth, and there is no love in mortal man that could make mortal man a son of God and an immortal citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. But the love of Christ makes up for what is impossible for man: let none of us boast that by his love he will be able to be saved and open the gates of paradise to himself by his own merits.

That is why the commandment to love our enemies, no matter how great and difficult it may seem, is only a mite that God requires of us in order to let us into Himself, into His luxurious royal abodes. He does not require us to deserve His kingdom and sonship through the fulfillment of this commandment, but only that we desire this kingdom and sonship more than anything else in the world. He requires of us only faith in His word and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ. How did Adam deserve paradise? Nothing; but he was given paradise through the love of God. How did Adam hold on in Paradise before his fall? Obedience to God, only obedience. When he and his wife doubted the commandment of God, they violated the commandment of God by this very doubt and fell into the mortal sin of disobedience. In the new creation, our Lord Jesus Christ demands of us the same thing that He demanded of Adam and Eve in Paradise, namely: faith and obedience, faith that every commandment of His is salvific for us, and unconditional obedience to every commandment of His. He also gave all His commandments, including this one, about love for enemies, so that we might have faith and obedience to His word. And if at least one of His commandments were not good and salvific for us, would He give it to us? He knew better than anyone whether this commandment was natural or unnatural, realizable or unrealizable; the main thing for us is that He gave this commandment, and we - if we want good for ourselves - are obliged to fulfill it. As a sick person with faith and obedience accepts medicine from the hands of a physician – whether it is sweet or bitter – so must we, paralyzed and darkened by sin, with faith and obedience fulfill all that the humane Physician of our souls and the Lord of our life, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, has commanded us. To Him is due honor and glory, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, to the Trinity, One-in-Essence and Indivisible, now and ever, at all times and unto the ages of ages. Amen.