Bible verses for loving your enemies are for the moments when someone has hurt you and every instinct says to hit back. These passages give you words to pray, reminders to slow down and strength to forgive, one step at a time. They do not ask you to pretend the hurt is small; they invite you to bring it to God and let Him change your heart.
But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.
Luke 6:27-28 (KJV)
Jesus gives four clear actions for hard relationships: love, do good, bless and pray for those who hurt you.
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 (KJV)
When you do not know how to respond to an enemy, this verse starts with prayer and blessing.
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:21 (KJV)
A verse to hold onto in conflict: do not let evil win, but overcome it with good.
Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.
1 Peter 3:9 (KJV)
When insulted, we can answer with a blessing, knowing we are called to inherit one ourselves.
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Ephesians 4:31-32 (KJV)
Paul asks us to put away bitterness and anger and to forgive as God forgave us.
Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
Colossians 3:13 (KJV)
Bear with one another and forgive complaints, just as Christ forgave you.
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Matthew 6:14-15 (KJV)
Jesus links our willingness to forgive others with receiving the Father’s forgiveness.
And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
Mark 11:25 (KJV)
Before we pray, we are told to forgive anyone we hold something against.
Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
Matthew 18:21-22 (KJV)
When Peter asks how often to forgive, Jesus answers seventy times seven.
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.
Psalms 37:7-8 (KJV)
Rest in the Lord, wait patiently and let go of the anger that only leads to harm.
A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.
Proverbs 15:1 (KJV)
A gentle answer can calm wrath, while harsh words only stir up more conflict.
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalms 139:23-24 (KJV)
A prayer asking God to search our hearts and show us any wrong attitude we are carrying.
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
James 1:19-20 (KJV)
Being quick to listen and slow to anger helps, because human anger does not produce God’s righteousness.
Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
Hebrews 12:14-15 (KJV)
Pursue peace and watch that no root of bitterness grows up and troubles you.
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
1 Corinthians 13:4-5 (KJV)
Love is patient and kind, is not easily provoked and does not keep a record of wrongs.
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Psalms 51:10 (KJV)
When resentment feels stuck, ask God to create a clean heart and renew a right spirit within.
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Galatians 6:9 (KJV)
Keep doing good even when it feels thankless, because a harvest will come in due season.
Loving an enemy rarely happens in a single moment. It usually starts with a decision to pray. Luke 6:28 tells us to pray for those who mistreat us, so try naming the person before God, even if all you can say at first is that you are hurt. Psalms 139:23-24 is a helpful follow-up, asking God to search your own heart for bitterness or pride.
When a conflict flares, reach for a short verse you can remember under pressure. Proverbs 15:1 reminds you that a soft answer turns away wrath, and James 1:19-20 encourages you to listen first and speak slowly. Some people write Romans 12:21 on a card or phone lock screen as a daily reminder to answer evil with good.
Forgiveness is a process, and Matthew 18:21-22 suggests it may need to be repeated many times. Loving an enemy does not mean staying in an abusive or unsafe situation; it is wise to set boundaries and to seek help from a pastor, counsellor or trusted friend when the hurt runs deep. Over time, God can soften what feels hard, and Galatians 6:9 encourages you not to give up.
Matthew 5:44 works well prayed by naming the specific person, asking for the ability to genuinely bless rather than only tolerate them.
Two nearby collections worth opening next are Bible Verses About Romantic Love and Bible Verses About Sadness.
All Scripture here is quoted from the King James Version, which you can read in full at Blue Letter Bible.
This subject overlaps with Bible Verses For Grace and with Bible Verses About Wisdom.
Some of the same ground is covered in Bible Verses For Being Thankful and Bible Verses For Strength and Hope.
Readers of this page often go on to Bible Verses For Forgiveness and Healing or Bible Verses For Having Faith.
Bible Verses For Marriage and Love and Bible Verses About Marriage and Love are good companions to this page.
Bible Gateway makes it easy to compare a verse across several English translations.
For word studies and cross-references, Bible Hub is a helpful next step.
Return to this verse as often as needed, since loving an enemy rarely happens instantly.
These verses were never meant to sit on a page as decoration \u2014 they’re meant to shape how you actually respond the next time bitterness toward someone is taking up more space in you than you’d like.
You don’t need polished or formal language for it \u2014 an honest, plainly worded sentence is enough, something as simple as telling God directly to release the bitterness before it hardens into something worse.
Joseph had every reason to punish the brothers who sold him into slavery, and by the time they stood before him in Egypt he held the power to do exactly that. Instead he wept, identified himself, and told them not to be angry with themselves, insisting that God had used their cruelty for a larger purpose. Few passages illustrate these Bible verses for loving your enemies as plainly as this reunion, since Joseph’s enemies were not strangers but his own family, which made the betrayal sharper and the forgiveness harder to offer.
