Luke 6:28 Meaning and Explanation
“Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →Loving an enemy can sound like an emotion we cannot manufacture. Here Jesus gives it two actions we can actually begin today, both of them involving the mouth. That makes the command testable. Anyone who has been cursed or used badly knows how quickly the tongue reaches for retaliation, and this verse redirects that reflex toward blessing and prayer.
Jesus asks his disciples to answer hostility with speech that seeks the good of the hostile: kind words toward those who curse them, and prayer for those who mistreat them. Enemy love takes concrete verbal form.
The Context of Luke 6:28
Luke 6 records Jesus coming down with the twelve he had just chosen and standing in the plain, where a great multitude from Judaea, Jerusalem, and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon had gathered to hear him and be healed. He lifts up his eyes on his disciples and speaks the blessings of verses 20 through 23 and the woes of verses 24 through 26. Verse 27 opens a new section addressed to those who hear, commanding love for enemies and good toward haters. Verse 28 supplies the next two commands, and verse 29 moves to bodily and material examples.
What Does Luke 6:28 Mean?
Two imperatives sit side by side, each paired with a description of the person receiving the action. 'Bless them that curse you' answers speech with speech. A curse in this setting calls down harm; a blessing calls down good, and Jesus asks his hearers to speak the second where they have received the first. 'Pray for them which despitefully use you' moves the response into God's presence. The KJV phrase 'despitefully use' covers insult and mistreatment together, the kind of injury that carries contempt with it. Notice that both commands describe things we do about a person, which keeps obedience possible even when warm feeling has yet to arrive.
In the sermon's structure, verse 28 fills out the opening command of verse 27. Jesus gives four expressions of enemy love: love, do good, bless, pray. The list moves from disposition into words and then into intercession. Verses 32 through 34 press the reason home by noting that reciprocal love and lending require no special grace. Verse 35 supplies the ground: God is kind to the unthankful and to the evil, and those who imitate him are called children of the Highest. Blessing and prayer for enemies therefore belong to family resemblance. Israel's scriptures already pointed this direction, as when Proverbs 25:21 directs care toward a hungry enemy.
Jesus practiced this command under the worst conditions. From the cross he asked the Father to forgive those carrying out his execution, which Luke preserves in Luke 23:34. Stephen followed the same pattern in Acts 7:60, kneeling as the stones fell and asking that the sin be withheld from his persecutors' charge. Paul echoes the teaching in Romans 12:14, where blessing persecutors becomes standing instruction for congregations. So this verse describes a way of life that its author lived through to the end. When we bless and pray for those who wound us, we are walking a path already worn by Christ himself.
Luke 6:28 in the Original Language
epereazo (ἐπηρεάζω), 'despitefully use' -- to treat someone abusively or spitefully, including threats and insults meant to injure. The KJV phrase preserves the note of contempt: this is mistreatment delivered with scorn, the sort that stings long after the incident has passed.
Bible Verses Related to Luke 6:28
“But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,”
- Luke 6:27
“Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”
- Luke 23:34
“Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.”
- Romans 12:14
“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”
- Matthew 5:44
Where Luke 6:28 Echoes in Scripture
Romans 12:14 carries this teaching into the letters, instructing believers to bless persecutors and to keep blessing rather than cursing. Paul repeats the verb Jesus used, which suggests the saying circulated among the churches before the Gospels were written down. 1 Peter 3:9 makes a similar move, directing Christians to return blessing for reviling because they were called to inherit a blessing. The command survived transplanting from the plain where Jesus taught into scattered congregations under pressure.
How to Apply Luke 6:28 Today
A workable starting point is to name one person out loud in prayer this week, someone whose treatment of us still stings. Asking God for their genuine good is harder than asking for their removal, and it changes the person praying. Blessing can be as ordinary as speaking well of them where gossip is expected, or declining to forward the story that would damage them. None of this requires pretending the injury was small. It asks that our words about them and our words to God for them line up with the mercy we have received.
Reflection & Prayer
Whose name rises in me with resentment, and what would it cost to say something good about that person today? A prayer: Father, you are kind to the unthankful. I hand you the names I have been rehearsing with bitterness, and I ask for words of blessing where I have stored up complaint. Guard my speech until my heart catches up.