Matthew 5:42 — Community Reflections

MATTHEW 5:42 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.”

Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. The positive generosity commands conclude the non-retaliation antithesis: give and lend freely. Deuteronomy 15:7–11 commands generous lending to the poor, even in the year before the sabbatical year when the debt will be cancelled. The do not refuse communicates that the first impulse of the disciple community toward the one who asks should be toward giving, not toward calculating whether the request is deserving or strategic. Luke 6:30 records Jesus' version: give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.

Church Fathers on Matthew 5:42

The Lord having taught that we are not to offer injury to our neighbour, or irreverence to the Lord, now proceeds to shew how the Christian should demean himself to those that injure him.
Gloss (Glossa Ordinaria) · medieval compilation · non occ.

This law, 'Eye for eye, tooth for tooth,' was enacted to repress the flames of mutual hate, and to be a check on their undisciplined spirits. For who when he would take revenge, was ever content to return just so much harm as he had received? Do we not see men who have suffered some trifling hurt, straightway plot murder, thirst for blood, and hardly find evil enough that they can do to their enemies for the satisfying their rage?
Augustine · 4th century · cont. Faust., xix, 25

For without this command, the commands of the Law could not stand. For if according to the Law we begin all of us to render evil for evil, we shall all become evil, since they that do hurt abound. But if according to Christ we resist not evil, though they that are evil be not amended, yet they that are good remain good.
Pseudo-Chrysostom · 5th century

Read all 28 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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