What stands out in Joseph’s response is that he did not pretend the harm never happened. He named it directly, “ye thought evil against me,” before choosing to provide for his brothers and their families rather than settle the score he was fully entitled to settle. That combination of honesty about the wrong and generosity toward the wrongdoer is a pattern worth noticing among Bible verses for loving your enemies, since forgiveness here required no denial of what actually occurred.
Joseph’s continued care for his brothers after their father Jacob died, when they feared he might finally take revenge, shows that his earlier kindness had not been a performance for Jacob’s benefit. He wept again and reassured them a second time, proving that these Bible verses for loving your enemies describe a decision that has to be renewed whenever old fears resurface, not something settled once and forgotten.
Saul spent years hunting David through the wilderness, determined to kill a rival he saw as a threat to his throne, yet David had at least two clear opportunities to end the chase permanently. In a cave near Engedi, David cut a piece of Saul’s robe rather than his life, and later he crept into Saul’s camp at night and took only a spear and a water jug as proof of how close he had come, a restraint that anticipates these Bible verses for loving your enemies long before they were written down.
David’s refusal to harm Saul was not passive avoidance; he actively stopped his own men from acting when they urged him to strike, calling Saul “the LORD’s anointed” even while fleeing for his life. That restraint reflects the same conviction found throughout Bible verses for loving your enemies: that judgment belongs to God rather than to whoever happens to have the advantage in the moment. David chose to wait rather than to settle the matter with his own hand.
Both times, David revealed himself to Saul afterward, calling out from a safe distance and showing the evidence of what he had refused to do. Saul wept and admitted David was more righteous than himself, though the peace never fully lasted, which is a reminder that these Bible verses for loving your enemies do not guarantee the enemy will change, only that the choice to withhold vengeance still matters.
Jacob had stolen his brother Esau’s blessing and fled the country for years, terrified of what Esau might do once they finally met again. He sent servants ahead with gifts, divided his family into groups in case of an attack, and prayed through the night before the encounter, expecting the worst from a brother he had wronged so directly, the kind of fear these Bible verses for loving your enemies address head on.
Esau’s response defies every expectation Jacob had prepared for: he ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, and wept, with no mention of the years of resentment Jacob feared he was still carrying. Whatever anger Esau once held toward his brother, by the time of their reunion, had given way to something closer to relief at seeing him again. It is a quieter entry among Bible verses for loving your enemies, easy to miss because the offended party never delivers a speech about forgiveness.
Jacob’s gratitude afterward, offering gifts and calling Esau’s face like the face of God, suggests he understood how differently this could have gone. Their story shows that sometimes the harder work of loving an enemy falls to the wronged brother simply choosing not to reopen an old wound when he finally has the chance. For a wider set of passages on the same theme, see these Bible verses about loving your enemies, drawn from both Old and New Testaments.
When the king of Israel captured a raiding party of Aramean soldiers who had been struck blind at Elisha’s request, his first instinct was to ask the prophet whether he should kill them on the spot. Elisha refused, pointing out that these were not prisoners the king himself had taken in ordinary battle, and instructed him to feed them a great feast instead and send them home unharmed.
The Aramean raiders had come specifically to capture Elisha, making this one of the clearest Bible verses for loving your enemies involving people who intended direct harm to the one showing them kindness. Feeding a hungry enemy rather than executing a captured one reframes mercy as something practical, not just an internal feeling, since bread and water cost the king something real to provide.
The chapter notes that after this, the raiding parties from Aram stopped coming into Israel’s territory for a time, suggesting that unexpected kindness did more to end the conflict than continued violence had managed. Whether or not that peace lasted permanently, the story stands as evidence that mercy toward an enemy can change the situation in ways revenge rarely does, which is the same claim these verses keep repeating in different settings.
Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was dragged outside Jerusalem and stoned by a crowd that included a young man named Saul holding their coats. As the stones struck him, Stephen knelt and cried out with a loud voice, asking God not to hold this sin against the very men who were killing him, then died with that prayer as nearly his last recorded words.
His prayer echoes words spoken from a cross a short time earlier, and it stands among the most direct these verses precisely because it was offered in the middle of the harm, not afterward once the danger had passed. Stephen did not wait to see whether his killers would repent before extending forgiveness; he asked for it while they were still throwing the stones.
Saul, who watched and approved of Stephen’s death that day, would later become the apostle Paul after an encounter on the road to Damascus, and early tradition connects that transformation to the seed planted by Stephen’s final prayer. Whether or not the two events were directly linked, Stephen’s example remains one of the most costly pictures of loving an enemy found anywhere in Scripture, and one of the clearest these verses to point to when the cost feels too high.
Joseph, David, Esau, Elisha, and Stephen faced enemies in five completely different situations: a family betrayal, a king hunting him for years, a brother he had wronged first, a captured raiding party, and a mob in the act of killing him. None of them had the luxury of dealing with an abstract enemy; each one had to decide how to treat a specific person who had caused, or was still causing, real harm.
