how to treat your enemies

²⁷But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. ²⁸Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who slander you.

²⁰So if an enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in doing so, you will heap burning coals upon his head. ²¹Do not allow evil to prevail, instead prevail over evil by means of goodness.

¹⁷When your enemy will fall, do not be glad, and do not let your heart exult in his ruin,

¹⁹Do not defend yourselves, dearest ones. Instead, step aside from wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is mine. I shall give retribution, says the Lord.”

³⁸You have heard that it was said: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ ³⁹But I say to you, do not resist one who is evil, but if anyone will have struck you on your right cheek, offer to him the other also.

⁸But if anyone has no concern for his own, and especially for those of his own household, he has denied the faith, and he is worse than an unbeliever.

²⁷In response, he said: “You shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart, and from your whole soul, and from all your strength, and from all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

⁴For he is a minister of God for you unto good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid. For it is not without reason that he carries a sword. For he is a minister of God; an avenger to execute wrath upon whomever does evil.

⁸If we claim that we have no sin, then we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

¹¹Brothers, do not choose to slander one another. Whoever slanders his brother, or whoever judges his brother, slanders the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.

²Our God is our refuge and strength, a helper in the tribulations that have greatly overwhelmed us.

⁴⁷Because you did not serve the Lord your God, with gladness and a joyful heart, over the abundance of all things. ⁴⁸You will serve your enemy, whom the Lord will send to you, in hunger and thirst and nakedness, and in destitution of all things. And he will place an iron yoke upon your neck, until he has crushed you.

²⁶The just falling down before the impious is like a fountain stirred up by feet and like a corrupted spring.

²⁶But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will suggest to you everything whatsoever that I have said to you.

²⁰I live; yet now, it is not I, but truly Christ, who lives in me. And though I live now in the flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and who delivered himself for me.

⁵²Then Jesus said to him: “Put your sword back in its place. For all who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. ⁵³Or do you think that I cannot ask my Father, so that he would give me, even now, more than twelve legions of Angels? ⁵⁴How then would the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must be so?”

¹When Jesus had said these things, he departed with his disciples across the Torrent of Kidron, where there was a garden, into which he entered with his disciples. ²But Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus had frequently met with his disciples there. ³Then Judas, when he had received a cohort from both the high priests and the attendants of the Pharisees, approached the place with lanterns and torches and weapons. ⁴And so Jesus, knowing all that was about to happen to him, advanced and said to them, “Who are you seeking?” ⁵They answered him, “Jesus the Nazarene.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Now Judas, who betrayed him, was also standing with them. ⁶Then, when he said to them, “I am he,” they moved back and fell to the ground.

²⁷But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you.