What ties their stories together is that none of them waited for the enemy to apologize before choosing how to respond. Joseph forgave brothers who never fully explained themselves, David spared a king who kept hunting him afterward, Esau embraced a brother before hearing an apology, Elisha fed soldiers who had come to capture him, and Stephen prayed for men who were still throwing stones. Reading these accounts side by side shows that mercy in Scripture rarely waits for permission; it is offered first, often at real cost, and left to do its own work afterward.
Picture the hillside above the Sea of Galilee. The people sitting there lived under Roman soldiers who could force a man to carry their gear for a mile, and they had every reason to hate. Into that setting Jesus said, “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). Nobody in the crowd could have heard it as a soft suggestion.
The Greek word behind love there is agape, and it is not the word for warm feeling. It describes a settled choice to seek another person’s good, whether or not you like them. That is why the command is possible at all. You cannot order yourself to feel fondness for a man who ruined your business. You can, though, decide to stop plotting against him, to speak of him without venom, and to ask God to deal kindly with him.
Notice the order Jesus gives. Love comes first, then blessing, then doing good, then prayer. It moves from the inside outward, from attitude to words to actions to the quiet place where only God is listening. Many believers start at the wrong end and try to act friendly while the heart is still boiling. Starting with a plain, honest prayer, even a clumsy one, tends to soften the rest more than gritted teeth ever do.
Here is a story people tend to skip past when they talk about loving enemies, and it is uncomfortably honest. God sent Jonah to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, a nation known for brutality toward the peoples it conquered. Jonah ran the other way, boarded a ship, and ended up in the belly of a great fish. When he finally preached, the city repented, and God spared it.
You would expect the prophet to be thrilled. He was furious. His own explanation is blunt: “I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil” (Jonah 4:2). In other words, he fled because he suspected God would forgive the very people he wanted punished. He sat on a hill outside the city, sulking, hoping to watch it fall.
Most of us have a little Jonah in us. We say we want an enemy to change, yet something tightens in the chest when that person gets a second chance and we are still nursing the wound. The book ends without telling us whether Jonah came around. That open ending seems deliberate. It leaves the question with the reader: when God shows mercy to someone who hurt you, will you rejoice, or will you stand outside the city with your arms crossed?
A caution belongs here, because this teaching has been twisted to keep people trapped. Loving an enemy does not mean handing that person another chance to harm you. Scripture itself draws the line. Proverbs 22:3 says, “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.” Walking away from someone dangerous is not a failure of love. It can be the wisest form of it.
Paul adds a realistic qualifier in Romans 12:18: “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.” Two small phrases carry the weight, if it be possible and as much as lieth in you. Peace takes two people, and sometimes only one is willing. Your part is to do your share honestly, not to absorb endless mistreatment so that someone else never has to face what they have done.
So a woman who prays for a violent former partner is not obligated to answer his calls. A worker can forgive a manager and still file a report. A church member can pray for a gossip and still stop confiding in her. Forgiveness releases the debt in your own heart; it does not erase wise boundaries. If you are in real danger, please contact local emergency services, a counselor, or a trusted pastor who can help you plan a safe way forward.
If anyone had the right to curse his enemies, it was Jesus on Good Friday. He had been betrayed by a friend, abandoned by the rest, mocked by religious leaders, and beaten by soldiers. Then the nails went in. Luke records what came out of his mouth: “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
Look closely at what he did not say. He did not pretend the cruelty was fine. He did not say it did not hurt. He handed the matter to the Father, and he found a generous way to describe the men in front of him, people who did not grasp what they were doing. That is not denial. It is a deliberate choice to see the worst offender as someone still within reach of mercy.
You may never face anything close to that, but the pattern is open to anyone. When someone has wronged you, you can say the injury out loud to God, in full detail, and then place the person in his hands. Some days that is all you can manage, one sentence before sleep. Lord, I am still angry, yet I am asking you to be merciful to him, because I need your mercy too. If that prayer feels thin, remember where the first one like it was spoken.
Other collections you may find useful: Bible Verses About Loving Your Enemies, Bible Verses About Loving Your Neighbor, Bible Verses For Loving Others, Bible Verses For Loving Your Neighbor and Bible Verses About Protection from Enemies.
To study these verses in more depth, try Bible Gateway, Bible Hub and Bible Study Tools.
Loving an enemy rarely happens in a single moment. It usually starts with a decision to pray. Luke 6:28 tells us to pray for those who mistreat us, so try naming the person before God, even if all you can say at first is that you are hurt.
This page brings together 8 King James Version references about loving Your Enemies, drawn from 7 different books of the Bible.
Yes, the verses referenced on this page, including Luke 6:28, are quoted according to the King James Version (KJV), and are suitable for daily reading, memorization, or devotional use.
Beyond the references highlighted on this page, loving Your Enemies appears throughout Scripture in books such as Luke, Psalms, Proverbs, James, Romans; this collection focuses on some of the clearest examples.
These loving Your Enemies verses are drawn from books including Luke, Psalms, Proverbs, James, Romans, among others.
